Tony Blair has accused Labour of failing the British people by not being an effective opposition as he slammed the “ultra-left” takeover of the party.

“Ask yourself one simple question,” he said. “In the prime minister’s office, in Tory high command, how much of their time do they spend worrying about the prospect of a Labour victory at the present time? I would guess zero.

“We’ve got to make them wake up every morning and fear us.”

The former leader’s comments were made in an interview with the Labour MPs Ruth Smeeth and Wes Streeting for Progress magazine.

Blair said that the current incarnation of the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was putting principle before power and that Labour has only won “when it has been at the cutting edge of modernity”.



A lurch to the left between 1979 and 1983 had “cratered the Labour party”, the former prime minister said.



“I don’t want to depress you, but there is a big difference between the 80s and now. In the 1980s, the ultra-left never took control. They tried but they failed. The moment when Denis Healey beat Tony Benn was the moment when the Labour party was saved.”

Asked how Labour could remain relevant, Blair replied: “Urgency – because politics moves faster today and Brexit ... it’s the defining moment in British history.



“We have to say: the government’s got a mandate to negotiate Brexit, but we’re going to hold them to account that it’s not going to damage jobs, that it’s not going to damage the economy.”



His latest comments follow an attack on Labour in February in which he accused a “debilitated” party of allowing Brexit to happen. “I hate to say that, but it is true,” he said. “What this means is that we have to build a movement which stretches across party lines, and devise new ways of communication.”

In his first major intervention since the referendum, Blair declared in February that it was his mission to persuade the UK to stay in the EU, calling for remain supporters to “rise up in defence of what we believe”.



“The people voted without knowledge of the true terms of Brexit,” he said. “As these terms become clear, it is their right to change their mind. Our mission is to persuade them to do so.”

While he was forming an institute to make the case against “Brexit at any cost”, Blair denied he was considering creating a new centrist political party.

It was necessary to raise the alarm about the “jumble of contradictions” in Theresa May’s arguments for Brexit, according to Blair.

“They’re not driving this bus – they’re being driven,” he said. “We will trigger article 50 not because we now know our destination, but because the politics of not doing so would alienate those driving the bus. The surreal nature of the exercise is enhanced by the curious absence of a big argument as to why this continues to be a good idea.”

Blair’s position contrasts sharply with that of Corbyn, who took the decision to order his MPs to vote in favour of the government’s Brexit bill in February. Four shadow cabinet ministers resigned so they could be among the 47 Labour MPs to vote against Brexit.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, and Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and now his party’s Brexit spokesman, have welcomed Blair’s intervention in the debate.

Farron said in February: “Blair’s speech shows how badly Corbyn’s Labour has failed as an opposition. Labour have waved the white flag and given Theresa May a blank cheque for a divisive, hard Brexit.”