Blankenham was the son of Conservative politician and government minister John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham and Hon.
A lifelong environmentalist, Blakenham was chairman of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew Gardens as well as Council Chairman of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds between 1982 and 1986 and president of Suffolk Wildlife Trust from between 1983 and 1987.
[8] He represented the party as a member of Mid Suffolk District Council from 2007 to 2015[9] under the name Michael Blakenham.
During the 2014 European Parliament election he endorsed Rupert Read, lead candidate on the Green list in the East of England constituency.
[10] Through his sister, Joanna Freda Hare, he was a brother-in-law of Stephen Breyer, who served as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1994 to 2022.