London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

Blair decries Corbyn’s ‘terminal ineptitude’ as leader of a cult-like, ‘glorified protest movement’ Labour Party

Blair decries Corbyn’s ‘terminal ineptitude’ as leader of a cult-like, ‘glorified protest movement’ Labour Party

Tony Blair, the former Labour Party leader and British prime minister from 1997 to 2007, has warned that his party is “marooned on fantasy island” and faces an existential crisis as a result of its shift towards the far left.
Pulling no punches in a speech in central London Wednesday morning, Blair claimed that the rout of Corbyn’s Labour Party in last week's UK general election was “no ordinary defeat.”

“The takeover of the Labour Party by the far left turned it into a glorified protest movement with cult trimmings, utterly incapable of being a credible government,” he said.

“The result has brought shame on us; we let our country down.”

Referencing Labour’s defeat to ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1983, Blair remarked that not only is the UK different, but that politics itself is different in the digital age, something which his former party has failed to grapple with effectively.

The former PM lamented Jeremy Corbyn’s “combination of misguided ideology and terminal ineptitude,” by agreeing to a general election while simultaneously pursuing “a path of almost comic indecision” on Brexit, the defining issue of the general election, that alienated all but the most fervent Corbynites.

The former PM lamented Jeremy Corbyn’s “combination of misguided ideology and terminal ineptitude,” by agreeing to a general election while simultaneously pursuing “a path of almost comic indecision” on Brexit, the defining issue of the general election, that alienated all but the most fervent Corbynites.

Blair was careful to emphasize that it was Corbyn’s policies, which he distilled as “quasi-revolutionary socialism” and not the man himself he was criticizing.

Blair won three elections as Labour leader and remains the only Labour leader to have won a general election in the last 45 years.

The former PM’s remarks accompanied a report just published by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change which states that, despite a clear mandate to win back the hearts and minds of Labour voters in the midlands and the North, Corbyn’s brand of progressivism instead drove them further away: Labour hemorrhaged numerous seats in many of its election heartlands, including the industrialized north.

Meanwhile, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy, Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, former cabinet minister Yvette Cooper and Birmingham Yardley MP Jess Phillips shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey are all reportedly considering running to take over from Corbyn.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×