Tony Blair has handed the money made from almost a decade in business to a new 'Not For Profit Institute' tasked with dreaming up new centre ground policies.

The controversial former Prime Minister insisted his new Institute was neither a think tank or a vehicle for his own dramatic return to front line politics.

Instead, Mr Blair said, it will be a 'platform' for working politicians of the kind he said he would want were he still in No 10, offering 'thought leadership'.

The three-time election winner said the new organisation would include all of his previous interests - including on improving governance in African countries and interfaith relations - and not be a replacement for them.

Tony Blair, pictured after he was slammed by the Chilcot Inquiry in July, announced a new Institute for politicians today that he claimed was not a return to front line politics

But all of the other ventures are to be shut down and folded into the new Institute. It means the 'entirety' of the reserves, worth £8million, are being passed on.

Mr Blair said it was 'abundantly clear' he could not make a personal return to UK politics, acknowledging he is reviled by many for the Iraq War.

But he said: 'However, I care about my country and the world my children and grandchildren will grow up in; and want to play at least a small part in contributing to the debate about the future of both.'

Mr Blair said he had 'learnt a huge amount about the world' and had a greater understanding about what 'I can do and can't do to affect it positively'.

Explaining his new Institute, Mr Blair said: 'This is the creation of a platform designed to build a new policy agenda for the centre ground together with the networks which link people up, and allow a reasonable and evidence based discussion of the future which avoids the plague of social media-led exchanges of abuse.'

Mr Blair has made an increasing number of political interventions in recent months, including backing Remain

He added: 'Part of its focus will plainly be around the European debate; but this will not be its exclusive domain.

'It has to go far wider than that since in many ways the Europe debate is a lightning rod for the whole of politics.'

He said it was possible to launch the new initiative because he had built the necessary 'financial infrastructure'.

Mr Blair said the project was a 'new phase' of his existing ambitions.

He said: 'First we can take the work we have done in Africa, in governance, on extremism and in the Middle East to a new and more effective level.

'Secondly, in the past six months we have seen political earthquakes in the UK with Brexit and in the American election, as well as an explosion in populist movements all over the European continent.

'This impacts profoundly all the work we do and the future of globalisation.'

Mr Blair hinted at the dramatic return to front line politics to prevent Britain becoming a 'one-party state' in October.

In an extraordinary interview with Esquire magazine, the former Prime Minister acknowledges he is deeply unpopular in Britain in the wake of the Iraq war.