Tony Blair has warned Labour against forcing out Keir Starmer without having a proper policy agenda to follow him, as he launched a criticism of the UK government’s time in office.
The former prime minister, who is the only Labour leader to win three UK general elections, argued the government needs a “fundamental reset” less than two years since it won the election.
Blair said Labour is “lacking a project” and was “playing with the future of the country” in a 5,700-word essay which was published on Tuesday.
He highlighted a number of areas where he disagreed with the government since it came into office in July 2024.
The Labour leader, who left office in 2007, said Labour had held back business and growth since it won the election.
Blair referenced the increase of employers’ national insurance, the workers’ rights bill and the rise in minimum wage.
He was also critical of the government’s spend on welfare, and called for the triple lock on pensions to be reformed.
The former prime minister said: “The Labour Party is playing with fire; or, more accurately, with its future, and that of the country.”
He went on: “The Government’s principal problem isn’t Keir’s personality. Or a failure to communicate ‘our achievements’. Or a need to assert more strongly Labour’s ‘values’.
“It is because we don’t 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.
“The Government is governing from an essentially traditional Labour ‘soft left’ position, parked firmly in the party’s comfort zone.”
He said the government should not have stopped the US from using its RAF bases during the attacks on Iran.
Blair also said the government should do “whatever it takes” to stop the small boats crisis and laid out a 10-point plan for the future of government. In it, he emphasised the impact of AI on society, and urged action to be taken on it.
He said: “Without an agenda of this nature, radical but sensible, Britain will continue its long slide towards relegation from the Premier League of nations.”
It comes as campaigning in Makerfield continues, with Andy Burnham hopeful of holding the seat for Labour in the by-election on June 18th.
Burnham is expected to challenge Keir Starmer for the leadership if he wins the seat. Blair praised both Burnham and Wes Streeting – another potential leadership challenger – in his essay. Labour is defending a 5,399 majority in the constituency on the outskirts of Wigan.
While he praised investment in infrastructure, planning reforms and immigration policies, Blair detailed deeper shortcomings.
The Workers Rights Bill, an “acceleration of net-zero”, and phasing out of British oil and gas came under particular fire from the former prime minister.
“The Government took with it into power commitments which meant that there was an inevitable gap between the Government rhetoric around growth and the impact of these commitments on what the business community needed to restore the so-called animal spirits and get the private sector moving,” he said.
He continued: “The Prime Minister and the Chancellor should have said right at the outset: these are commitments which economic circumstances have rendered unwise to proceed with. The priority is growth.
“That comes with a vibrant private sector which has suffered years of economic instability, and we are going to go all-out for making business feel respected and supported.
“Dropping the commitments would have been painful but bearable because the Government would have started with real goodwill from business.
“But we didn’t, and to compound the problem, we chose a rise in national insurance, not VAT, to plug the fiscal gap in the first Budget. Either tax increase would have been unpopular. Only one undermined business confidence.
“Then, in the last Budget, it appeared as if we were increasing tax to pay for additional welfare spending, when the public already thinks welfare bills are too high.
“Taken together, these measures have given headwinds, not tailwinds, to British business, despite the macroeconomic gains for which the Chancellor is rightly praised.
“At a minimum, the Government should try to limit the effect of the changes made and, as we have argued consistently, remove those parts of the net-zero agenda which prioritise clean energy over cheaper energy; and from now on make sure the actions match the words on growth.”
Despite backing Remain in the Brexit referendum, and later a second vote, Blair cautioned against a push to rejoin the European Union. Instead, both should work on areas of shared interest, including defence and energy.
“The truth is that Britain has lost from Brexit. But so has Europe,” he said.
“We’re both weaker without the other. But we can’t go back to cohabitation unless on a basis which enhances our capabilities, economic and political, and does not undermine them – and that goes for both of us.”