Tony Blair live: Ex-PM bashes Labour leader Keir Starmer in blistering 5,000-word attack

Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair made an extraordinary intervention by slamming Keir Starmer as having no “coherent plan for Britain.”

Ex-Labour PM Blair laid into Starmer in a critical essay where he accused the current PM of introducing policies that held back businesses in the country. He claimed phasing out British oil and gas and measures on workers’ rights laws as being particularly detrimental to UK business owners.

But he warned that a change of leader was “irrelevant” if the party did not start with a policy debate. In response, Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson said the government was making “big steps” to fundamentally change the country and was getting on with the job of governing.

Blair’s 5,000 word essay is a huge critique of Starmer’s government and comes at a time when Labour faces a consequential by-election in Makerfield. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is seeking a return to No10 by winning the seat, though he faces stiff competition from Reform.

Burnham is also likely to be seen as a Labour leadership contender amid calls for Starmer to step down. Labour’s immediate future could be decided when voters in Makerfield head to the polls on Thursday, June 18.

New UpdatesView PostView PostToday09:12 BST

Sir Tony Blair said he wanted to see Andy Burnham in Parliament, but urged Labour MPs to “force people to say where they stand” before getting behind a change in leader.

Asked whether he would advise Labour MPs to back Wes Streeting or Mr Burnham, Sir Tony told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My advice is choose your direction first and make sure that before you have any leadership change, you make all the candidates set out in detail their policy, what the Government’s got right, what it’s got wrong, what we should do differently.”

He added: “I hope Andy wins Makerfield, I think he’s a great guy, I want to see him in Parliament.

“But you know, when he does this thing about 40 years of wasted… I mean, OK, and what, nothing good happened in that period of Thatcher with the business community, or New Labour?

“I don’t think he really means that, but what I’m saying, if you’re going to change leader, you’ve really got to force people to say where they stand, because otherwise you’ll be in what I think was always a problem for Keir – and I’ll be very honest about this, and I like him and I wish him well – but when we switched from that Corbyn agenda, there wasn’t enough explanation.

“Not as to why Corbyn was an election loser, that was pretty obvious, but why the whole agenda was wrong.

“You have to explain to people why it’s wrong if you want to lead the party in the future in a coherent way.”

Anders AngleseyToday09:02 BST

Sir Tony Blair has warned Labour is “playing with fire” by rowing over Keir Starmer’s leadership – as he accused the Government of lacking a proper plan.

In a blistering intervention, the former Prime Minister said his own party had an “almost infinite capacity for self delusion”. He said Labour only won its landslide election victory by being an “acceptable” alternative to the Tories, and had failed to offer a proper vision for the rapidly changing world.

“The world is turning on its axis and today’s politicians living in a 24/7 pressure cooker have barely time to recognise the turning, let alone study it,” he said.

READ MORE: Tory Blair launches blistering attack on Keir Starmer and warns Labour ‘playing with fire’

Tony Blair has said working people are being overtaxed – and singled out Net Zero targets for the chop.

The former PM told Times Radio he would rip up Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s clean energy agenda – a key strategy of the current government.

He said: “I think that taxes are too high for working people. And some of the things we’re spending money on, I think we’ve got to change.

“So I particularly identify that, you know, the very large sum of money we’re spending on net zero, which I just don’t think is the right priority for the country now.”

Asked if he was calling on Keir Starmer to rip up Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s agenda, Sir Tony said: “Yes.”

He branded net zero an “unnecessary accelerated target”.

David BurkeToday08:56 BST

Sir Tony Blair said that if large increases in incapacity benefit along with the triple lock continues, “we’re going to create a situation where economically we’re not able to grow”.

The former premier told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Let’s be clear, I don’t think Labour won the last election because people read the manifesto and said, ‘this is what we want’.

“I think people thought that Conservatives have behaved completely unacceptably, and to Keir Starmer’s great credit, the Labour Party was an acceptable alternative.

“Now, when it came in, it saw the state of the inheritance. I think at that point, of course, it would be difficult. Everything in politics is difficult, but if I’d been them, I’d say, look, all of these commitments, they may be very worthwhile.

