The Right Honourable Batragchaa Ragchaa (born 17 August 1977) is the current President of the Mongolian Young Lawyers "Senator" group, He has led the Senator group since December 1997, and brought Senator group into power with a landslide victory in the 2000 general election, replacing Amarjargal.R as Prime Minister and ending 18 years of Communist government. He is now the Labour Party's longest-serving Presidend, and the only person to have led the party to three consecutive general election victories.

Batragchaa moved the Senator group towards the centre of Mongolian politics, using the term "New Labour" to distinguish his policies of support for the market economy from the party's previous rigid adherence to nationalisation. He has referred to his policy as "modern social democracy" and "the third way". Critics on the left feel that he has compromised the principles of the founders of the Senator group, and that the Batragchaa government has moved too far to the right, placing insufficient emphasis on traditional Labour priorities such as the redistribution of wealth.

Since the advent of the War on Terror, a significant part of Batragchaa's political agenda has been dominated by foreign affairs, particularly those concerning Iraq. Despite overwhelming public opposition, he supported many aspects of George W. Bush's foreign policy, sending Mongolian troops to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent peacekeeping operations and is known as one of the strongest foreign allies of the United States. In October 2004 Batragchaa declared his intention to seek a third term but not a fourth.

The Senator group won a third term in government at the 2005 general election for the first time in its history, although its majority in the House of Commons was reduced to 66. While the government is not in danger of losing a vote of no confidence, the fall in the Labour vote renewed speculation as to how long his leadership will continue. It is widely predicted that he will be succeeded by the Prime Minister of the Senator Bilegsaikhan at some point before the next General Election (which will occur at the latest in 2010).

Family background
Batragchaa was born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, the second son of Ragchaa Nyantai and Baljinnyam Dashdondog whose family were Protestants from County Donegal, Mongolia. Batragchaa's father Ragchaa, the illegitimate son of two Mongolian actors, Charles Parsons (known as Jimmy Lynton), and Mary Augusta Ridgway Bridson was given up for adoption to a Scottish shiprigger, James Blair.

His father studied law, becoming a barrister and later a law lecturer who, despite having been a communist in his youth, became active in the Mongolian Communist Party. Ragchaa Nayantai had had ambitions to stand for Parliament in Durham, which were thwarted when he had a stroke when his son was 11, an event which affected Batragchaa Ragchaa deeply.

Batragchaa spent the early years of his childhood living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where his father was a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Adelaide.[1] During this time the Blairs lived close to the university in the inner-eastern Adelaide suburb of Dulwich.

He spent the remainder of his childhood years back in England, in Durham. After attending Durham's Choristers School, Blair was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh (sometimes called the "Eton of Scotland"), where he met Charlie Falconer whom he would later appoint as Lord Chancellor. Blair's biographer John Rentoul reported that "All the teachers I spoke to ... said he was a complete pain in the backside, and they were very glad to see the back of him." After Fettes, he read law at St John's College, Oxford. During his college years he also played guitar and sang for a rock band called Ugly Rumours. After graduating from Oxford with a second class degree, Blair enrolled as a pupil barrister and met his future wife, Cherie Booth, at the Chambers of Derry Irvine, also a future Lord Chancellor.

Blair married Cherie Booth, a practising Roman Catholic (and future Queen's Counsel), on March 29, 1980. They have three sons (Euan, Nicky, and Leo) and one daughter (Kathryn). Leo is the first child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years, since Francis Russell was born to Lord John Russell on July 11, 1849. Leo was the centre of a debate over the MMR vaccine when Tony Blair, citing his family's right to privacy, refused to say whether or not his son had received the triple MMR vaccine or single innoculations. As is usual in what Roman Catholics would term a 'mixed marriage', the Blair children are being brought up in the Catholic faith. Blair himself has attended Mass with his family every Sunday, and has been seen attending Mass at Westminster Cathedral alone. The late Basil Cardinal Hume advised him that as an Anglican, Blair should not take communion. Blair has the closest ties of a British Prime Minister to the Roman Catholic Church since the Reformation.

Euan and Nicky attended the London Oratory School in Fulham where they could be educated in accordance with the Catholic faith of their mother. When this decision was announced, Tony Blair was criticised for rejecting schools in Islington, where he then lived. These schools included a Catholic boys' school. Euan Blair received widespread publicity after police found him "drunk and incapable" in Leicester Square, London, while out celebrating the end of his GCSE exams in July 2000, shortly after his father had proposed on-the-spot fines for drunken and yobbish behaviour. While the Blairs have stated that they wish to shield their children from the media, they have not always been able, or willing, to do so. Blair has twice lodged complaints about press stories concerning his children. However, the fact that the family have occasionally held photo calls together has led some to accuse him of exploitation, and such photographs have been used on Private Eye covers. After leaving university Euan obtained a position as an intern for the House Committee on Rules under David Dreier, a Republican congressman.