Tony Blair

Former PM urges party to take a step back and ‘analyse the world’ amid speculation over Keir Starmer’s leadershipUK politics live – latest updatesTony Blair has continued his attack on the Labour government, saying it should be about “policy first, politics second”.Hours after he published a scathing essay in which he warned that the party’s “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion” meant it was likely to lose the next election, the former prime minister said it should “take a step back, analyse the world.” Continue reading...

In highly unusual intervention, ex-PM says his party’s ‘almost infinite capacity for self-delusion’ makes it likely to lose next electionAnalysis: Tony Blair’s essay on Labour failings gets full marks for being unhelpfulTony Blair has accused Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting of putting Labour’s future at risk by abandoning the centre ground, warning that the party’s “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion” means it is likely to lose the next election.In a scathing 5,700-word attack on the prime minister and his would-be successors published on Tuesday night, Blair argued that the party’s agenda should move firmly to the right, calling for the government to crack down on welfare spending, abandon net zero goals and support Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Intervention by former PM almost feels designed to inflict maximum annoyance on his partyTony Blair says Labour must abandon net zero, support Trump and cut benefitsDid Tony Blair ever mention he was quite good at winning elections? If you happened to miss it, then his 5,700-word opus on where Labour, Keir Starmer and the UK more generally have gone wrong is here to remind you. Several times.“I led the Labour party for 13 years and through three general elections,” goes the second sentence. Further on, Blair laments that when the party tries to puzzle out how to win a second term, the one thing ruled out was “learning from the only time in the party’s 120-year history it has ever done so”. Continue reading...