Labour MPs have been left divided after ex-Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair landed blows against Sir Keir Starmer, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and ex-Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Sir Tony, who previously criticised Sir Keir over his response to events in Iran, penned a highly critical essay singling out the Prime Minister’s push to shake up workers’ rights laws, phase out British oil and implement an above-inflation uplift to the minimum wage.
He wrote: “It is because we don’t have a worked-out coherent plan for the country in a fast-changing world and are in the wrong political position from which we can devise one and win a second term.”
Labour MP Chris Curtis described Sir Tony’s essay as “quite refreshing to read”, adding it sought to “actually start to grapple with the very big issues that we’re facing”.
However, left-wing Labour MP Rachael Maskell warned: “Tony Blair won an election nearly three decades ago, and it seems he’s continuing the argument from back then rather than looking at the situation today.”
She also claimed Sir Tony’s intervention was “incredibly unhelpful” ahead of the Makerfield by-election on June 18.
FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY…
Andy Burnham could trigger ‘chaotic’ leadership contest and early general election, Labour veteran fears
Andy Burnham could trigger a “chaotic” leadership contest and an early General Election, a Labour veteran has warned.
Former deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has expressed concern a leadership challenge to Sir Keir Starmer could see the nation “tipped into a new General Election”.
Despite the Labour peer saying she would welcome the return of Andy Burnham to Westminster, his potential leadership campaign would be “kind of chaotic”, she admitted.
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I don’t want to say that a change of leadership is inevitable.
“I don’t want a leadership challenge, and I also don’t want a general election.”
She continued: “There is a scenario in which the new leader, call him Andy Burnham for example, actually thinks, ‘I need a new mandate’ and Nigel Farage will be saying ‘well yes the country does want a new Prime Minister but they want me, they don’t want Andy Burnham, nobody’s voted for him, he’s a usurper'”.
The Labour peer suggested Mr Burnham may feel the need to seek this own electoral mandate rather than continuing Sir Keir’s agenda, particularly if he were to experience a surge in the polls if he takes over.
Therefore, he may call a General Election, she said, rather than repeat the error of Gordon Brown, who chose not to seek his own mandate despite a polling bounce when he became Prime Minister – a decision widely seen as the beginning of his political decline.”
Defending why she thinks a leadership contest would be a bad idea, Baroness Harman added: “Stability is such a kind of fusty and unsexy proposition. But actually, I think people just want to get on with their lives, get on with their businesses, get on with things.
Tony Blair brutally hits out at Keir Starmer for ‘lack of coherent plan’ as he slams Labour over proposals to rejoin EU and Net Zero
Sir Tony Blair has brutally hit out at Sir Keir Starmer for a “lack of coherent plan” as he slammed Labour over the party’s proposals to rejoin the EU and Net Zero policies.
In an essay published by the the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the former Prime Minister criticises the current chaos engulfing the Labour Party, arguing it has an “extraordinarily retro 20th-century feel to it”.
He wrote: “The Labour Party is playing with fire; or, more accurately, with its future, and that of the country.”
Whilst he does not blame “Keir’s personality” for the party’s deteriorating popularity among the electorate, or its failure to communicate its successes or what it stands for, Sir Tony argues it is because there is not a “worked-out, coherent plan for the country in a fast-changing world”.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE