Tony Blair warns Andy Burnham ‘you are not going to be loved’ after leadership takeover

Tony Blair has warned Andy Burnham that he must maintain strong relations with the US “no matter who is president” because of Russia’s threat of invasion of Europe.

During a public argument with comedian Matt Forde at the Tony Blair Institute’s (TBI) summer drinks reception at the National Theater in London, the former prime minister also warned Mr Burnham about continuing with energy minister Ed Miliband’s net zero policies.

And he said his biggest advice would be “don’t be loved.”

The event, sponsored by Uber, was attended by leading figures in politics, business and media, including former Conservative Party Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

It came as Mr Burnham promised MPs a change of culture within the Labor Party in a single-candidate vote and was effectively confirmed as the next prime minister with 349 nominations.

While Mr Forde did impressions of Sir Tony, Donald Trump and Mr Miliband, Sir Tony, who was UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007, carefully guided his advice to the new leader.

Asked what he would say when he first became Prime Minister in 1997, as Mr Burnham is about to do now, he said: “I guess you might think you’ll be loved, but you won’t be.”

Mr Burnham’s campaign has been driven by his personal popularity, with the so-called ‘King in the North’ gaining strong support in northern areas. Sir Tony’s personal popularity was also huge when Labor won the 1997 general election by a landslide.

Sir Tony said: “I wish Andy the best of luck. I hope he does well. It’s important for the country that he does well. And actually as a colleague he’s been fantastic too.”

He added: “Andy has a very definite political touch. He’s truly a people person. You know, he cares about people. I mean, one of the things that sets politicians apart, I think over time, when you get to know them, is that all politicians have to act like they care about people. But, you know, you find politicians in general who love humanity.”

But Sir Tony, who criticized Britain’s failure to play an active role in the war against Iran because it is a difficult relationship to negotiate with Mr Trump, warned Mr Burnham must maintain strong relations with the US.

He declined to offer advice on dealing with Mr. Trump.

But Sir Tony said: “What is important to me is American relations and that is important for a very, very specific reason and it is not a very popular thing to say, but I think it is important to say it, so we are entering a much more uncertain period.

“I personally don’t think President Putin is going to come back and try to invade a European country. I don’t think about that, but I agree that you can’t rule that out because of his behavior towards Ukraine.”

As a “remarkable statistic”, he noted that last month Russia was losing more people every day than Britain had lost in all the Iraq and Afghan wars during his time as prime minister.

He added: “If you think you have the mentality of someone who is prepared to lose that many people, you are not dealing with a Western European mentality.

“So if that’s true and we have to prepare for the possibility of a full-scale war in Europe, how do we win that war without America? So to me, it’s not about Trump or Trump. It’s about America’s relationships.”

He noted that the United States entered both World War I and World War late, and in the latter, a committee called “America First”—now the same name as Trump’s movement—led efforts to stop the United States from becoming involved in a war 3,000 miles away.

Mr Miliband is now the frontrunner to become Mr Burnham’s chancellor, while Sir Tony has also dealt a harsh blow to his climate change policies.

While the former Prime Minister insisted that “the future is in renewable energy and clean energy”, he also warned that the current trend of rushing towards net zero was damaging the country.

“We’re punishing our own businesses with that right now and we can’t afford to do that. It’s that simple. And, you know, I’m not opposed to the idea of ​​having the ambition to go to net zero over time,” he said.