Tony Blair has asked Labour to “emphatically reject” wokeism in an effort to lift the party’s left-leaning factions to the margins, if the party wants to win again.
Sir Keir Starmer was urged by the former prime minister to keep Labour in the middle ground.
He warned that a ‘lurch to the far Left… will never be electorally successful’ following the Labour’s 2019 election drubbing under Jeremy Corbyn – its worst performance since 1935.
In a preface to a report, he calls for Labour to have a bigger vote swing than the one seen in 1997’s landslide victory.
Blair stated that Labour’s electoral situation was worsened by the loss of loyalty from the working class to Labour in recent years.
Canvassing from Deltapoll – which questioned more than 2,500 former Labour voters and more than 3,000 who remained loyal – discovered that more than 11 million who had previously voted Labour did not do so in 2019, with 5.5 million turning to the Conservatives.
Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (pictured) asked Sir Keir Starmer not to accept wokeism. He urged him to keep Labour on the middle ground and to continue his work to restore Labour’s position in society.
Blair claimed that Blair’s party suffers from a culture problem among many working-class voters and a credibility problem with people in the middle of the political spectrum.
Setting out a four-point plan for how Labour can return to government, Mr Blair – who was in Downing Street for a decade – said leader Sir Keir should ‘continue to push the far-Left back to the margins’ of the party.
He also said that the so-called “woke” views must be disregarded.
Blair stated that he believes we should embrace openly liberal, tolerable, but commonsensical views on ‘culture’ topics and reject the “wokeism” of a minority.
He stated that any future policy agenda must be centered on an understanding of global change, suggesting the “technology revolution” should be the core of it.
Blair also called for the Labour candidate to encourage the best and brightest of the younger generations to apply to Labour.
As a sign of trust in the leadership, Blair (68) predicted that Labour would ‘could it again’ and will return to power for first time since 2010.
“Its leadership is today capable of leading and there is confidence returning.” “The corner has turned,” he said.
These comments were included in a Tony Blair Institute report that outlined the results of Deltapoll research.
Peter Kellner stated in an executive summary in From Red Walls To Red Bridges: Rebuilding Labour’s Voter Coalition that the “size and urgency” of Labour’s task ‘are difficult to overstate.
He makes his call in the foreword of a report that suggests that Sir Keir will require a bigger vote swing in order to win next year’s election than what was witnessed during Mr Blair’s stunning victory in 1997.
According to the former president of YouGov, Labour has to win 120 more seats in order for it be eligible for a majority in the next general election.
‘This will require a 12 per cent lead in the popular vote – and a swing to Labour greater than in 1997. It has not even begun to scale the mountains it needs.
Recent polls indicate that the Tory advantage over Labour is shrinking, or has been reversed. However Mr Kellner says they may not be strong enough to overtake Boris Johnson’s working majority (around 80).
Kellner said that “No other opposition was as close to the win in the mid-term period” as Labour Party.
The research found that Labour had failed to adapt to the loss of its historic, core voter base – manual workers in heavy industry, belonging to a trade union and living in a council home
The report stated that education has been a divide in support for the party. Labour did best among graduates and students under 30 and Labour was worst among those over 50.
Mr Kellner suggested Labour needed a two-part strategy both to win back the ‘Red Wall’ seats it lost in its traditional heartlands – and to retain them.
The former journalist stated that “The first is an effort to win the support of older voters, without having a university degree,”
“This strategy would pay the most dividends in areas with high concentrations of voters like Red Wall communities.
“Second, the future Labour government must ensure that these towns are attractive to young families and graduates who have been increasingly congregating in urban centers.”