Tony Blair has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer, accusing the prime minister and his would-be successors of abandoning the centre ground and putting Labour's future at risk. In a 5,700-word essay published on Tuesday, the former Labour prime minister warned that the party's 'almost infinite capacity for self-delusion' makes it likely to lose the next election.
Blair urged the government to crack down on welfare spending, abandon restrictions on oil and gas, and smooth relations with Donald Trump. He criticised Angela Rayner's employment rights bill, Ed Miliband's net zero drive, and the phasing out of oil and gas licences, arguing these policies gave 'headwinds, not tailwinds to British business'. He also attacked Rachel Reeves' decision to raise the minimum wage and national insurance, and change the status of non-doms.
The former prime minister said Starmer's key issue was not a lack of charisma but of grounding, stating: 'Too often they seem to totter in the breeze. To lack ballast.' He argued the party should have ditched promises on workers' rights and oil and gas licences early in government, blaming the fiscal situation. He also criticised the ending of the two-child benefit cap, saying welfare needed major reform.
Blair attacked Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting for ideas on tax and spending that he said had been rejected by serious governments. He said it was a 'perennial delusion' that the party should move left while losing seats to the right. However, he also suggested it was a mistake to seek to remove Starmer, saying: 'Trying to force the prime minister out, before we know what policy direction we’re bringing in, is not a serious way of conducting ourselves.'
A senior Labour source responded: 'Tony has evidently not been near a working-class Brit for decades but he’s clearly been away with the tech bro fantasists. Reheated Blairism has absolutely no answers to our national decline since the vultures were let loose.'
