Blair urges Starmer to reject ‘wokeism’ and push back against far-left

Blair urges Starmer to reject ‘wokeism’ and push back against far-left

Former prime minister Tony’Blair has said current Labour leader Keir Starmer must “reject wokeism” to succeed at the next general election.

His remarks came alongside today’s publication of new research from Deltapoll commissioned by the Tony Blair Institute.

He argued that the Labour party ought to have a “commonsensical position on the ‘culture issues’”, without specifying which specific issues.

He said “large numbers of Labour voters in 1983 felt our economic policy was not credible and our attitudes across a range of cultural questions profoundly alienating”, and that while: “We [the Party] should openly embrace liberal, tolerant,” but that “commonsensical positions on the ‘culture’ issues” were needed, alongside an emphatic  the “‘wokeism’ of a small though vocal minority.”

“The leadership should continue to push the far left back to the margins,” he continued.

“The country must know there is no question of negotiating the terms of power with them.”