Tony Blair gives Shabana Mahmood stamp of approval amid Labour leadership speculation
Tony Blair effectively backed Shabana Mahmood as a future Labor leader, praising her as “brilliant” and “impressive” in a joint public appearance with the home secretary.
The former Labor prime minister hosted a Christmas event with Ms Mahmood, where he delivered a passionate personal and political manifesto for the Tony Blair Institute (TBI).
Amid widespread speculation that Sir Keir Starmer may be forced to resign as prime minister, Ms Mahmood is a frontrunner to replace him, while Sir Tony said he was “thrilled” to have the chance to interview her.
The TBI event took place at a prestigious hotel in Whitehall, just across the road from where the prime minister was simultaneously hosting lobby journalists in Downing Street.
Sir Tony praised his “radical” style and “political philosophy” behind his crackdown on immigrants, comparing it to his own approach to power.
Using the prestigious Labor Party platform, Ms Mahmood described her struggle to overcome abuse on social media to mark herself as a “dark Muslim woman”.
He wasn’t going to give in to “a two-bit fool on Twitter.”
As Labor struggles in the polls, his name is being mentioned alongside health minister Wes Streeting, energy minister Ed Miliband and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner as one of the names that could replace Sir Keir in Downing Street in the new year.
The Home Secretary, who gave a relaxed performance, joked that the criminal gangs behind illegal immigration were so clever that if they set up traditional businesses, Britain’s economic woes would soon be over.
And voters in the Birmingham Ladywood constituency said “dangerous care home” immigration scams and abuses of rules allowing spouses of immigrants settling in Britain to join them were shaping immigration restrictions.
Ms Mahmood said British people were “decent, honest and tolerant” towards immigrants, but only if they came here legally.
And he claimed support for strong controls on illegal and legal immigration from both “white and non-white working-class communities.”
During the interview, Ms Mahmood bared her soul and compared her Islamic faith to that of devout Christian Sir Tony, stating that this was her main motivation for joining the Labor Party.
But unlike him, he said he was proud to talk about the importance of his religious beliefs.
He recalled the famous incident when a journalist asked Sir Tony about his Christian beliefs as prime minister, but press secretary Alastair Campbell intervened and said: “We don’t do God.”
“Is Alastair Campbell here?” asked Ms Mahmood at the event hosted by TBI. “You and I can do God’s work; that is good,” he said to Sir Tony.
He continued: “My faith also called me to public service. So it was less about the party… and more about serving my own people.”
“I believe that life is a test, and you are accountable to God for how you use the privileges that God gave you at birth, and that really motivates me.”
Speaking of her determination to challenge racist criticism, she said: “People have been trying to take me down for a long time because being a brown Muslim woman in politics is not an easy thing in itself.
“I have overcome every attempt to divert me, to silence me, to put me down.”
He faced “terrible campaigns” but became stronger thanks to his “I refuse to lose” attitude.
Ms Mahmood had “sacrificed so much to be here” and refused to be silenced by “a hypocritical fool on Twitter”.
“There is no racist on this land or anywhere else in the world who would make me feel like I don’t belong in my own country.”
He said immigration laws had “received a huge amount of abuse” and the public felt “quite attacked about it”.
Voters had the right to be outraged when the rules were broken, “because the two things we value above all else in this country are fairness and contribution.
“In our country we are very keen to give people a chance to be a part of us and to be one of us. If I think people say ‘that’s fair and square, you’ve come in the proper way’ and they feel ‘you’ve contributed’… that unlocks the generosity of the British people.”
“Our nation is full of very good people who are generous, extremely open-minded and tolerant. But there are conditions to unlocking this openness.”
He said immigration controls have support from all communities.
“I represent a part of the world that is majority non-white, so I see immigrant working-class communities responding to immigration issues, both legal and illegal, in exactly the same way that white working-class communities respond.”
Whistleblowers in his constituency had informed him that “dodgy care provider companies were being set up… people were coming in who were allegedly working in the care sector and were not working at all”.
“I have drawn almost entirely from my constituency experience… people are now explaining to me what they might see as abuses in the partner visa system: organized crime and how it operates in and around (asylum seeker) hotels.”
Ms Mahmood, who campaigned on tougher action to “break up the gangs” behind illegal immigration and small boats, said: “Organised criminals are very enterprising people and if they were legitimate businessmen this country wouldn’t have any economic problems. These people know what they’re doing. They move really fast.”
Asked how she could avoid accusations from some Labor MPs that her policies were “anti-immigrant”, Ms Mahmood accepted she would not win on all policies but was not too worried.
“That’s okay in a way. It’s a numbers game, it’s politics.
“Sometimes you have to accept that there are people in your tribe who have different views on a particular issue, and I’m pretty comfortable with that… the party is a coalition of people.”
But with the leadership issue hanging over the event, the audience laughed when Sir Tony invited him to tell us how he would save the troubled Labor Party.
When Ms Mahmood observed that her struggle with the Labor Left had echoes of her own problems in combating the militant left trend in the 1990s, she replied: “It’s probably the same stories, maybe even the same as some of the characters from the Militant era, nothing really changes.
“I really believe in what I’m doing. So when people try to throw you off course… it almost doesn’t matter how much noise you get from any quarters, because it’s what’s right for the country.”
He defended his bold approach to solving big political problems such as immigration, describing it as “go big – or go home”.
When Sir Tony Blair had a similar debate with Starmer at the Tony Blair Institute in July 2023, a year before the election, it was seen as a deliberate move to help Starmer win power.
Some saw Sir Tony’s interview with Mahmood in a similar light.
After the debate was over, an ally remarked that “he was a politician with a signboard, which is rare in politics.”
Another attendee joked: “I think Tony has named his preferred leadership candidate.”
Earlier, TBI political director Ryan Wain joked about “calling out the elephant in the room” as he welcomed Sir Tony and Ms Mahmood onto the stage.
He said: “The words I hear people talking and using in the room are leadership. So I’m going to offer my own personal view.”
He later joked about Liverpool football club manager Arne Slot rather than Sir Keir, saying: “I think Mo Salah mishandled his situation, but he’s here to stay for the long term.”
