Analysis of Labour politicians' hostile response to Tony Blair's critique, revealing the party's shift towards state intervention, welfare, and egalitarianism, and away from market economy and enterprise.
The hostile reaction from many Labour politicians to Tony Blair 's recent critique reveals the party's current stance on key issues. Labour now detests the market economy, favors an even larger state, worships welfare over hard work, and champions a dismal egalitarianism that undermines enterprise and effort.
This was evident in the responses of Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting, both vying for leadership. They berated Blair for failing to highlight inequality, which Streeting called the defining issue of our age and the economic, social, and democratic fracture running through modern Britain. Burnham echoed that Blair does not mention inequality once, claiming that if you do not understand how inequality drives politics now, you are not grasping the situation.
This unity between the supposed right and left of the party in condemning Blair, the most successful leader in Labour history, underscores the party's leftward drift. Both Burnham and Streeting are courting MPs, trade unions, and activists, among whom the left is dominant. It is clear they see no advantage in aligning with Blair or his ideas; Blairism in the Labour Party is dead and buried. I do not claim that inequality is unimportant.
Britain would be fairer and more prosperous with fewer inequalities, meaning more equality of opportunity. My objection to the Streetings and Burnhams, and the current leftward drift, is their proposed solutions: higher taxes especially on wealth creators, more welfare, more government ownership, and more regulation. This is the same socialist concoction that crippled Britain in the 1970s. Labour might as well rebadge itself the Welfare Party or the Back-to-the-Future Party.
Burnham is particularly guilty. In the Makerfield by-election, which he hopes will launch his leadership bid, he campaigns as if running against Margaret Thatcher, seeking a mythical pre-Thatcherite idyll. He blames Thatcher for all the constituency's ills, even though she left office 36 years ago.
When I pointed out on X that Makerfield has been Labour since 1983, with Labour councils and a Labour mayor (Burnham himself) and a Labour government from 1997 to 2010, so its problems could equally be laid at his party's door, he did not reply. He is busy burnishing his left-wing credentials by railing against 40 years of Thatcherite neoliberalism, promising to reverse the Thatcher revolution that Blairite New Labour failed to undo.
In response to Blair, Burnham argued for a very interventionist government with strong public control and direction over investment and key industries like transport, energy, and housing, the antithesis of New Labour. This is all in the name of a more equal society. But let us consider what that would mean. Higher taxes on wealth creators would discourage investment and innovation.
More welfare would trap people in dependency rather than fostering self-reliance. State ownership of industries historically leads to inefficiency and higher costs. Regulation stifles business and job creation. The Labour Party's current trajectory harkens back to the failed policies of the 1970s, when Britain was plagued by strikes, inflation, and economic stagnation.
The party seems to have learned nothing from the Blair era, which showed that market-friendly policies could deliver growth, low unemployment, and improved public services through private sector dynamism. By ignoring this legacy and chasing the left's approval, Burnham and Streeting are leading Labour away from electability. The public does not want a return to socialism; they want practical solutions that balance fairness with opportunity.
Labour's obsession with inequality, defined as a gap between rich and poor, blinds it to the real problem: lack of social mobility and opportunity for those at the bottom. The party should focus on enabling people to rise through education, enterprise, and hard work, rather than dragging everyone down through redistribution. Until it does, Labour will remain in the wilderness, unable to win the trust of the British people
Labour Party Tony Blair Inequality State Intervention Egalitarianism
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