Former British Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has accused his own Labour Party of being out of touch with reality and failing to understand the political realities facing the UK, such as the need to abandon the net-zero green agenda and to improve relations with U.S. President Donald Trump. Agreeing many of the core critiques of the left-wing Labour Party government of Sir Keir Starmer made by those on the populist right, Sir Tony urged his party to grapple the hard truth that their “Quixotic” fantasist policies have failed and that what is needed more than a leadership change is a debate over core “soft-left” beliefs that should be abandoned in favour of “long-term strategic thinking”.
Commenting on the slow rolling Westminster psychodrama over the efforts by some to oust Starmer, Blair, who served as UK Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007 and whose smashing and remaking of the British constitution set the country up for many of the problems it faces today, argued that trying to remove the PM before the party can actually make its mind up over what policy direction it should take the country is “not a serious way of conducting ourselves.” “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,” the former Labour leader wrote. Blair said that while Labour is currently embroiled in a “rehash” of old political battles, such as whether to rejoin the European Union or to double down on welfarism and tax hikes, the party is missing the forest for the trees.
