FLASH NEWS
"You're playing with fire!"/ Tony Blair harshly attacks the Labour government: You're taking Britain out of the elite of nations! You have no coherent plan for the country
2026-05-27 13:29:21 / BOTA
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair launched a scathing attack on the Labour government on Wednesday, warning that his party is "playing with fire" and risks plunging Britain out of the Premier League of nations.
In a 5,700-word essay published by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the former British leader accused the Labour Party of suffering from an "almost infinite capacity for self-deception," just under two years after Keir Starmer led the party to a landslide victory, forming the first Labour government in 14 years.
Blair's intervention comes just weeks before a by-election, which could return the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, to Parliament, who could potentially challenge Starmer for the party leadership.
But Blair, who pointed to the fact that he has won three elections as leader, argued that the main problem of the current government is related neither to "Keir's personality" nor to "lack of communication", but to the total lack of a "clear and coherent plan for the country".
In the essay, he calls on Labour to avoid a shift to the left and pursue a “radical centre” political agenda if it wants to stay in power. According to Blair, this includes seriously tackling policies on artificial intelligence, limiting spending on pensions and easing restrictions on oil and gas drilling.
"Trying to remove the prime minister before we know what political direction we are going to take is not a serious way to act," he warned.
Blair also directly attacked the main pillars of modern Labour policy, criticizing some of the government's most important figures and their key initiatives: Energy Secretary Ed Miliband's net-zero emissions targets, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves's pro-business fiscal policy, and former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner's workers' rights package.
“Taken together, these measures have created obstacles for British business, rather than helping it, despite the macroeconomic benefits for which the Chancellor deserves credit,” he argued.
Starmer's potential rivals were not spared from criticism either. Blair attacked Andy Burnham for his approach to more left-wing policies on tax and spending, while also criticizing Health Minister Wes Streeting, considered more centrist, for his positions on capital gains tax and relations with the European Union.
Reactions to Blair's statement from Labour MPs were mixed, while the government responded curtly. Chris Curtis, chairman of Labour's economic reform and growth group, told the BBC that the essay was a "refreshing" read, addressing major issues facing Britain.
On the other hand, Treasury Secretary Dan Tomlinson, responding on behalf of the government to Times Radio, said that while he was "always interested in the contribution of former prime ministers", Blair's argument "is essentially about the clash between New Labour and Old Labour" and that "that is no longer the situation we are in today".
He added: " The current government is focused on concrete work to tackle the problems facing citizens in modern Britain in the mid-2020s, a full 30 years after the debates and policy approach that Tony Blair promoted this morning."
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