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Tony Blair today said Labour is in “much worse” shape now than during the Eighties under Michael Foot’s leadership.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, the former Labour leader claimed Jeremy Corbyn had allowed “extreme elements” to adopt dominant positions in the party.

“Now is worse,” he said. “Much worse, because it’s happening with the support of the leadership. They are bringing back the more extreme elements that were either outside the party or marginalised.”

His words will deepen the alarm felt by centrist Labour MPs about the rise of the Left under Mr Corbyn, whose allies last week secured a majority on the National Executive Committee and took over the chair of the party’s powerful disputes committee.

The 64-year-old ex-premier said Britain should welcome Donald Trump to the UK because of the importance of the US as a global partner.

“If we’re out of Europe and you don’t dare invite the American president to Britain, we have a problem,” he said. “No matter what you think of Donald Trump, Britain has to keep its relationship with America strong.”

Mr Blair, who backed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, admitted to mistakes in the past. “In politics, there’s a process of self-education,” he said. “In the first stage you think you know nothing; in the second you think you know everything; the third is when you know what you know and what you don’t know.”

He added: “The risk is that you get stuck at stage two.”

On Labour policy, Mr Blair said the Left would discover it could not carry out all of its radical plans: “If you’ve got limited time and resources, is nationalisation the priority?

"If you’ve got £8 billion a year to spend on education, is abolishing rather than reforming tuition fees the right way, or is early years education?”

He said he felt “sorry” for Mrs May, because “she genuinely thinks her defining mission is to deliver Brexit”.

He added that he had neither the desire nor ability to become prime minister again.

Labour MP Mary Creagh warned the party leadership not to be inward-looking amid reports that up to 50 MPs will be targeted for deselection by Leftists.

She said: “I want to see Tory MPs losing their seats, I don’t want to see Labour MPs put in difficult positions.”