Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BLAIR: I’M BACK
He’s returning to politics ‘to help Britain’
TONY Blair today announces his extraordinary return to the political stage – 20 years after Labour swept to power in the 1997 general election.
Vowing to help smash the Tories’ stranglehold on power and control of Brexit negotiations, he declared: “You need to get your hands dirty and I will... I am going to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate.” He urged voters to back Labour on June 8, saying it best stands up for people. And highlighting the NHS crisis and savage school cuts, he warned: “It’s going to be really tough.”
Twenty years ago today Britain celebrated an election victory which brought the sparkling hope of New Labour and the youngest Prime Minister in a century. It seemed anything was possible and, as the soundtrack to the party’s election campaign promised, things really could only get better. And in today’s Daily Mirror Tony Blair marks the anniversary of his epic 1997 landslide victory over John Major – with the bombshell that he is returning to UK politics. For a man who sparked huge anger – revulsion even – over his decision to submissively follow America into war in Iraq, it is a bold move. “This Brexit thing has given me a direct motivation to get more involved in the politics,” he declares. “You need to get your hands dirty and I will.” Yes, he’s back. He sounds genuinely concerned for the country being sold a Brexit dream which may quickly turn into a nightmare. “We don’t know yet what the final deal on Brexit will be,’ he says, full of the old Blair messianic vigour. “We are advocating a very simple British common sense position, which is to say, ‘let’s see what the Tories come up with first’. Because there is a bit of the Tory Party determined to deliver Brexit no matter what the cost.” He adds: “The single market put us in the Champions League of trading agreements. A free trade agreement is like League One. We are relegating ourselves.” Regardless of this, he is convinced we could soon be back in Europe. “My prediction is it may take another generation but at some point we will want to be back in the EU – there is a direct link between the number of people and the size of an economy.” But dig a little deeper and it becomes apparent Mr Blair’s new political ambition does not begin and end with Brexit. He says: “We live in a world defined by change. Cultural stresses, people are worried about immigration, communities, economic stresses... people are worried if they will have a job. “I am going to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate and that means getting out and reconnecting.”
However, things have moved on a lot in the 10 years since he has been absent. And he admits: “I know the moment I stick my head out the door I’ll get a bucket of wotsit poured all over me, but I really do feel passionate about this. “I don’t want to be in the situation where we pass through this moment of history and I hadn’t said anything because that would mean I didn’t care about this country. I do.” He insists he is not giving up his “seven days a week” charitable foundation work for which he is constantly travelling the world to become an MP again. But he is going to be doing a whole lot more than working on dusty policy documents. “It is not frontline politics in the sense I am not standing for parliament,” he explains. “I am not sure I can turn something into a political movement but I think there is a body of ideas out there people would support.” Perhaps like En Marche!, the shiny new centre left party in France whose dashing young leader Emmanuel Macron is poised to win the presidency. And who could fresh-faced, sharp-suited Monsieur Macron remind us of ?... “Woah!,” says Tony, shuffling in his chair in his Mayfair office. He is wearing an exquisite Tom Ford blue suit, his now greying hair highlighting a tennis player’s tan. “I am not talking about...” But it remains unknown what he is not talking about because the mere suggestion is seemingly too laughable to allow him to speak. But, really, how helpful is it to Jeremy Corbyn – or anyone in Labour for that matter – for such a divisive figure to be popping his head above the parapet five weeks before what’s likely to be a defining general election for the party? “Some people say it harms it and other people will say the opposite, and by the way, it’s more mixed than you might think,” he replies. But Mr Blair’s interjection is clearly an implied – or maybe overt – criticism of Mr Corbyn. Why not say what he really thinks? Well, he’s determinedly not going there. Yet surely it should be left to Labour’s current crop to be making the case on Brexit and the future? “The fact I am doing this doesn’t mean other people can’t,” he hits back. “The politicians are passionate enough, but I think one of the things we lack is an understanding of the way the modern world is changing.” Neil Kinnock has said he does not believe there will be another Labour government in his lifetime. Mr Blair is not as fatalistic, although at 63 he is 11 years his junior. “We have always won as a Labour Party when we have been on the frontier of the future. When people felt ‘There’s a new age upon us and these guys have the answer’. It’s why Harold Wilson won in 1964, Attlee won in 45 and Labour won in the 20s... Unless you are providing answers for the future you are not going to win.”
But for 52% of voters, Mr Blair’s answer for the future – remaining within the EU – was passionately rejected last June 23. Sixty-five per cent of working class people voted Leave. “This is not about defying the will of the people,” he clarifies. “It is saying the will of the people may change when they see the final deal.” So does he still adore the Labour Party, as he once gushed? “Of course I’m deeply emotionally attached to the Labour Party,” he says, which sounds somewhat less passionate than adoration. And there must be a sense of bewilderment at how New Labour collapsed. How the centre could not hold and the ship veered to the left.
“Okay, at the end of 10 years of my time as PM there were things people really objected to: Iraq, obviously, and post-9/11 foreign policy. But don’t take that away from the achievements of that government – huge investment in the health service and schools, we reduced pensioner poverty and child poverty, we introduced the minimum wage. We did a lot.” Yes, the achievements were many. But for vast swathes of the public the decision to go to war in Iraq overshadows the lot. So is Brexit the real reason behind his decision to return to politics – or is it more the egotistical compulsions of a man, a decade past power and still trying to recraft his legacy? He also admits it was a mistake to “lose control” of his public image in the years after he stood down. He and barrister wife Cherie, 62, have been widely attacked for the millions they have made over the past decade. It has been reported he is worth £60million, but the dad of four has previously put his fortune at “less than £20million”. “I have the capacity to earn money,” he says simply. “I have made money which has given me a nice house in London and a nice house in the country and I am very lucky and the equity in those two properties is the bulk of my wealth. “But I have given away more than I have earned. It is not what motivates me.” Still today the term “Blairite” is lobbed around as the ultimate form of abuse. So how does that make him feel? “Well, sad,” he replies. “Yep, it’s hard. It’s all about coming to terms with the fact that when you’re running for power you can be all things to all people. But when you achieve power you have to make decisions and when that happens, and the process of government is your life, you become less popular.
Alot of the attacks on me are because I am the representative of that type of centre left politics. People on the right are desperate never to have my politics come back to the Labour Party because they know it can end in a Tory defeat. “And then unfortunately it has always been the way of the left that it tends to attack its own.” Yet still Mr Blair’s memories of that morning after his victory 20 years ago remain vivid. “I had been up the whole of the night before so I was very, very tired – and I was also probably the only person near me who was completely sober,” he smiles. “And then there was the moment we walked in to Downing Street and you are aware in theory that nothing will ever be the same again but it never really affects you until you start to do it. “You are suddenly aware of the awesome responsibility and that you really are in charge of the country and people are coming to you wanting decisions – some of which you expect and some of which you don’t expect, and all of which are difficult. “It was a bit terrifying, yeah,” he agrees. “But back in 97 there was a great deal of optimism.” Back then the optimism was Labour could repair the carnage caused by 18 years of brutal Tory rule. Carnage which seems to gather around us again right now. The similarities between then and now are not lost on Mr Blair, who says despairingly: “The health service in some parts of the country is teetering on the verge of collapse. “These school cuts are going to be really serious, it’s going to be really tough. “This is why the Labour Party, leave aside the issue of the leadership, is the party that will best stand up for people. There is no doubt about that in my mind.”