Tony Blair wants to launder his past

America is known for its lobbying industry, from PR shops and law firms to former federal officials acting as agents for tyrants. K Street is not just a Washington DC address, it is a metonym for the business of influence.

London too has plenty of consultancies and PR agencies gleefully signing up autocratic clients. There is, however, one key difference. While the US industry has many fathers, in the UK there is one man who single-handedly launched the modern lobbying industry, laundering the reputation of tyrants, and showing others how much money can be made in the process: Tony Blair. 

Blair is also influential in Keir Starmer’s Labour party, with multiple former Blairites recently signing up as Starmer’s special advisers. These figures include not just Matthew Doyle – Starmer’s new director of communications, who was Blair’s own special adviser as prime minister – but also people like Varun Chandra, who helped launch Blair’s post-PM career and who, according