Politics

Labour must drop Jeremy Corbyn’s left wing politics to beat a Boris Johnson-led Tory Party, warns Tony Blair



Labour faces election defeat at the hand of a Boris Johnson-led Tory Party unless it abandons Jeremy Corbyn’s “revolutionary” politics, Tony Blair has warned.

Following Theresa May’s announcement she will stand down once she has delivered on Brexit, the former prime minister said Labour needed to be able to counter Mr Johnson’s “right wing populism” if he won the race to succeed her.

In an interview with the HuffPost UK news website, he said the former foreign secretary was a “formidable campaigner” who would pose a powerful challenge to Labour at a general election.

In order to defeat him, he said that Labour needed to offer a “sensible, coherent alternative” that would appeal to those Conservative voters who were “repelled” by his role in Brexit.

Mr Blair, a long-standing critic of Mr Corbyn said that it would be a “bizarre analysis” to suggest such people could be won over by a “revolutionary alternative from the left”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (EPA)

“If you have a Boris Johnson-led Conservative Party, he’s a formidable campaigner, he’s an interesting personality, he can get out there and do his stuff, for sure,” he said.

“I have absolutely no doubt that if you have a right-wing populism against a left-wing populism in this country, the right-wing will win. So it depends where we (Labour) stand.

“If we stand in a reasonable position, where you have many Conservative voters voters that will feel repelled by a Boris Johnson premiership, particularly after the part he’s played in Brexit, but you’ve got to be in a position where those people feel it’s safe to vote for you.

“You suddenly offer them a revolutionary alternative from the left, what makes you think the people who voted Tory are suddenly going to go for that? It’s a bizarre analysis of their psyche.”

Boris Johnson (PA)

His comments come as Sir John Major said Theresa May’s successor must be a national leader rather than a factional one.

The former Conservative prime minister said he found it “extraordinarily odd” that some MPs opposed Mrs May’s Brexit deal on the basis it would turn the UK into a “vassal state” before supporting it when a chance of them becoming leader emerged.

Mr Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the Tory Brexit-backing European Research Group, have both issued “vassal state” warnings during the Brexit talks but gave their support to the Withdrawal Agreement last week.

Sir John also warned the Conservative Party must be on the centre-right of politics, “not the far-right”, if it wishes to win elections.

Asked about those Tory MPs outlining their leadership ambitions, Sir John told the BBC One Andrew Marr Show: “I think they should concentrate on the decision we should make next week, not who is going to be prime minister at some future stage.

“I find it extraordinarily odd that there are people who decided that the Prime Minister’s deal was going to turn us into a vassal state and they voted against it.

“Once it is apparent there’s going to be a leadership election and one of them might become prime minister, the question of a vassal state disappears and they support it.

“I think the public will be very cynical about that.

“I don’t know when the Prime Minister will go and nobody can be certain… but when we elect a new prime minister I think it has to be someone who can be a national leader, not a factional leader and I think that does disqualify a number of candidates.”



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