BRITISH Labour’s next generation has turned in unison on Tony Blair after his withering attack on the premiership of Gordon Brown sparked fears of a new civil war in the party.
The condemnation came as voting began to elect a new leader, months after Labour was ousted following 13 years in power, with former foreign secretary David Miliband tipped to succeed Gordon Brown over his brother Ed Miliband.
One by one the five leadership candidates used the publication of former prime minister Mr Blair’s explosive memoirs to argue that it was time to leave the past, and particularly Mr Blair and Mr Brown, behind.
In what the Brownites called “Blair’s final revenge” he attacked his successor’s record, accused him of blackmail, asserted he had “zero emotional intelligence” and was not “psychologically wired” for the rigours of office.
Mr Blair even claimed for himself one of Mr Brown’s greatest achievements – the granting of independence to the Bank of England.
He disclosed that he had secretly urged David Miliband to challenge the chancellor in 2007, and told him that he could “very possibly” win because Mr Brown would be “flushed out” in any campaign.
The revelation added to suspicions that David Miliband is Mr Blair’s private choice and risked harming Mr Miliband’s attempts to deny he is the Blairite candidate – although Mr Blair did him the favour of comparing his politics to the more tribal and traditional approach of Alastair Campbell.
On the day that ballot papers went out for the leadership election it was not surprising that Mr Miliband’s condemnation of Mr Blair’s intervention was sharp. He declared that he was “sick and tired” of the caricature that the present leadership election is a choice between rejecting or retaining new Labour. Mr Blair has accused Labour of losing in May because Mr Brown abandoned new Labour.
Mr Miliband said Mr Brown’s and Mr Blair’s time had passed. “And now we need to stop their achievements being sidelined and their failings holding us back.”
In words directed at Mr Blair and New Labour strategist Peter Mandelson he said that to those trying to re-create the past, “I say enough is enough, it is time to move on.”
Mr Blair’s book, A Journey, became the fastest-selling autobiography, according to bookseller Waterstone’s, after going on sale yesterday without any newspaper serialisation.
Tory ministers claimed that Mr Blair had backed their handling of the deficit after he criticised Mr Brown’s handling of the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Lord Prescott suggested that it was a partial account, presenting a “one-
sided” account of the Blair-Brown relationship. He defended Mr Brown against accusations that he had abandoned new Labour principles.
But it was the leadership candidates, each of them chafing against being defined in terms of their predecessors, who expressed most frustration with their former leader.
Ed Miliband, David’s younger brother, who is increasingly portrayed by new Labour figures as the candidate of the Left, said that it was time to move on from the “new Labour establishment” and that he was the candidate who could “best turn the page”.
Another candidate, Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said that he was saddened that Mr Blair had chosen this day of all days to publish his book. “As ballot papers land, Labour should be looking to the future. Instead, senior figures
in our party are re-running the battles of the past through this leadership campaign.
“Labour needs to leave all this behind. Members are fed up with it. Most are not Blairites or Brownites, old or new Labour.”
Contender Ed Balls, the shadow schools secretary who was attacked by Mr Blair for failing to understand “aspiration”, said that he was Labour’s most successful prime minister and that Mr Brown was most successful shancellor. “And for all the tensions, difficulties and arguments which undoubtedly happened, they achieved great things together. I wish these memoirs could be a time for celebrating those achievements, not recrimination. But that was then and this is now. This is a new era with new challenges.”
Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington and the fifth Labour leadership candidate, said that Mr Blair was attempting to influence the contest “from the political grave”.
She said: “I regret that Tony Blair could not wait a decent interval before knifing Gordon Brown… this bitter personal animosity poisoned the last days of the Labour project.”
In one of the most sensational passages of the book, Mr Blair effectively accuses Mr Brown of blackmail for threatening to trigger a cash-for-honours inquiry if the prime ninister did not back down in a row on pensions.
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