Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham have criticised Tony Blair for failing to address inequality in his recent essay attacking the Labour party. Streeting, the shadow health secretary, described this as a 'striking weakness', while Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, noted that Blair 'doesn't mention inequality once'. Both are potential candidates for the Labour leadership.
Blair's essay, published earlier this week, called for the government to cut welfare spending, abandon restrictions on oil and gas, and improve relations with Donald Trump. It also criticised policy proposals from Streeting and Burnham. In response, Streeting wrote in the Guardian that inequality is 'the defining issue of our age' and that Blair treated it as 'peripheral rather than fundamental'.
Streeting argued that inequality is the root cause of political instability, fuelling the rise of populist parties. He said: 'When people believe the rules no longer reward effort fairly, resentment grows.' He also rejected Blair's criticism of his proposed wealth tax and ambition to rejoin the EU, stating that the party must 'tip the balance of taxation away from work towards wealth'.
Burnham echoed these sentiments, saying Blair's analysis fails to understand how rising costs and unaffordable essentials are driving politics. Torsten Bell, a minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, also criticised the essay for lacking a credible policy plan, noting that 'saying AI is not the same as having a plan for Britain'.
