Tony Blair was ranked the sixth most successful British prime minister since the beginning of the 20th century, according to a poll of scholars.

Clement Attlee (1945-51), whose post-war Labor administration founded the welfare state for Britain, topped the Mori poll published by The Independent newspaper Wednesday.

The 139 historians and political experts asked to rate 20 British prime ministers in the 20th century gave Attlee an averagescore of 8.34 out of a maximum 10. The wartime leader Winston Churchill (1940-45,51-55) took second place with a score of 7.88, ahead of the Liberal David Lloyd George (1916-22) with 7.33.

Margaret Thatcher (1979-90) and her fellow Tory Harold MacMillan (1957-63) placed fourth and fifth with 7.14 and 6.49 respectively. Blair came sixth with 6.3.

Anthony Eden, who oversaw the Suez Canal crisis, was rated the least successful prime minister with a score of 2.53.

Scholars were asked to select three characteristics from a listof 20 choices deemed essential to be successful prime minister. Top choices were leadership, sound judgement and ability to handlea crisis. Honesty, being down-to-earth and understanding economicswere the rated the least essential characteristics.

Source: Xinhua