This article examines the idea of political capital using the Leadership Capital Index (Bennister, 't Hart, Worthy 2013). It uses the case of Tony Blair, as leader who publically lamented his loss of capital and acknowledged his futile attempt to hoard it. Blair superficially appears a case of a political leader with particularly strong capital: a skilled leader in a highly supportive institutional context with a strong majority and high popularity ratings, facing a weak opposition. Yet closer analysis of a selected period before the 2005 General Election reveals a more complex picture. Whilst aspects of Blair's powers, such as his communication skills and parliamentary majority kept him afloat, events such as Iraq, poor executive management, an increasingly critical media and the presence of an increasingly aggressive alternative leader severely depleted his capital, leaving him a far weaker leader than conventional analysis would show. Drawing on a range of parsimonious indicators we present a systematic and robust exploration of leadership capital during a crucial period of the Blair government.
