Keir Starmer has dismissed Tony’s Blair’s argument that his government is on the wrong track, saying he is implementing the policies needed for today, not the very different situation faced by Blair in 1997.
“You won’t be surprised to know that I don’t agree with much that Tony says about what the government is doing,” Starmer said during a visit to an apprentice training centre in west London.
It came as Andy Burnham, who was also criticised by Blair, responded by saying the former prime minister’s analysis was undermined by the “gaping omission” of not acknowledging the impact of falling living standards.
In a lengthy essay published on Tuesday, Blair castigated Starmer’s record, saying the government had abandoned the centre ground and was thus putting Labour’s future at risk. He also argued that there was a lack of coherent arguments from those, like Burnham, who were seeking to challenge the prime minister.
Blair said Starmer, on entering government, should have ditched manifesto pledges on improved workers’ rights and the scale of the party’s net zero promises, and should have supported Donald Trump in his attack on Iran.
Asked for his reaction, Starmer said he agreed with Blair “that we should be having a discussion about policy and ideas, and that’s what generates politics”.
But in a lengthy rebuttal of the criticism, he said his predecessor had misunderstood the challenges his government faced, and the successes his policies had brought about.
Starmer said: “My response to Tony is, yes, it’s right to talk about policy, it’s right to talk about ideas; that’s where the debate should be. But actually, no, I don’t agree that the policy choices of this government weren’t the right policy choices, given what we inherited – a very different situation in 2024 to 1997.
“Dealing with what we had to turn around, the policy choices, we’re vindicated by them, because those changes have happened.”
He said this involved stabilising the economy, spreading wealth creation and improving public services, and was already bringing results.
He said: “In particular, we took policy choices that we needed better public services. They were on their knees when we inherited them.
“We took policy choices that we would invest in those public services, that we would introduce new technologies, particularly in the NHS. As a result, waiting lists are coming down, with the biggest drop for 17 years recorded just two weeks ago.”
Burnham, who served as a minister under Blair and is expected to challenge Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins next month’s Makerfield byelection, said he agreed with Blair about the vital importance of higher economic growth.
Writing his own essay, for the Times, the Greater Manchester mayor said it was futile to argue for policies that did not recognise the impact of falling living standards since the 2008 financial crisis, and the reason for that crash.
Burnham wrote: “Lest we forget: the principal cause of the 2008 crash was a failure of regulation. So how can a new wave of deregulation plausibly be the answer to the problems we have experienced since?
“This is the real ‘retro’ thinking, I suggest; the kind of thinking that would doom us to repeat past mistakes and, if we’re not careful, prevent us from protecting children by failing to regulate social media, artificial intelligence and big tech.”
Decades of policies to liberate businesses, as argued for by Blair, had “not been kind to communities in Makerfield and those like them across the UK”, Burnham said, adding: “Trickle-down economics did not in the end trickle down very much at all.”
Highlighting policies he has implemented in Greater Manchester, such as reversing the deregulation of bus services, Burnham said the lesson was “that you can’t just leave it to the market, as Tony’s essay seems to suggest”.
He added: “If you want higher growth in areas that don’t have it, you need strong public control and direction over both the investment strategy and the enablers of a more productive economy, such as transport, energy, water, education and housing.”
Burnham nonetheless claimed to welcome Blair’s intervention, saying: “The fact that he has done it in the middle of a byelection is also a beautiful thing,” and that this allowed voters in Makerfield to choose a different path.
