Sir Tony Blair has taken a swipe at Sir Keir Starmer for sticking to campaign pledges from Labour’s 2024 manifesto, which he says are economically damaging and should have been dropped “right at the outset.”

In a 5,000-word essay published by his think tank, Labour’s longest serving PM pointed out that Budgets put forward by Rachel Reeves “undermined business confidence” and have presented British businesses with “headwinds not tailwinds”.

He argued Starmer and Reeves should have immediately abandoned a number of Labour’s key campaign pillars, such as the new workers rights legislation, changes to non-dom rules, and the phasing out of North Sea oil and gas.

“Dropping the commitments would have been painful but bearable because the government would have started with real goodwill from business,” he said.

Blair criticised the decision to hike national insurance on employers rather than VAT to plug the fiscal gap, arguing it damaged business confidence. He also questioned raising taxes to fund Britain’s ballooning welfare bill when the public already feels spending is too high.

Starmer’s triple-election-winning predecessor argued that Britain is in need of a “fundamental reset”, hinting that whoever is next elected will need to be “seen as offering something radical”.

Labour risks second term by leaning left

Blair strongly criticised internecine moves to force Sir Keir Starmer out of office amidst “the latest leadership turmoil,” calling it “not a serious way of conducting ourselves”.

In a broadside aimed at the culture of debate within Labour, Blair said that the party that he led for 13 years has “an almost infinite capacity for self-delusion”.

Former health secretary Wes Streeting resigned earlier this month with calls for Starmer to step aside, and within days set out his stall to be Labour leader. Waiting in the wings are the former deputy, Angela Rayner, and the Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham.

But Blair warned that triggering a leadership coup now is a reckless gamble because the left-wing faction of the party is currently “odds on to win”, which he says would ultimately doom Labour’s chances of a second term.

While both Streeting and Burnham are trying to distance themselves from the “Westminster bubble,” Blair countered that they are actually trapped in a “politics bubble.”

“Wes Streeting is a huge political talent and Andy Burnham was an outstanding member of my government. But this leadership debate has an extraordinarily retro 20th-century feel to it,” he stated.

Between the lines, he categorised Burnham’s position as pushing to move even further left on taxes, spending, and welfare, while rehashing a “far-left critique” that dismisses the achievements of the last 40 years.

Meanwhile, Streeting has reopened debates around Brexit and called for capital gains tax to be brought into line with income tax.

“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,” said Blair.