Labour leadership: Straw dismisses Blairite 'virus' claims

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33733322

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Descriptions of New Labour as a virus are "ridiculous", Jack Straw has said as he warned the party faces "oblivion" if it moves further to the left.

The ex-home secretary said attacks on Tony Blair ignored the fact there would be no minimum wage or tax credits if he had not led Labour to power in 1997.

Union boss Dave Ward said Jeremy Corbyn was an "antidote" to Blairism, able to reconnect Labour with its values.

Mr Corbyn, while a friend, "could not conceivably" win power, said Mr Straw.

The growing momentum behind Mr Corbyn's campaign to lead the party, which has seen him win the support of four leading unions and top several early opinion polls, has triggered a bout of infighting between the left and right of the party.

Mr Ward, the general secretary of the Communications Workers Union, has likened Blairites - who fashioned New Labour and dominated the party for nearly a decade - to a "virus" and said their "grip" on the party must be "loosened once and for all".

'Comfort zone'

Speaking on Friday, he criticised those who he said were obsessed with locating the "centre ground" in British politics rather than focusing on defending the rights of working people and the disadvantaged.

"The virus I am referring to is the policies and the approach of the likes of Peter Mandelson, who seem to continuously push these sweeping statements that what this contest is all about is Labour winning an election," he told Radio 4's Today.

"The problem with the Blair side of the party, the Blairites which Peter Mandelson epitomises for me, is they never accept any of the bad things they have done."

But Mr Straw, who served under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said New Labour had "worked brilliantly" and the party could win again only if it reconciled itself to the benefits of a market economy while seeking to "moderate" them.

"This so-called virus, New Labour, ensured that we had three successive victories for the Labour Party from which the trade unions and their members, particularly, benefited as well as the rest of the country," he told Radio 4's World at One.

"The choice for people like Mr Ward is whether they retreat into a comfort zone of far-left policies that will lead to oblivion for the Labour Party or whether we accept the world as it is."

Labour's new leader will be elected on 12 September. The other candidates are Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall.