{"id":605532,"date":"2026-05-26T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/605532\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T22:14:09","slug":"tony-blair-tells-starmer-and-rivals-abandon-net-zero-and-move-closer-to-trump-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/605532\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to Trump | Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Blair has accused Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting<\/a> of putting Labour\u2019s future at risk by abandoning the centre ground, warning that the party\u2019s \u201calmost infinite capacity for self-delusion\u201d means it is likely to lose the next election.<\/p>\n

In a scathing 5,700-word attack on the prime minister and his would-be successors published on Tuesday night, Blair argued for the government to crack down on welfare spending, abandon restrictions on oil and gas and smooth relations with Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

His essay, a highly unusual intervention for a past Labour<\/a> prime minister, is likely to draw a furious response from across the party, where Blair\u2019s legacy remains highly contentious. On Tuesday, one senior source accused him of abandoning social democratic values to embrace an agenda that had \u201cno answers\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Blair also suggested it was a mistake for others in the party to seek to remove Starmer as prime minister, saying: \u201cThe Labour party is playing with fire; or, more accurately with its future, and that of the country. Whether there is a leadership change or not is irrelevant if it doesn\u2019t start with a policy debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to force the prime minister out, before we know what policy direction we\u2019re bringing in, is not a serious way of conducting ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blair attacked Burnham and his fellow leadership contender Wes Streeting \u2013 who has often been cast as a Blairite but rejects the label \u2013 for ideas on tax and spending that he said had been rejected by serious governments. He said it was a \u201cperennial delusion\u201d that the party should move left while losing seats to the right, saying it was \u201cdangerous to do it in government\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Labour is likely to lose many more seats to Reform than the Greens in a general election, most analysts of the recent local elections suggest that it loses four times as many votes to the Greens, splitting the left-leaning vote.<\/p>\n

Blair also criticised Starmer\u2019s approach to the US war with Iran, despite most polls showing it was popular with the public \u2013 saying it was vital the US could trust the UK as an ally. He criticised cuts to international aid, which he said had weakened Britain\u2019s influence, and said Starmer was trying to negotiate with Europe from a position of weakness.<\/p>\n

The former prime minister named Angela Rayner\u2019s employment rights bill and Ed Miliband\u2019s net zero drive as key mistakes, alongside the phasing out of oil and gas licenses and Rachel Reeves\u2019 decision to raise the minimum wage and national insurance and change the status of non-doms<\/a>. All of the policies had given \u201cheadwinds, not tailwinds to British business\u201d, he wrote.<\/p>\n

The government should now remove all obstacles to AI-related business growths, radically increase planning reform, reverse its North Sea energy policy and make fundamental changes to the welfare system, Blair argued, as well as seeking to repair relations with Trump\u2019s White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout an agenda of this nature, radical but sensible, Britain will continue its long slide towards relegation from the Premier League of Nations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Blair called for closer ties with Trump\u2019s White House. Photograph: Yoan Valat\/Reuters<\/p>\n

A senior Labour source said: \u201cTony has evidently not been near a working-class Brit for decades but he\u2019s clearly been away with the tech bro fantasists.<\/p>\n

\u201cReheated Blairism has absolutely no answers to our national decline since the vultures were let loose. There was a time he would have stood up for social democratic values, but this shows just how far he has fallen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blair said Starmer\u2019s key issue was not a lack of charisma or communication but of grounding. \u201cThis is the defining problem of the government. Too often they seem to totter in the breeze. To lack ballast.\u201d<\/p>\n

The party should have ditched promises like the workers rights reforms and commitments on oil and gas licenses in the early days of government, blaming the fiscal situation, Blair said, arguing that it would have won the goodwill of business. He also attacked the ending of the two child limit, saying it was clear that welfare was in need of major reform.<\/p>\n

But he was deeply critical of solutions proffered by those who seek to replace Starmer, saying Streeting\u2019s modernising wing was \u201cappearing to advocate rejoining the EU\u201d as well as changes to capital gains that had been \u201crejected by successive governments for good reason\u201d.<\/p>\n

And he criticised Burnham\u2019s alternative to adopt the \u201cfar-left critique about nothing good coming out of the last \u201840 years\u2019 of \u2018neoliberalism\u2019, which presumably includes the last Labour government\u201d.<\/p>\n

Blair and Starmer in 2023. The former PM said Labour won in 2024 out of distaste for the Conservative government rather than on its own offer. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau\/PA<\/p>\n

Blair said it had been clear since the election that Starmer had been elected because of the distaste for the Conservative government, rather than on Labour\u2019s offer, and that the party had no guiding vision from which its policies and politics could flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is governing from an essentially traditional Labour \u2018soft left\u2019 position, parked firmly in the party\u2019s comfort zone,\u201d he said. \u201cThe government\u2019s principal problem isn\u2019t Keir\u2019s personality. Or a failure to communicate \u2018our achievements\u2019. Or a need to assert more strongly Labour\u2019s \u2018values\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is because we don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blair \u2013 who was one of the strongest voices opposed to Brexit and a key player in calls for a new referendum \u2013 said he now believed that seeking to negotiate a new deal with Europe was nonsensical when Britain was in a weak position.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as Brexit was never the answer to Britain\u2019s challenges back in 2016, reversing it isn\u2019t the answer to the country\u2019s far worse situation in 2026.\u201d He said any serious negotiation should only start when Britain is \u201cat the farthest end of European competitiveness. At present, we\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that the UK\u2019s position was immeasurably weaker than two decades ago \u2013 when the UK was a key US ally, a leader in Europe and a major player in the developing world because of international aid. \u201cAll are now in doubt or gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s done is done. None of these things can simply be reversed. But to repair our standing, all require leadership and commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Blair has accused Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting of putting Labour\u2019s future at risk by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-605532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}