‘He’s Tony’s puppet!’ Left-wing fury as Keir brings back Blairites

SIR Keir Starmer was branded ‘Tony Blair’s puppet’ yesterday amid fury over key New Labour figures back at the heart of his drive to power.

The Mail on Sunday understands Sir Tony Blair is helping to draw up Labour’s agenda – especially on the NHS. Labour sources also say Peter Hyman, who was the ex-Prime Minister’s speech writer, is co-authoring the party’s election manifesto.

The revelations come on top of Leftwingers’ fears the so-called New Labour ‘Prince of Darkness’ Peter Mandelson is intimately involved in the Starmer project. Last night, one senior Left-wing MP said: ‘This confirms what we already knew – Starmer is just Tony Blair’s puppet.

‘Starmer stood on a Left-wing, Corbyn continuity platform but he’s ripping that up to allow a New Labour makeover of the party.’ Insiders at last week’s party conference disclosed that Sir Tony has been advising Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting on reforming the NHS.

To make matters worse for Jeremy Corbyn loyalists, with Labour soaring to a 33-point poll lead over the Tories, key allies of Sir Keir are urging him to capitalise on his success by ‘purging the Left’ before the next election.

One source said: ‘We can’t have 20 or so hard-Left MPs holding us back and telling us what to do.’

Asked last week if he was comfortable saying Labour is closer to the party of Sir Tony than to Mr Corbyn’s, Sir Keir said: ‘I certainly hope so, because Tony won three elections.’