Overview
- The Tony Blair Institute is assembling a broad centre-left blueprint across health, welfare and technology to offer ready-made policies for future leadership contenders.
- Friends and Labour figures say Blair has largely given up trying to sway Keir Starmer, with last week’s Budget cited as proof the government lacks a New Labour-style reform plan.
- Moderate Labour voices point to Rachel Reeves’s £26 billion tax rise and higher welfare spending as evidence of a leftward turn that has unsettled the party.
- Blair is scheduled to appear on Wednesday at an in-conversation event with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who is frequently named as a potential challenger alongside Wes Streeting.
- Labour sources speculate about a challenge after May’s local elections, with No 10 preparing for a contest and Starmer’s allies saying he would stay and fight.