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Tony Blair: only a complete renewal of Labour will do Tony Blair: Labour must avoid 'cul-de-sac' of identity politics
(about 2 hours later)
Former PM says party has failed too often in elections and must ‘redefine what radical means’ Ex-PM says next leader cannot win on issue against Tories and should focus on electability
Tony Blair says “nothing less than born again head-to-toe renewal will do” for Labour, as members decide who will be the next leader of the party. Tony Blair has warned the next Labour leader against becoming trapped in a “cul-de-sac of identity politics” over issues such as transgender rights, as he used an event in London to reiterate his belief that the party must focus on making itself electable again.
The former prime minister – who led Labour from 1994 to 2007 – warned the party needed to have the “mentality of government” and “redefine what radical means” in a speech to mark the 120th anniversary of the founding of the Labour party. The former prime minister, who also raised the idea of a possible alliance with the Liberal Democrats as a way to regain power, said the Conservatives would emerge victorious from any battles over contentious cultural issues.
Members are set to vote on who will shape the future of the party with Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy battling to take over from Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. The result of the contest will be announced on 4 April. “You’ve got to distinguish between the advocacy of certain things that are right, whether it’s about gay rights, transgender rights, whatever it is,” he said in a Q&A session after a speech to mark the 120th anniversary of the founding of the party.
Blair said Labour had always won when it had broadened British politics, secured the centre ground and looked to the future, adding “and yet despite this obviously being true, we have exhibited an extraordinary attachment to retreating into a narrow part of the left which has always ended in defeat”. “You’ve got to distinguish between that and launching yourself politically into a kind of culture war with the right. If you go, ‘Transgender rights is our big thing’, and the right goes, ‘Immigration control is our big thing’, you’re going to lose that war.”
Transgender rights has become an increasingly significant issue in the leadership contest, with Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy both signing a controversial 12-point pledge that includes the promise to expel “transphobic” members.
Blair said he would not have signed the pledge, arguing there were “all sorts of difficult issues” that had to be resolved first.
In his speech opening the event, Blair said Labour should examine trying to “correct the defect from our birth” that separated Liberal and Labour traditions on the left.
“How this is done, institutionally, is a matter for debate. But intellectually and philosophically it is absolutely essential that these two traditions are reunited,” he said. However, he added that the Lib Dems would first needed to “show the same clarity of purpose” in being serious about trying to get into government.
Elsewhere in the speech Blair, who led Labour from 1994 to 2007, said “nothing less than born again head-to-toe renewal will do” for the party, and that it needed to have the “mentality of government”.
Members are to vote on who will shape the future of the party, with Keir Starmer, Long-Bailey and Nandy battling to take over from Jeremy Corbyn as leader. The result of the contest will be announced on 4 April.
Blair said Labour had always won when it had broadened British politics, secured the centre ground and looked to the future. “And yet despite this obviously being true, we have exhibited an extraordinary attachment to retreating into a narrow part of the left which has always ended in defeat,” he added.
He said: “[W]hat Labour has stood for in terms of values has been magnificent; its achievements in government huge, but as a political competitor, it has too often been a failure.”He said: “[W]hat Labour has stood for in terms of values has been magnificent; its achievements in government huge, but as a political competitor, it has too often been a failure.”
The speech was delivered on the same day that Nandy skipped over Blair’s name when asked to list who the best past leaders were on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. In the Q&A Blair said a major issue for Labour was an attachment to a form of state power that he did not think people believed in any more.
Asked iwhether he believed the party genuinely wanted to win an election, he said: “I think it does want to win. The question is, does it want to win enough so that it’s prepared, one, to understand why it lost and be prepared to make the changes so it doesn’t lose again.”
He criticised the 2019 Labour manifesto, saying: “The more you read it the less convinced you became.”
Blair continued: “On every page you could see, someone had come and knocked on the door and said, ‘Here’s a 10-point plan on this and I want £1bn.’ Any politician can say yes, it’s pretty easy. It’s when you say no, particularly to your own people.”
His speech came shortly after Nandy missed out Blair when asked to list the party’s best leaders on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Nandy said the New Labour years were “game-changing” but Blair did get “things wrong” during his decade in Downing Street.Nandy said the New Labour years were “game-changing” but Blair did get “things wrong” during his decade in Downing Street.
Pushed on why she did not choose Blair, Nandy said: “I’d like to see us be more radical. So I think the assessment of Tony Blair’s time in office is that it was game-changing, it was important, but to earn the right for a hearing with the public about the things we got right, we’ve also got to be honest about the things we got wrong.”
Other leadership contenders have been asked about Blair. Earlier this month Rebecca Long-Bailey said she admired Blair’s focus on education, adding that his government had left a legacy of “aspiration and achievement”, while Starmer said he would not “trash” the Labour governments of Blair or Gordon Brown.
In his speech in central London, Blair argued that Labour must engage with the technology revolution of the 21st century which would “change everything and therefore everything should change, including radical reorientation of government”. He also called for “a new progressive coalition, to put Labour values into practice”.
In an arch opening to his speech, Blair reflected on the fact that his advice was not “particularly welcome” to today’s Labour party. He added: “But then it occurred to me that there are only two people born in the last 120 years who have actually won an election for Labour. And alas Harold Wilson is long gone.
“[Labour] has only once been elected for two successive full terms; only once for three, and both as New Labour, a period much of today’s party wants to disown.”