SIR Tony Blair today launches a devastating attack on Labour over tax hikes, welfare spending and Net Zero — warning his party is “playing with fire”.
accuses successor of lacking a “coherent plan” for Britain and retreating to the “comfort zone” of left-wing politics.
Former PM Tony Blair has released a broadside against Labour, pictured with PM Sir Keir Starmer and former leader Gordon Brown Credit: AP
Hopeful Wes Streeting plans to rejoin the EU Credit: LNP
He scolds leadership rival for advocating moving “even further left”, while also criticising fellow hopeful for plans to .
In his strongest intervention since leaving 19 years ago, most successful PM also:
- WARNS ministers to do “whatever it takes” to stop the boats;
- BLASTS Rachel Reeves’ national insurance rise in her first Budget;
- DEMANDS North Sea drilling to prioritise cheaper bills, and:
- SAYS Labour and the Tories have gone “off the rails” with infighting.
Sir Tony won three general elections for Labour during his tenure as PM from 1997 to 2007 but is now a divisive figure in the party, largely because of .
He had been giving informal advice to yet today gives him both barrels over catastrophic choices since getting into office.
His blistering 5,000-word assessment of the Government will rock premiership even more as he fights to stay in No10.
Sir Tony rubbishes the frequent excuse that Sir Keir’s woes are down to him being a bad communicator.
Instead, Sir Tony says: “It is because we don’t have a worked-out, coherent plan for the country and are in the wrong political position from which we can devise one and win a second term.
“The Government is governing from an essentially traditional Labour ‘soft left’ position, parked firmly in the Party’s comfort zone.
“The Labour Party is playing with fire; or, more accurately, with its future, and that of the country.
“I am afraid, like many progressive parties, it has an almost infinite capacity for self-delusion.”
He adds that being “caught between the isolationist tendency of parts of the right and misguided progressivism of parts of the left . . . are in danger of leaving Britain marooned on an island of irrelevance”.
Sir Tony says the decision to raise employers’ , , the phasing out of the , the package, and targeting non-doms were disasters.
He says that to boost growth, Labour should have made the “painful but bearable” decision to abandon these policies at the first .
Sir Tony slams the decision to compound the problem at the second Budget last year by increasing tax to pay for additional welfare spending.
He says: “Taken together, these measures have given headwinds to British business, despite the macroeconomic gains for which the Chancellor is rightly praised.
Labour are slumping in the polls
A Tory poster from 1978 hits the nail on the head for many Credit: handout
“At a minimum, the Government should try to limit the effect of the changes made and remove those parts of the Net Zero agenda which prioritise clean energy over cheaper energy; and make sure the actions match the words on growth.”
Businesses have complained that taxes and pro-union legislation have hammered their ability to invest and hire new staff.
The has also surged to five per cent.
Sir Tony urged Energy Secretary to reverse his ban on .
The former PM also mauls successive governments for letting benefits spending spiral out of control.
He writes on the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change website: “By the end of this decade, we could be spending more on incapacity and disability benefits than on defence. No serious country can do that. Mental health spending has exploded. The system at points incentivises people not to work.”
Annual welfare spending including pensions is already £332.9billion compared to the £62.2billion .
Sir Tony also brands the pensions triple lock “unaffordable long-term”.
Blair scolds leadership rival Andy Burnham for advocating moving ‘even further left’ Credit: Alamy
Sir Tony, pictured with wife Cherie after taking office in 1997, is also scathing about the party’s chances if there is a new leader Credit: Getty
Since getting thrashed in this month’s , Sir Keir has signalled a huge shift to the left to appease mutinous MPs.
Almost 100 rebels have called on him to set out a timetable to stand down as leader.
Sir Tony is also scathing about the party’s chances if there is a new leader.
He says: “Whether there is a leadership change or not is irrelevant if it doesn’t start with a policy debate. 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.”
While praising former Health Secretary Mr Streeting as a “huge political talent”, he criticises him for wanting to reverse .
Sir Tony says: “Just as Brexit was never the answer to Britain’s challenges back in 2016, reversing it isn’t the answer to the country’s far worse situation in 2026.”
In a swipe at Greater Manchester Mayor , Sir Tony blasts the “alternative which thinks the answer is moving even further left on taxes and welfare spun with a rehash of the far-left critique about nothing good coming out of the last ‘40 years’ of ‘neo-liberalism’, which presumably includes the last Labour government”.
Sir Tony rails: “It is one thing when in opposition to indulge this perennial delusion that when we lose seats to the right the country is really signalling it wants Labour to move left; it is dangerous to do it in government.”
He adds solving the small boats crisis is “pre-conditional to getting the British people to listen to bigger arguments about the future”.
Sir Tony governed as a centrist, popularising the “third way” middle ground between left and right-wing politics — what he terms today as the “radical centre”.
He adds: “Both main parties have gone off the rails by putting internal politics first and good policy second.
“Labour moving to the left after 2007 culminating in the absurdity of the Corbyn leadership. The Tories with Brexit.”
Sir Tony, who won elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005, adds: “Unfortunately to the exam question: how do we win a second full term of government, the one answer which seems ruled out, is learning from the only time in the party’s 120-year history it has ever done so.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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