Blair: I’m loyal but the party’s over under Jez
TONY Blair has warned that he doubts whether Labour can ever be “taken back” by moderates.
The former Prime Minister said it has become a “different party” under Jeremy Corbyn and that he hopes it is not “lost” for ever.
Mr Blair said: “I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for over 40 years. You do feel a strong loyalty and attachment but at the same time it’s a different party. The question is, can it be taken back? I don’t know.
“There’s lots of people associated with me who feel that the Labour Party is lost, that the game’s over. I’m kind of hoping they’re not right.”
Mr Corbyn was in Leicester yesterday to outline Labour’s plans for the water industry.
Told that Mr Blair sees him as an “existential threat” to the party, Mr Corbyn said: “I’ve been in the Labour Party all my life. I am a socialist. I am determined to see a fairer and more equal society for everybody. That’s what the Labour Party exists for.
“If you want to get rid of this Tory government, if you want to live in a society that is fairer, that is more equal, that is more just, then vote Labour and support Labour.”
The leader’s close ally Jon Lansman, founder of the Momentum movement, said Labour would “never” return to Mr Blair’s policies and that the three-time election winner “was never in the right party”.
But Lord Blunkett, a Labour MP for 28 years and in the Cabinet under Mr Blair, warned that it faced “irrelevance” unless there was a rethink of the “Corbyn project”.
Mr Blair spoke out after local Labour activists passed a vote of no confidence in Joan Ryan, a minister under the ex-PM who chairs Labour Friends of Israel.
He said the row over anti-Semitism that has engulfed the party is “ghastly” and a “matter of great sadness”.
He said he could not imagine it taking place in the way it did “in the Labour Party I joined”.
He added: “I can’t imagine we have had three to four months debating something where we have profoundly insulted the Jewish community.”