Tony Blair was voted in after John Smith's sudden death.
John Smith (Labour Party leader) . This frustrated many modernisers like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and after Smith 's sudden death in May 1994 , he was succeeded as Leader by Blair , who undertook the subsequent re-branding of Labour as New Labour , winning the 1997 general election in a landslide . Tony Blair . He was elected Labour Party leader in July 1994 , following the sudden death of his predecessor , John Smith , who together with his predecessor , Neil Kinnock , had started to move the party closer to the political centre , in the hope of winning power .