Tony Blair's essay on Labour failings gets full marks for being unhelpful

The piece describes Tony Blair’s long essay on Labour’s problems and the UK’s broader political direction. It notes Blair’s repeated references to his own leadership and Labour’s past election performance, including the party’s only instance of learning to win a second term. The essay offers limited praise for current figures, including Keir Starmer’s positioning as a default choice in 2024 and praise for Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham. Overall, the intervention is portrayed as likely to irritate Labour due to the timing before a consequential by-election. The criticism is framed as stemming from Blair’s concern that Labour remains trapped in insular debate and is not addressing AI’s major challenge and opportunity.

"Several times. I led the Labour party for 13 years and through three general elections, goes the second sentence. Further on, Blair laments that when the party tries to puzzle out how to win a second term, the one thing ruled out was learning from the only time in the party's 120-year history it has ever done so."

"Blair's essay, released by his eponymous thinktank, contains some slivers of praise for contemporary Labour politicians. Starmer made his party an acceptable default at the 2024 election. Wes Streeting is a huge political talent. But overall, the intervention by the former prime minister almost feels designed to inflict maximum annoyance on his party, in terms of the content of the repeated criticism and the timing, before a byelection in Makerfield that could shape Labour's destiny for years to come."

"The very clear tone of the essay is that of a man who worries deeply that the party he once led, plus the UK more widely, is stuck in a loop of insular political debate, not even beginning to get to grips with what he portrays as the century-defining challenge and opportunity of AI. The current leadership debate concerning Streeting and Andy Burnham, whom Blair also praises, has an extraordinarily retro 20th-century feel to it, he complains."

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