Andy Burnham has accused Sir Tony Blair of failing to acknowledge that life for millions of Britons is much harder than it used to be as he hit back at the former prime minister’s lengthy criticism of the direction of the Labour Party.
The cost of living crisis was the “gaping hole” in Sir Tony’s argument, Mr Burnham warned, as he said Manchester’s recent economic success had been achieved through a “very interventionist” approach that proved “you can’t just leave it to the market”.
The Greater Manchester mayor also criticised Blair’s government for not taking the country away from a direction set by Margaret Thatcher, which led to “40 years of neoliberalism” which he said had “not been kind to” many communities.
His rebuke comes after Sir Tony warned that Labour was “playing with fire” when it came to the future of the country as he urged the party not to move further to the left, saying it should instead occupy the “radical centre”.
But Mr Burnham criticised the ex-PM’s call for regulation to be loosened to boost growth, writing in the Times: “The principal cause of the 2008 crash was a failure of regulation.
“So how can a new wave of deregulation plausibly be the answer to the problems we have experienced since?”
Mr Burnham, who said he had read the Blair essay three times, said: “To make no mention of the fall in the living standards of millions, and the reality that life has got harder for most year on year since the financial crash in 2008, is, I believe, the gaping omission in [Blair’s] analysis.”
“This has been the single biggest driver of the turmoil in politics he describes and the cratering of support for traditional parties of right and left, here and around the world.”
This is a developing news story, more follows …