Labour ex-PM says voters will not accept a choice between Corbyn and
Boris Johnson, and a ‘progressive, moderate’ party might ‘fill that vacuum’
Tony Blair has said Labour has undergone a “profound change” since
Jeremy Corbyn became leader and that he is not sure it is possible for “moderates” to regain control of the party.
“It is a different type of Labour party. Can it be taken back? I don’t know,” Blair said, speaking on Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast for the BBC.
The former Labour prime minister said he could not imagine British voters at the next election would accept having to choose between Corbyn and Boris Johnson, and a “progressive, moderate” party might step in. “I just don’t believe people will find that, in the country as a whole, an acceptable choice. Something will fill that vacuum.”
Blair said many people feel “the Labour party is lost, that the game’s over” but he hoped they were wrong.
Blair told Robinson that Corbyn and his supporters came from a tradition that had traditionally been on the fringe of the party, like Communists or “Trotskyist groups”.
He said he could not imagine the current antisemitism row taking place “in the Labour party that I joined”.
“I can’t imagine that we have had three to four months debating over something where we have profoundly insulted the Jewish community in our country,” Blair said.