Tony Blair’s bid to stir debate welcomed – just not by Labour’s leadership hopefuls

With the Makerfield by-election and the possible subsequent leadership brawl a matter of weeks away, it’s all any Labour figure can do to beg for some party unity.

There are those who want Andy Burnham to sweep in with a new, more left-wing agenda – or at least, the existing agenda with a more appealing accent.

Some (though maybe not many) want Wes Streeting to shake things up with some bold, less left-wing ideas.

And others just want Sir Keir Starmer to get on with the job.

But wait – who’s that riding over the horizon with a centre parting, pointy eyebrows and a wide grin?

Late on Tuesday evening, Sir Tony Blair unexpectedly arrived on the scene with a novel and perhaps not entirely helpful new take: none of those three guys are offering anything close to what’s needed.

To be clear, I don’t think the 5,700-word intervention from the ex-Prime Minister is necessarily a bad thing. Part of his argument is that Labour doesn’t speak enough about its direction and the philosophy underpinning the government – this is an effort to stir that debate, which is positive.

But… it’s fair to say he’s not the ideal messenger. I’ve read the thing, and Blair writes as if he’s confident that he could win the next election if he was still in the game. I’m not so sure. Is anyone, apart from him?

The timing is also a little awkward. His call for net zero targets to be scrapped came a few hours after the British record high temperature for May was broken for the second day in a row, and a few hours before it was revealed the pressure on oil and gas prices from the Iran War was forcing the energy price cap up 13%.

And thirdly, Blair’s plan for ‘Radical Centrism’ – yes, that’s genuinely what he calls it – doesn’t seem all that radical.

He calls for much closer embrace of AI, as he has done for years. He calls for planning deregulation, which the government is already doing (though not dramatically enough for Sir Tony). And other bits could come from a Reform UK manifesto: ending net zero, bringing more private provision into the NHS, slashing welfare spending, and dealing with small boats ‘by whatever means’.

All this dominated yesterday’s news, at a time not exactly ideal for his party. However, Labour may be glad this happened in the long run.

No matter the quality of his own ideas, Blair has sent up a flare calling for firm proposals from those with their eyes on Number 10. Burnham – who has already set out a longform vision for the country in a 2024 book called Head North – wrote on X that he would provide a ‘considered response’ today.

Perhaps Streeting and (why the hell not) Starmer could do similar. Enough with the tweets, TikToks and ten-minute interviews. The more deep, considered, detail-rich manifestos out there, the better.

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