“There may be proper commitments in easy times, but in these hard times, we’ve got to prioritise growth. We’ve got to prioritise support for the business sector, and this artificial intelligence revolution, we’ve got to grasp it, both its opportunities and its risks, with both hands.

“And so, I think, yes, it would have been tough, but I think you could have explained to the country why it was necessary.”

He added “at some point you’ve got to be able to stand up and have an honest debate with the public, which is to say, look, ultimately we’re probably taxing people too much, spending too much, borrowing too much at the moment”.

“If we carry on like this with these large increases in incapacity benefit, with the triple lock on pensions, we’re going to create a situation where economically we’re not, we’re not able to grow because we put such a weight affecting growth on the back of our economy.”

Tony Blair has warned Britain will not be treated as a “serious country” if there is a seventh change in Prime Minister in a decade.

Sir Tony’s intervention comes as Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester Mayor, looks set to challenge Keir Starmer if he wins a crucial by-election next month. But speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, the former Labour leader between 1997 and 2007 said “It’s possible we’re about to have the seventh Prime Minister in 10 years – a serious country can’t do that to itself.

“What is bizarre about the present situation is that we are all talking about politics when the key thing is to talk about policy. If you don’t decide what your policy direction is, there’s no point in changing the leader.”

The former premier said he hoped Mr Burnham wins the make-or-break Makerfield by-election on June 18 – but he lashed out at the Greater Manchester Mayor’s diagnosis.

He said: “But you know, when he does this thing about 40 years of wasted… I mean, OK, and what, nothing good happened in that period of Thatcher with the business community, or New Labour?”

Asked whether he would advise Labour MPs to back Wes Streeting or Mr Burnham, Sir Tony replied: “My advice is choose your direction first and make sure that before you have any leadership change, you make all the candidates set out in detail their policy, what the Government’s got right, what it’s got wrong, what we should do differently.”

Sir Tony also said if large increases in incapacity benefit along with the triple lock continues, “we’re going to create a situation where economically we’re not able to grow”.

Ashley CowburnToday08:33 BST

Dan Tomlinson said he disagreed with Sir Tony Blair’s take on workers’ rights policy and rejected suggestions that Labour was “stuck in this New Labour, old Labour battle”.

The Treasury minister told Sky News he agreed with some aspects of the essay but “on some things I just disagree with him”.

Mr Tomlinson said: “He says, for example, that our approach to workers’ rights and making sure the jobs market works for people wouldn’t be the approach he would take, but, you know, when Tony Blair was prime minister there weren’t many people at all on zero-hour contracts – I’m not sure they even existed as a form of contract in our jobs market.”

He said the current Labour Party was “not stuck in this New Labour, old Labour battle, which he talks about a lot in his essay, but is about what are the problems facing the country today and what do we need to do to fix them, and that’s what we’re getting on with”.

Dan Tomlinson said Sir Tony Blair was right to call on Labour to avoid a personality contest but disputed the former premier’s framing of some of the party’s challenges.

The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury told Times Radio: “I read what Tony Blair had to say on my way into Westminster this morning.

“Always interested in the contribution of former prime ministers. There’s some stuff in there that I agree with, I think is very sensible.

“He’s right that we shouldn’t descend into a contest of personalities. We need to focus on the issues and the substance.

“I agree with him that we need to focus on reforming our domestic economy rather than rushing to change relationships with the EU. I think the red lines in our manifesto around single market, customs union (are) really important.

“They’re part of why I think people put their trust in us at the last general election.

“My take, for what it’s worth, is that this, the sort of big argument that Tony Blair was making, which is essentially about New Labour versus old Labour, is just not where we are today, and actually what this Government is doing is getting on with the job of confronting the problems that are facing people in modern Britain in the mid-2020s, 30 years on from the debates and the framing that Tony Blair was putting out this morning.

“If we look at the jobs market, when Tony Blair was prime minister there weren’t really any people on zero-hour contracts.

“Now there are hundreds of thousands of people struggling with that uncertainty, so, yes, we are passing our employment rights legislation to give people more certainty in work.”

Anders AngleseyToday08:26 BST

Tony Blair has made an extraordinary intervention after accusing Keir Starmer’s govenment of having no ‘coherent plan’ for the country.