Blair endorses Starmer’s leadership in campaign ad

SIR TONY BLAIR has sung the praises of Sir Keir Starmer and New Labour’s achievements in an advert ahead of the local elections.

It comes 15 years after Sir Tony left power and 25 years to the day after his 1997 landslide election victory, which returned Labour to power for the first time since 1979.

It comes following reports of a rift between the two men, fuelled by Sir Tony’s comments that people wanted leaders to “voice their own opinion” and not “sub-contract opinion to pressure groups” and that “keeping your head down isn’t a strategy”.

In a video on social media, Sir Tony listed the successes of New Labour, including the introduction of the minimum wage, lifting pensioners and children out of poverty and reduction in crime and NHS waiting times.

He took credit for an increased number of female MPS in the House of Commons.

“In these huge ways, and in a myriad of small ways, Britain was changed for the better, because we cared enough to be disciplined enough to win,” he added, in an apparent attack on the years of Labour’s leadership under Jeremy Corbyn.

He said Sir Keir had given the party a “renewed sense of purpose and mission”. He praised what he called Sir Keir’s “strength, determination and intelligence”.

Sir Tony’s comments echoed those of Sir Keir’s speech to the Labour Party conference last year, where he listed the achievements of New Labour, adding: “Let me offer the Conservative Party a lesson in levelling up.”

Sir Keir said it is “very valuable” to have the endorsement of the former Labour prime minister.

However, he added that he would not have “the name of some previous Labour leader tattooed on my forehead” and would try and take a different path to both Sir Tony and Mr Corbyn.