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Tony Blair: Labour will not win if it steps away from centre-ground Tony Blair: Labour will not win if it steps away from centre-ground
(35 minutes later)
Labour is heading for four election defeats if it continues to believe it can win by stepping away from the centre and offering old-school tax and spend policies, Tony Blair said on Wednesday.
Related: Tony Blair's speech on the future of Labour - Politics liveRelated: Tony Blair's speech on the future of Labour - Politics live
Labour is heading for four election defeats if it continues to believe it can win by stepping away from the centre and offering old-school tax and spend policies, Tony Blair said on Wednesday.
He described the Labour campaign in this year’s election as old-fashioned enough to be from Star Trek and argued that shifting the party further to the left would just lengthen the period before Labour could win again.He described the Labour campaign in this year’s election as old-fashioned enough to be from Star Trek and argued that shifting the party further to the left would just lengthen the period before Labour could win again.
The former prime minister was speaking on the day that an opinion poll by YouGov showed that the leftwing candidate Jeremy Corbyn was likely to win the party’s leadership election by a margin of six points in the final round. Blair said those who said their hearts are with the leftwing candidate Jeremy Corbyn should “get a transplant”.
Corbyn delivered his first major economic speech in the hours after Blair spoke on Tuesday in which he pledged a progressive tax system in which the rich pay more. He said that if elected prime minister in 2020 would also clamp down on massive corporate tax evasion and use up to £93bn corporate tax reliefs to create a national investment bank. The former prime minister was speaking on the day that an opinion poll by YouGov showed that Corbyn was likely to win the party’s leadership election by a margin of six points in the final round.
“Growth and higher wages must be key to bringing down the deficit,” he said. “If there are tough choices, we will always protect public services and support for the most vulnerable. Instead we will ask those who have been fortunate to contribute a little more.” Corbyn delivered his first major economic speech in the hours after Blair spoke and pledged a progressive tax system in which the rich pay more.
Blair said those who said their hearts are with Corbyn should “get a transplant”. He said that if elected prime minister in 2020 would also clamp down on corporate tax avoidance and use up to £93bn corporate tax reliefs to create a national investment bank.
He said he had no personal resentment of Corbyn but said his ideas took Labour away from the centre ground, and the prospect of government. “It is not about the individual; it is about the platform,” Blair said. “Growth and higher wages must be key to bringing down the deficit,” he said.
“If there are tough choices, we will always protect public services and support for the most vulnerable. Instead we will ask those who have been fortunate to contribute a little more.”
Blair said he had no personal resentment of Corbyn but said his ideas took Labour away from the centre ground, and the prospect of government.
“It is not about the individual; it is about the platform,” Blair said.
He could see no logic in the party responding to defeat in successive elections by moving ever further from the centre and back to the tax and spend policies of the 1980s.He could see no logic in the party responding to defeat in successive elections by moving ever further from the centre and back to the tax and spend policies of the 1980s.
Related: Tony Blair's speech on the future of the Labour party in full
Blair said Labour “congenitally confuses values with the manner of their application”, which led it to “mistake defending outdated policy with defending timeless values”.Blair said Labour “congenitally confuses values with the manner of their application”, which led it to “mistake defending outdated policy with defending timeless values”.
He said the most debilitating aspect of the current Labour debate was to think that “this is a choice not only between government and opposition but between heart and head between the pursuit of power and purity of principle”.He said the most debilitating aspect of the current Labour debate was to think that “this is a choice not only between government and opposition but between heart and head between the pursuit of power and purity of principle”.
He added: “I would not win on an old fashioned leftist platform. Even if I thought it was a route to victory I would not take it. The speed of change requires new thinking. And 2015 is not 2007 or 1997. So yes move on but do not move back.”He added: “I would not win on an old fashioned leftist platform. Even if I thought it was a route to victory I would not take it. The speed of change requires new thinking. And 2015 is not 2007 or 1997. So yes move on but do not move back.”
Related: Tony Blair's speech on the future of the Labour party in full
In call to supporters in the party to fight the left, he said: “’Unity’ does not work if you’re all together in the bus going over the edge of the cliff”In call to supporters in the party to fight the left, he said: “’Unity’ does not work if you’re all together in the bus going over the edge of the cliff”
Blair said the new leader should promise to do root and branch rethinking and warned that if the party moved back the “public will not vote for us – not because our thoughts are too pure but because they are too out of touch with the world they live in”.Blair said the new leader should promise to do root and branch rethinking and warned that if the party moved back the “public will not vote for us – not because our thoughts are too pure but because they are too out of touch with the world they live in”.
He warned that it was not enough for Labour to be a “platform for protest” against cuts and said it had to develop a credible strategy for government if it wanted to regain power.He warned that it was not enough for Labour to be a “platform for protest” against cuts and said it had to develop a credible strategy for government if it wanted to regain power.
“In the next few years there are some very tough things happening in public services, in welfare. People are going to feel very angry, very disenfranchised, very dispirited,” he said.“In the next few years there are some very tough things happening in public services, in welfare. People are going to feel very angry, very disenfranchised, very dispirited,” he said.
“It is easy and enormously tempting for the Labour party in those circumstances to just to become a platform for that protest. But we know what happens when that happens.“It is easy and enormously tempting for the Labour party in those circumstances to just to become a platform for that protest. But we know what happens when that happens.
“If you don’t fashion a credible platform for government and not merely a strategy for opposition, then, yes, over the course of the parliament you will go up in the polls, the government becomes unpopular, but then you come back to choice, and if people don’t think you’ve got a credible platform for government, they don’t like you.”“If you don’t fashion a credible platform for government and not merely a strategy for opposition, then, yes, over the course of the parliament you will go up in the polls, the government becomes unpopular, but then you come back to choice, and if people don’t think you’ve got a credible platform for government, they don’t like you.”
Blair insisted he was motivated, not depressed, by the current state of Labour and said he believed the party could win the 2020 general election “if our comfort zone is the future and our values are our guide and not our distraction.”Blair insisted he was motivated, not depressed, by the current state of Labour and said he believed the party could win the 2020 general election “if our comfort zone is the future and our values are our guide and not our distraction.”
Asked to set out his views of the party’s former leader, Ed Miliband, Blair said he had “great admiration for his resilience under attack and the way he stuck to his guns in the election”.Asked to set out his views of the party’s former leader, Ed Miliband, Blair said he had “great admiration for his resilience under attack and the way he stuck to his guns in the election”.
But he added that Miliband thought the centre had shifted left and: “I don’t think the centre shifts in that way. It’s a disagreement. It is familiar where it ends up.”But he added that Miliband thought the centre had shifted left and: “I don’t think the centre shifts in that way. It’s a disagreement. It is familiar where it ends up.”
In the 2015 election the public may voted Tory out of fear, he said, “but we have to understand what their fears were”.In the 2015 election the public may voted Tory out of fear, he said, “but we have to understand what their fears were”.
Blair said Labour had “not got what the modern world was about”. Insisting he was Labour through and through, he added: “Anyone who fought the 1983 Labour campaign is Labour through and through.”Blair said Labour had “not got what the modern world was about”. Insisting he was Labour through and through, he added: “Anyone who fought the 1983 Labour campaign is Labour through and through.”