Andy Burnham hit back at Sir Tony Blair after the former prime minister launched a scathing attack on Labour‘s policy agenda. The Labour grande warned that the party is “playing with fire” over the UK’s future and called for it to champion the “radical centre”.
He said Sir Keir Starmer‘s government has no plan to fix Britain but warned there needs to be a debate about policy before ousting the Prime Minister. But Mr Burnham, who is expected to launch a bid for the Labour leadership if he wins next month’s Makerfield by-election, criticised the essay for not mentioning inequality.
The Greater Manchester Mayor told the Observer: “If you don’t get how that’s driving politics now, if you are not rooting your analysis in the fact that people are unable to live and that things that were taken for granted are no longer affordable, then you are not understanding what’s going on.”
He added: “People don’t think the centre has delivered for them in terms of their lives, therefore, they’ve gone further to the extremes.”
Mr Burnham said the problem with Blairism is it “sometimes saw the market as always the answer”.
Sir Tony also called on Sir Keir to rip up Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s net zero targets and slash the welfare budget, which he said risks outpacing defence spending by the end of the decade.
The former premier said if large increases in incapacity benefit along with the state pension triple lock continue, “we’re going to create a situation where economically we’re not able to grow”.