0 Have your say Tony Blair has insisted he is staying in the Labour Party despite having a “great deal of sympathy” with breakaway MPs. The former prime minister confirmed he is in touch with the Independent Group, although he said he did not speak to those MPs about leaving Labour and the Conservatives to establish it.Mr Blair also said he is “deeply concerned” about Labour’s direction and policy under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, adding this would not help the party “get back to winning ways”.He claimed the combination of a “hard-left” Labour and “hard Brexit” Conservative Party will allow others to cultivate “fertile” political territory.The Independent Group is formed of eight ex-Labour MPs and three ex-Tory MPs who have adopted a centrist outlook in a bid to change the debate on Brexit and other issues.Asked if he spoke to any of the MPs who broke away to form the group, Mr … [Read more...] about Tony Blair insists he won’t join independent group of breakaway MPs
Tony blair
Former PM Tony Blair: I’m staying in the Labour party
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he is not leaving the Labour Party but that he has a “great deal of sympathy” for breakaway MPs. The former prime minister confirmed he is in touch with the Independent Group. But he said he did not speak to them about leaving Labour. Mr Blair also said he is "deeply concerned" about Labour's direction and policy under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, adding this would not help the party "get back to winning ways". He claimed the combination of a "hard-left" Labour and "hard Brexit" Conservative Party will allow others to cultivate "fertile" political territory. The Independent Group is formed of eight ex-Labour MPs and three ex-Tory MPs who have adopted a centrist outlook in a bid to change the debate on Brexit and other issues. Asked if he spoke to any of the MPs who broke away to form the group, Mr Blair told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "I didn't. I've spoken to them many, many times but speaking about breaking away? No." … [Read more...] about Former PM Tony Blair: I’m staying in the Labour party
Tony Blair says he has ‘sympathy’ for Independent Group MPs
Tony Blair says he has "sympathy" for MPs who left the Labour Party to form the Independent Group. He told the BBC he had not spoken to TIG MPs before they left, but he is "in touch" with them now. But insisted he would stay in the Party. The former prime minister said he did not speak to the MPs about breaking away but told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "I'm in touch with them and I have spoken to some of them. "I've got a great deal of sympathy with what they're doing and what they're saying." He added: "I'm staying in the Labour Party. I've been in the Labour Party for over 40 years, I led it for 13 years, I was longest-serving Labour prime minister, I'm deeply attached to the Labour Party. "But do I sympathise with what they have done? Yes, I do. I think they're courageous in having done it." Mr Blair added: "I think it's absolutely inevitable that if you put the choice before the country - hard Brexit Tory party, hard-left Labour Party - it doesn't matter what … [Read more...] about Tony Blair says he has ‘sympathy’ for Independent Group MPs
Tony Blair is right
Ryan Bourne Follow 1 March 2019 • 7:00am Don’t laugh, Brexiteers. But Tony Blair was in Washington DC this week lecturing Americans on the need “to argue the case for democracy from first principles”. In a think tank speech pushing “moderate” politics, the former prime minister and now “People’s Vote” champion was at his triangulating worst, particularly on Brexit. Asked how he would counteract current “populist” moods, Blair spoke of addressing “grievances” that led to the UK’s referendum result. That means “dealing with” immigration, he said boldly, in his characteristically unspecific way. The former PM still, amazingly, seems unable to conceive that anyone might want to leave the EU for constitutional or political reasons. As ever... To continue reading this article Start your free trial of Premium Access all Premium articles … [Read more...] about Tony Blair is right
Richard Leonard: Tony Blair’s ‘middle ground’ is a right-wing nightmare
0 Have your say The bedroom tax, rape clause and hostility to migrants show just how wrong Tony Blair was to say Labour had abandoned the “middle ground” of politics, writes Richard Leonard. Remember the bedroom tax? That pernicious Tory policy that encapsulated so much about what and who the Tories represent: seeing a housing crisis and punishing those who had the least to do with causing it and the most to lose from being forced to move out of their homes.Labour forced the SNP Government to scrap it in Scotland, after it initially refused to act. And we have called for it to do the same with the two-child cap on claims for tax credits and Universal Credit, and the rape clause that comes with it. Let’s call this what it is, a particularly abhorrent piece of Tory social engineering, which forces women to re-live the trauma of being raped as part of a claim for financial support for a child.These measures, as illustrative as they are, barely … [Read more...] about Richard Leonard: Tony Blair’s ‘middle ground’ is a right-wing nightmare