Blair is worried that the UK is 45 minutes away from Manchesterism — he also wants Labour to return to the 'Radical Centre'

Tony Blair and Andy Burnham

Historically, people in Britain said there is ‘nothing certain but death and taxes.‘ At this point, the third inevitability we can add is ‘disgraced war criminal Tony Blair will stick his oar in, and the media will describe it as an ‘unprecedented intervention.”

In the latest instance of this, Blair has returned to take aim at Labour hopeful Andy Burnham:

The ghost of Tony Blair continues to haunt Labour. Coming up for 20 years since he left Downing Street he has been tainted not just by his illegal wars but his lucrative work for despots. Imagine if Clement Attlee who left office in 1951 had continued to offer unsolicited advice into the 70s.

— Gerry Hassan (@gerryhassan.bsky.social) 2026-05-26T21:28:06.189Z

Experience

The Independent’s editorial opens with two of the worst written sentences in journalistic history — both structurally and substantively:

One of the reasons why Sir Tony Blair was Labour’s longest-serving and, certainly in domestic matters, most successful prime minister is that, both while preparing for power and then while in it, he possessed an obvious youthful wisdom. Now, almost two decades after he left Downing Street, and in his most dramatic intervention yet, he brings that same wise counsel, tempered by experience, to bear on his party’s current travails.

This stream-of-consciousness gibberish reads like it was written at gunpoint, with Blair holding the gun.

Look, we’re not going to argue Blair isn’t experienced. The problem is the things he’s experienced in are:

45 minutes from Manchesterism

We should note that while some are describing the Blair essay as a direct attack on Burnham, there is disagreement about who or what he’s talking about:

In his 5000+ word essay Tony Blair calls Andy Burnham, among other things, “delusional” and “dangerous.” Extraordinary intervention here: https://t.co/nxxB7ZzPuC https://t.co/k4r6pRHoIS

— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) May 26, 2026

Blair’s writing is also bad, but less tortured than the Independent’s. The section which the media is interpreting as an attack on Andy Burnham is this:

the alternative which thinks the answer is moving even further left on taxes, spending and welfare, spun with a rehash of the far-left critique about nothing good coming out of the last ‘40 years’ of ‘neo-liberalism’, which presumably includes the last Labour government.

We don’t know why he has to ‘presume’ this. He could literally confirm it by checking a calendar or simply by remembering. He’s also the poster child of neoliberalism, which the Canary’s Ed Sykes explains is:

very much the modern machine for class warfare, and it has been for decades (particularly since Margaret Thatcher’s time in power, in Britain). It’s all about austerity (cutting public spending), privatising public resources, freeing companies from regulations, and turning citizens into competitors rather than communities. Even many mainstream economists have condemned it as a failed economic model that deepens inequality, undermines democracy, slashes living standards (especially for the poorest people and younger generations) while only serving the interests of the richest.

Blair’s essay includes criticism of Labour’s workers’ rights laws and plans to uplift the minimum wage. The neoliberal mindset is that anything which is good for workers is bad for business, and that businesses doing well is all that matters.

Given that most Britons are workers rather than business owners, it’s hard to see how the country is doing ‘better’ when it’s only a minority of ultra-wealthy capitalists who experience any meaningful improvement.

Genuinely amazed that some people are praising Tony Blair’s intervention. Labour’s problems – and the problems facing the country – are a direct result of his failure to understand how his messianic New Labourism was simply not delivering for vast swathes of working Britain.

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 27, 2026

The following chart shows how Blair and his centrist colleagues won big in 1997 and then lost more and more voters over time. Jeremy Corbyn reversed this trend in 2017 before losing all that by backing a second Brexit referendum. Even then, Corbyn still outperformed Brown and Miliband in terms of the number of voters as opposed to the percentage. His performance was also stronger than what Starmer achieved in 2024.

“Perennial delusion”

Continuing with his perceived attack on Burnham, Blair said:

It is one thing when in opposition to indulge this perennial delusion that when we lose seats to the right the country is really signalling it wants Labour to move left; it is dangerous to do it in government.

The problem with what Blair is saying is that it’s a completely dishonest account of what’s happening. Who could have guessed, coming from the guy who dragged us into an illegal war based on lies?

As HG reported for the Canary:

YouGov’s new study of the 2026 local elections shows that only 46% of Labour voters from 2024 who went to the polls remained loyal to the party. More previous voters backed the Green Party (22%) than voted for Reform (6%).

In comparison, the Conservatives retained 55% of their vote, with 33% switching to Reform.

Here’s that visualised:

YouGov’s study of the 2026 local elections shows that just 46% of 2024 Labour voters who went to the polls remained loyal to the party, with more backing the Greens (22%) than Reform UK (6%) two weeks ago

The Conservatives retained 55% of their 2024 voters, with 33% switching to… pic.twitter.com/hK6CleMQrj

— YouGov (@YouGov) May 21, 2026

Blair will voice the lie that Labour is losing more voters to the right and the establishment media will repeat it, because these people are liars.

Saying all this, there was one point Blair made which we don’t fully disagree with.

Cometh the hour, whereth the plan?

The point in which Blair is half right is this:

Trying to force the prime minister out before we know what policy direction we’re bringing in, is not a serious way of conducting ourselves.

And this:

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.

Burnham has been plotting to replace Starmer for some time now, as we’ve reported. Given this, we assumed he must have some sort of strategy for governing. As we’ve seen in the past few weeks, however, he’s flip-flopping all over the place:

Blair might be worried that Burnham isn’t right-wing enough, but there is no substantive left-wing policy platform coming from Burnham right now. Really, there isn’t any substantive platform whatsoever.

It seems instead that he’s just another politician who thinks they’ll do a better job simply by making better day-to-day decisions.

The radical centre

In his essay, Blair also said:

There are two epochal changes happening in the world today – one geopolitical, the other technological – and Britain is not prepared for either.

They require radical change in policy, system of government and politics.

The best political space from which this can be achieved is what I call the Radical Centre.

The centre – properly defined – is where you put policy first and politics last. So, you begin with the question: what is the right answer? And only once you have that do you engage in the political task of persuading people of it.

For examples of this mindset in practice, see Blair’s support for:

In case you didn’t notice, these are all things which the public hates.

In a way, Blair’s dedication towards his own beliefs is admirable, and it’s a quality many politicians lack. The problem is Blair’s beliefs are rancid.

All this aside, we do think Blair should return to the ‘Radical Centre’. We’re all made from stars, after all, and where better to send him than the centre of the sun?

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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