Tony Blair says to Starmer: Stop supporting strikes in the public sector. Tony Blair has asked Sir Keir Starmer not to back strikes in the public sector, as it would be “very detrimental for Labour”.
Yesterday, the former prime minister hosted a conference on centrist ideas. He suggested that public sector workers shouldn’t receive inflation-linked pay increases and that Starmer’s party would need to make “tough choices”.
Tony Blair claims Labour has recovered,’ dismissing the need for a new party.
Former PM says Keir Starmer is doing an “amazing job”, but voters are still confused about the party’s values.
Tony Blair dismissed the need to form a new party. He said Labour had “recovered” under Keir Starmer but needed a better direction to win the next general elections.
Blair stated that the leadership must develop new, appealing policies after a difficult few weeks for Labour.
Blair stated that Starmer was doing an “amazing job” given the legacy of Corbyn, but he warned voters there was still confusion about the party’s values.
The former prime minister spoke ahead of a conference hosted at his institute. He said: “The Labour party is saying: We’re going out to set a political agenda later this year, and into next.’ At this conference, I mean that the ideas we’re proposing are available to anyone.
“The next election will be about Labour as much as the Conservatives,” I believe. But they have to be certain of Labour before making that change.
Blair said that Starmer was “entirely competent of doing that” but added, “We must be completely honest with ourselves. We must win if people understand Labour and why they believe it.
Blair, a long-standing critic of Starmer’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, said he was approached about starting a new party. But he said that he wasn’t involved in creating a new one.
Blair stated that if someone had led Labour from the “Corbyn-wing” party, “British politics would need to have collapsed somehow.” He dismissed the need to form a new party, given Starmer’s track record.
Public Sector Strikes UK
Blair stated that he believed the Labour party had regained its real poise and clarity. Starmer should be credited for his progress in resolving the legacy and implementing his actions.
Blair stated that there was a demand in the west to have a radical but sensible, centrist political system. He cited the election of Joe Biden in America, Emmanuel Macron in France, and Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor.
He stated that Labour is the centre-left modern progressive party in the next election. This is my view. Starmer has every chance to win.”
Last week, Labour was reclaiming Wakefield’s long-held Labour seat was a boost to their party. This is a sign that the party is expanding its reach into former heartlands that were destroyed in the 2019 election.
The party has been buoyed by talk of Tory MPs defecting to Labour.
Starmer has had to face a few difficult weeks due to the backlash against frontbenchers being banned from joining picket line picket lines during a rail strike.
After a series of negative briefings, he had to tell his shadow Cabinet to stop calling him boring.
Alan Johnson: Keir Starmer will be viewed as the saviour for the Labour Party.
Former Shadow Chancellor Keir Starmer said Keir Starmer was “the saviour for Labour”, as he dismissed the notion that the party leader “lacked charisma”.
Alan Johnson, who was in five ministerial posts under Tony Blair’s and Gordon Brown’s governments, said Sir Keir had made a “miraculous accomplishment.”
On Thursday’s Tonight with Andrew Marr, Mr Johnson stated that Keir Starmer could be historically viewed as the Labour Party’s saviour because he believed we were dead after 2019.
“After that horrible result, we lost Bishop Auckland, for God’s sakes. I can list the seats we lost, and you know, it was taken over by far-left.
“The far left has always tried to take over the party, and they have every right to stand on their platform but not ours.
“And it looked as if we would become some cuckoo nest, and Keir was rational enough and sane enough to want this god-awful position of leader of the opposition.
He has brought our party back, and he has done it. He was 27 points behind the polls. Now he’s at 10 points. For almost two years, he hasn’t been there much because it was Covid.
“And then you hear voices saying, “Oh, it should have 20 points, it should not be 30 points. That’s a miracle achievement.”
Sir Tony Blair suggested today that the Labour Party listen to his policy advice if it wishes to “seal” the deal at the next general elections.
Former Labour Prime Minister, who admitted that he wasn’t popular among all sections of the party at the moment, stated that he believed Labour under Sir Keir Sternmer could win next year’s election.
He addressed a crowd of interested people at the Future Of Britain conference, partly organized by his institute. He also warned that success on polling day is not determined by arithmetic but by a clear policy agenda.
Sir Tony made it clear in a lengthy discussion with Jon Sopel that his advice wasn’t just for Labour but for all progressive politicians and parties.
“I want to create a strong policy agenda so that reasonable people (whether from the Conservative Party, Labour Party or Lib Dems) can take it up. At least, you get people discussing how to make the country more like the real world.
He said that politics could sometimes be more than just following the flow. Sometimes it’s about resisting the flow.”
Faced with the rise of far-left and far-right in France, he rejected the suggestion that voters didn’t want “centrist” political parties anymore.
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