oh ffs.......... Tony Blair 'fired up' to shape Labour future by Andy Burnham's attack [View all]

The former prime minister’s allies say the Greater Manchester mayor’s claim that ‘40 years of neoliberalism’ has harmed the country is wrong

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/tony-blair-essay-net-zero-labour-news-szpjndqwr



Sir Tony Blair is poised to escalate his interventions in Labour’s leadership race after allies said criticism from Andy Burnham had “put a fire in his belly” and hardened his resolve to shape the party’s future.

Blair’s allies said Burnham’s claim that “40 years of neoliberalism” had damaged Britain was an attack on the former prime minister’s legacy and an inaccurate representation of the country’s economic woes. There is now a growing row between the two men, after Burnham told The Observer on Wednesday that Blair did not understand the dire economic reality for working-class Britons.

Burnham was responding to a 5,600-word essay from Blair that criticised Sir Keir Starmer’s government for not having a “coherent” plan for the country, and accused the Labour Party of “playing with fire” by contemplating a more left-wing agenda under a new prime minister.

Burnham said: “He doesn’t mention inequality once. If you don’t get how that’s driving politics now, if you are not rooting your analysis in the fact that people are unable to live and that things that were taken for granted are no longer affordable, then you are not understanding what’s going on.” The mayor of Greater Manchester is standing in next month’s Makerfield by-election as part of a plan to replace Starmer in No 10.

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