TONY BLAIR on Tuesday urged Labour not to move left or seek to reverse Brexit as the party looks to improve its political position, saying the focus should instead be on policy rather than personality.
Blair, who led Labour to victory in three UK elections and served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007, made the remarks in a more than 5,000-word essay as the party prepares for a possible leadership contest to replace prime minister Keir Starmer.
“(Any renewal of Britain) requires a fundamental reset,” Blair wrote. “Labour's only electorally viable strategy is to become the Radical Centre.”
Starmer is facing poor popularity ratings, while senior figures in the party are increasingly putting forward ideas on how to improve the government's standing after criticism that it has failed to present voters with a clear long-term vision.
“The government's principal problem isn't Keir's personality. Or a failure to communicate ‘our achievements’. Or a need to assert more strongly Labour's ‘values’,” Blair wrote.
“Whether there is a leadership change or not is irrelevant if it doesn't start with a policy debate.”
Blair also appeared to criticise two possible challengers to Starmer — Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and former health minister Wes Streeting — by rejecting ideas linked to a move further left or a push to rejoin the European Union.
“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 wrote.
“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.”
Blair said the government should show it is on the side of business while dealing with the AI revolution, focus on cheaper energy rather than cleaner energy, and seek “a structured, formal relationship” with the European Union.
