Tony Blair has made his predictable intervention in the Labour leadership contest. At an event with the Progress think tank in London this morning, the former Prime Minister made his pitch for the New Labour-ish direction Labour should be heading. Unsurprisingly, it’s somewhat different to the sentiments that have dominated the leadership race so far:
‘We won not because we did what we thought was wrong as a matter of principle but right as a matter of politics; but when we realised that what is right as a matter of policy is right as a matter of principle. ‘Labour shouldn’t despair. We can win again. We can win again next time. But only if our comfort zone is the future and our values are our guide and not our distraction.’
In typical Blair fashion, he offered up a simple five-point plan to fix the Labour party:
- Get thinking about ‘real policy not one liners which make a point’
- Regain economic credibility
- Learn from forward thinking Labour councils
- Develop a dialogue with business about their challenges and needs
- Work out what a political organisation looks like today
Sound familiar? In case you were wondering, Blair reminded the audience ‘2015 is not 2007 or 1997’, telling Labour it needs to ‘move on but don’t move back.’
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