Tony Blair has sparked fury with Andy Burnham accusing of him of failing to mention inequality – after the former PM launched a brutal attack on Labour’s direction.
Furious backbenchers claimed it is time for the former PM to “bow out” after he slammed Keir Starmer’s handling of Donald Trump, called for net zero targets to be scrapped and suggested the pension triple lock needs reviewing.
He also hit out at Mr Burnham after the so-called King of North claimed Britain had been on the wrong path for 40 years. Labour grandee Lord David Blunkett told The Mirror Sir Tony’s timing was unhelpful with a knife-edge by-election just weeks away. But he said the current leadership would be wrong to dismiss the three-time general election winner as irrelevant.
Mr Burnham, who is expected to challenge Mr Starmer’s leadership if he wins the Makerfield by-election on June 18, told The Observer after Sir Tony published a scathing 5,700 word essay: “He doesn’t mention inequality once.
“If you don’t get how that’s driving politics now, if you are not rooting your analysis in the fact that people are unable to live and that things that were taken for granted are no longer affordable, then you are not understanding what’s going on.” The Mirror understands the Greater Manchester Mayor will address Sir Tony’s comments again on Thursday.
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Dave Burke
View 3 ImagesTony Blair has piled more misery on Keir Starmer by accusing Labour of lacking a plan(Image: Getty Images)
Lord Blunkett, who was Education Secretary, Home Secretary and Work and Pensions Secretary during the Blair years, said: “I welcome the breadth and depth of the challenge he’s (Sir Tony) thrown out, I just wish it had been after June 18.” Pondering why his old boss might have chosen such a tricky moment to accuse Labour of lacking a coherent plan, he said he did not know, but added: “So it can be you can be in tune internationally without necessarily being in tune locally.”
On Wednesday morning Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson suggested Sir Tony was peddling 30 year old arguments. But Lord Blunkett gave a bullish response, telling the current crop of leaders: “Speaking as someone of that generation, I’d like to think that those of us who delivered actually do have something to contribute. And that includes Tony Blair.
“My answer to those who say he’s irrelevant and write him off is when you’ve delivered that, I would take what you’re saying seriously.” And the Labour peer went on: “My feeling is that if Tony Blair and my friend Andy Burnham could sit down and talk to each other, they might come up with a very interesting solution.”
He said he has not given up hope that Labour can win a second term in power, even if it changes leader. He said: “It’s never too far gone. People thought that in 1990, when Thatcher was deposed. John Major won the 1992 election, we never say never. And I’ve got to believe that, because otherwise we’re in total despair.”
Sir Tony sparked an outcry when he claimed the Labour Party has an “almost infinite capacity for self delusion”. He also claimed the current government lacks a coherent plan and complained it was not drawing lessons from his success. And in a swipe about Mr Burnham’s dig at 40 years of failure, he said: “Nothing good happened in that period of Thatcher with the business community, or New Labour? I don’t think he really means that.”
Sir Tony hit out at the current Labour government, claiming new workers’ rights laws, the phasing out of the British oil and gas industry and an above-inflation uplift to the minimum wage were stifling growth.
View 3 ImagesLord David Blunkett said Sir Tony’s intervention was badly timed(Image: Derbyshire Live / Getty Images)
But in a brutal rebuke Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson suggested Sir Tony was rehashing arguments from 30 years ago after urging against veering to the left. Mr Tomlinson, 33, said: “That was a debate that was happening in the 1990s in the UK, which was pretty much around the time I was born.
“Things have moved on a lot since then.” Mr Burnham said he would set out a response to Sir Tony’s intervention on Thursday.
Backbencher Ian Byrne, an influential figure on the left of the Labour Party, branded Sir Tony “tone deaf”. He posted on X: “It’s his brand of politics that’s led us to an utterly broken country. It’s crystal clear Tony Blair does not care about the lives of working class people.” He went on: “Time to bow out Tony you have done enough damage.”
Lord Blunkett said Sir Tony was clearly a champion of artifical intelligence, but said he had not addressed the impact new tech could have on jobs. He said: “I think that we need to be on the side of those who are likely to be most affected by such technological change in a way that was never the case with the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, or even the very big industrial upheaval of the 1980s where people were just left to fend for themselves.
“And I think that a social democratic government would need to work out how to embrace the best of technological change, whilst ensuring that they navigate with people to ensure that it’s a plus and not a minus for them. In other words, the government’s on their side working out how we can do this in a way that is beneficial rather than damaging to those who are always losing out.”
As anger about his essay grew, Sir Tony hit the airwaves to criticise the PM. He reiterated his controversial claim that Mr Starmer should have fallen in line immediately when Trump demanded the use of British bases for strikes on Iran. When your ally asks for you for help with logistics and support – in this case the refuelling – you’ve got to think long and hard before you refuse them,” he said.
“If they are an indispensable part of our security, we should stand with them if we can.”
And he laid into the government’s Net Zero mission, urging Mr Starmer to rip up Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s green agenda. Sir Tony said: “Britain’s emissions are under 1% of global emissions, we can’t solve climate change, and to impose costs on our own businesses and consumers in order to accelerate net zero when the rest of the world is not doing so.
“I don’t understand the logic behind it, or shutting down our own oil and gas industry in circumstances where, again, I don’t know another country in the world that’s doing that.”
And he demanded welfare spending is curbed – warning the triple lock on state pensions, which guarantees an annual rise matching the highest of either wage growth, inflation or 2.5% is becoming unsustainable.
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Sir Tony said: “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.”
But former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell accused Sir Tony of being out of touch with party members, stating: “If you recall, Blair’s attack on Jeremy Corbyn (in 2015) was one of the decisive factors that secured the scale of his victory in the first leadership campaign.”
And Mr Corbyn himself said: “Tony Blair thinks the answer to this country’s problems is AI, welfare cuts and endless spending on war. Who benefits? Arms companies and tech billionaires. Once again, Blair is wrong. The answer is a redistribution of wealth and power and the relentless search for peace.”