When the man who won three consecutive general elections tells you something’s gone wrong, it’s probably worth listening.
Tony Blair has broken ranks with his usual studied diplomacy to deliver a blunt verdict on Sir Keir Starmer’s government: Labour has no coherent plan for the country. Not a flawed plan. Not a work in progress. No plan.
The former prime minister, speaking through the Tony Blair Institute, said the government finds itself in the “wrong position” ahead of the next general election. Given that the next election is still potentially four years away, that’s a damning early assessment from someone who knows exactly what it takes to hold power for the long haul.
“The world is changing rapidly and the question is whether governments are capable of changing with it,” Blair said, pointedly.
Blair’s critique isn’t coming from the right, where attacks on Labour are expected and largely dismissed. It’s coming from inside the house. The man who modernised the party in the 1990s, who dragged it from the wilderness into Downing Street, is essentially arguing that Starmer’s team hasn’t done the same intellectual groundwork he did before 1997.
It’s a particularly awkward moment for a government already struggling with a brutal combination of low growth, public frustration over public services, and a stubborn sense that things aren’t actually getting better for ordinary people. The latest polling has Labour’s lead over the Conservatives at its narrowest since the July 2024 landslide.
Defenders of Starmer will point out that governing is harder than critiquing, and that Blair himself faced plenty of criticism in his early years. They’d also note that Blair’s institute has its own agenda, frequently pushing AI and tech-forward policy ideas that don’t always align neatly with traditional Labour values.
Still, the optics aren’t great. Being told you lack vision by arguably the most electorally successful Labour leader in history isn’t something you can easily brush off with a press release about long-term plans.
The question now is whether Starmer takes the criticism on board, or doubles down on the steady-as-she-goes approach that’s defined his first year in office. Blair changed course when he needed to. Will Starmer?
