Labour civil war explodes as Andy Burnham furiously hits back at Tony Blair | Politics | News
Andy Burnham has hit back at Sir Tony Blair after the former prime minister launched a scathing attack on Labour’s policy agenda. The Labor leader warned the party was “playing with fire” on Britain’s future and called on it to defend the “radical centre”.
Sir Keir Starmer said his government had no plans to fix Britain but warned there needed to be a discussion on policy before sacking the Prime Minister. But Mr Burnham, who is expected to stand for the Labor leadership if he wins next month’s Makerfield by-election, criticized the article for failing to mention inequality.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester told the Observer: “If you don’t understand how this is driving politics at the moment, if you don’t base your analysis on the fact that people can’t live and things that were considered normal are no longer affordable, then you don’t understand what’s going on.”
He added: “People don’t feel like the center is benefiting them in terms of their lives, so they’ve gone to further extremes.”
Mr Burnham said the problem with Blairism was that it “sometimes always sees the market as the answer”.
Sir Tony also called on Sir Keir to scrap Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s net zero targets and cut the welfare budget, which he said risked outstripping defense spending by the end of the decade.
The former prime minister said that if the state pension triple lock continues, as well as large increases in disability benefit, “we will create a situation where we will not be able to grow economically”.
