LONDON
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has publicly slammed Jeremy Corbyn’s party leadership campaign, saying a win for the veteran left-wing MP would bring “annihilation” for Labour.
“The leadership election has turned into something far more significant than who is the next leader. It is now about whether Labour remains a party of government,” Blair wrote in an article for left-leaning Guardian newspaper on Wednesday.
Blair’s intervention comes as polling suggests Corbyn, a long-time backbench MP for Islington North in London, could upset initial expectations and become the leader of Britain’s official opposition.
Tony Blair argued that the Labour Party was “in danger more mortal today than any point in the past 100 years of its existence”, as the leadership race between four candidates enters its final phase.
More than 600,000 supporters will vote for the center-left party’s new leader to succeed Ed Miliband, who resigned after leading Labour to its worst electoral performance in decades during the U.K.’s May general election.
Labour now has its lowest number of MPs since 1987.
Blair continued in his article: “Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t offer anything new. This is literally the most laughable of all the propositions advanced by his camp.
“Those of us who lived through the turmoil of the 80s know every line of this script. These are policies from the past that were rejected not because they were too principled, but because a majority of the British people thought they didn’t work. And by the way, they were rejected by electorates round the world for the same reasons.
“The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched, over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below,” Blair wrote.
“If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader…it will mean rout, possibly annihilation,” the former PM added.
Labour supporters will start casting their votes on Friday and the final result will be revealed on 12 September.
Four candidates are competing for leadership: Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, and Liz Kendall.
Corbyn is a veteran politician well-known for his leftist policies. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Amnesty International, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Stop the War Coalition.
He has promised higher tax rates for the wealthy, the protection of public services and support for the most vulnerable.
His campaign for the abolition of university tuition fees and the return of student grants has prompted analysts to suggest this explains Corbyn’s popularity among younger Labour supporters.
