Labour Left blasts Sir Keir for taking advice from Blair

SIR Keir Starmer was branded ‘Continuity Blair’ by Labour’s hard-Left last night for daring to talk to the ‘hated’ former Prime Minister.

Left-wing MPs who detest Tony Blair reacted with fury after party sources confirmed that new leader Sir Keir has consulted his famous predecessor since replacing Jeremy Corbyn in April.

Sources said yesterday that the two men had ‘spoken more than once’, but declined to say what the conversations were about.

The admission came as Mr Blair, who won three General Elections as Labour leader, said Sir Keir had made ‘a very good start’ and that it was ‘such a relief to have a competent, serious voice holding the Government to account’. However, news of the Starmer- Blair talks sparked a fresh round of bitter party infighting, with one former Shadow Cabinet Minister saying: ‘It looks like Keir is turning into Continuity Blair. He wooed the Left when he was running to be leader but now it feels more and more like he’s taking us to the Right.

‘ This will cause consternation widely across the party, not just among diehard Corbynistas.’

The MP also pointed out that last week a major study into Labour’s disastrous 2019 Election defeat – which concluded the party had a ‘mountain to climb’ to get back into power – also reported that it started losing support in the Blair era.

And he raged against Sir Keir’s role as Labour Brexit spokesman before the Election, claiming his ‘anti-Brexit, pro-second referendum stance’ had helped lose the party dozens of seats in the Eurosceptic ‘ Red Wall’ in the North and Midlands.

But moderate Labour MP Neil Coyle hit back, saying: ‘Only an idiot would ignore Blair and not want to learn from him.

‘ Starmer’s ratings show he is already the most successful Opposi t i on l eader si nce Blair and massively outstripping Corbyn’s dreadful, worst-ever ratings.

‘You’d have to be exceptionally stupid to not want to learn from Labour’s most successful leader and Election-winner ever.’