Blair: It’s an “open question” whether I make a comeback

Tony Blair has suggested he could make a comeback to British politics as he spoke out in frustration at Labour’s drift away from the centre ground.

The former prime minister told Esquire his future is an “open question” as he dismissed Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of ever making it to Downing Street.

In a candid interview Blair said the Tories were running a “one-party state” while Labour pursued a set of policies which took the party “back to the sixties”.

Last month Blair hugely cut back his business interests and said he would dedicate 80 per cent of his time to charitable work.

Now he has floated the prospect of playing a bigger role in British politics, saying: “I don’t know if there’s a role for me… there’s a limit to what I want to say about my own position at the moment. All I can say is that this is where politics is at. Do I feel strongly about it? Yes, I do. Am I very motivated by that? Yes. Where do I go from here? What exactly do I do? That’s an open question.”

The interview was published in the week Corbyn began his latest reshuffle, which included the sacking of chief whip Rosie Winterton, a centrist who was first elected in 1997.

Now Blair has spoken wearily of Labour’s failure to provide a coherent opposition over the last few months.

“Frankly, it’s a tragedy for British politics if the choice before the country is a Conservative government going for a hard Brexit and an ultra-left Labour Party that believes in a set of policies that takes us back to the Sixties.”

He also evoked the origins of the parliamentary party but declined to comment directly when asked about the role of Corbyn, who was re-elected last month.

“This is not about Jeremy Corbyn. It’s about two different cultures in one organism. One culture is the culture of the Labour Party as a party of government, and that is why Labour was formed, to win representation in parliament and ultimately to influence and to be the government of the country.

“The other culture is the ultra-left, which believes that action on the street is as important as the action in parliament. That culture has now taken the leadership of the Labour Party. It’s a huge problem because they live in a world that is very, very remote from the way that broad mass of people really think.”

Corbyn has attracted thousands of people to street rallies and has presided over a series of by-election victories but has seen Labour record its worst poll ratings as an Opposition.

Yesterday Alastair Campbell, Blair’s former media chief, said Labour was losing touch with public opinion and that Corbyn and his allies are operating in a “political bubble”.

*The full Tony Blair interview appears in the November 2016 issue of Esquire on sale today.