Tony Blair dwell: Ex-PM bashes Labour chief Keir Starmer in blistering 5,000-word assault

Dan Tomlinson said Sir Tony Blair was right to call on Labour to avoid a personality contest but disputed the former premier’s framing of some of the party’s challenges.

The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury told Times Radio: “I read what Tony Blair had to say on my way into Westminster this morning.

“Always interested in the contribution of former prime ministers. There’s some stuff in there that I agree with, I think is very sensible.

“He’s right that we shouldn’t descend into a contest of personalities. We need to focus on the issues and the substance.

“I agree with him that we need to focus on reforming our domestic economy rather than rushing to change relationships with the EU. I think the red lines in our manifesto around single market, customs union (are) really important.

“They’re part of why I think people put their trust in us at the last general election.

“My take, for what it’s worth, is that this, the sort of big argument that Tony Blair was making, which is essentially about New Labour versus old Labour, is just not where we are today, and actually what this Government is doing is getting on with the job of confronting the problems that are facing people in modern Britain in the mid-2020s, 30 years on from the debates and the framing that Tony Blair was putting out this morning.

“If we look at the jobs market, when Tony Blair was prime minister there weren’t really any people on zero-hour contracts.

“Now there are hundreds of thousands of people struggling with that uncertainty, so, yes, we are passing our employment rights legislation to give people more certainty in work.”