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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has claimed the Labour Party is “marooned on fantasy island” and faces the “stark” prospect of being replaced as a competitor for power in British politics.
In a speech in central London yesterday morning, he said last week’s general election result was “no ordinary defeat” for Labour, after his party suffered its worst election performance since 1935.
“The result has brought shame on us, we let our country down,” Blair said. Setting out what he perceived as an existential threat facing the party, the ex-premier claimed Labour doesn’t have “the luxury of a slow march back”. He said: “Unfortunately 2019 is much worse than 1983: then was our second defeat; now is our fourth.
“The country is different, politics is different. The country is less fixed in political affiliation and politics moves at speed, accelerated by social media. “We don’t have the luxury of a slow march back. We can correct our historical and contemporary weaknesses or be consumed by them. That choice is unmerciful.
“The choice for Labour is to renew itself as the serious, progressive, non-conservative competitor for power in British politics or retreat from such an ambition, in which case it will be replaced.
“That is how stark, harsh, difficult but true the choice is. And the choice is now.”
Blair described Labour’s general election campaign as a “combination of misguided ideology and terminal ineptitude” and claimed it was a “cardinal error” for current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to have ever agreed to the election.
Labour “pursued a path of almost comic indecision” on Brexit that alienated both Leave supporters and Remain supporters, the party’s former leader said. He told an audience he was not criticizing Corbyn “as a person”, but said the Labour leader’s political ethos which he described as “quasi-revolutionary socialism” has “never appealed to traditional Labour voters” and “never will appeal”.
He added: “The takeover of the Labour Party by the far left turned it into a glorified protest movement with cult trimmings, utterly incapable of being a credible government.” Blair, who won three elections as Labour leader, intervened in the party’s election post-mortem as leading MPs set out their pitches ahead of possible leadership campaigns to replace Corbyn.
In a warning to those hoping to be elected the party’s new leader, Blair added: “The Labour Party is presently, today, marooned on fantasy island. I understand would-be leaders would want to go there and speak the native language in the hope of persuading enough people, eventually, to migrate to the mainland of reality. But there is a risk the only people speaking the language of reality to the Labour Party today are those who don’t aspire to lead it.”
