Tony Blair says Labour could ‘win at any point’ if they WANTED to and defends his record on eve of 20 year anniversary of 1997 landslide
TONY BLAIR has said that Labour don't WANT to win the upcoming General Election.
The former PM and chief Remainer said on the eve of the 20th anniversary of his 1997 landslide election that Labour could win if they wanted to - but right now they didn't.
He told that Labour can "win at any point in time" - but that it had to "make a decision that it's going to do it".
Mr Blair said: “One of the remarks that really made an impact on me in the 1980s was when Michael Heseltine was asked whether Labour would win again.
"And he said: ‘Labour will win when it wants to.’ And I thought at the time that was a very profound remark because the Labour party can win at any point in time it wants to get back to winning ways. It’s just got to make a decision that it’s going to do it.”
Earlier this week the former Prime Minister declared Theresa May the winner of the Election with still six weeks before the nation went to the polls.
He refused to talk about leader Jeremy Corbyn, but urged people to vote Labour in the hope of securing a "strong opposition" to Mrs May.
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he hit out again at the "hard-left" party for not reaching out beyond its core supporters.
Mr Blair said: "If from the progressive side of politics you offer people a vision that looks like the past, then I’m afraid you’ll lose that group of people in the middle who would be prepared to go for you provided they felt you understood the modern world."
He urged them to talk about Brexit - not just bang on about the NHS - and NOT to give Mrs May a "blank cheque".
"Guys, you can’t do this. You’ve got to fight a dual campaign," he said.
Mr Blair admitted that the weakness of Labour was a "tragedy" which would leave poor people voting Tory - which would make them worse off with "less opportunity".
Tomorrow marks 20 years since Mr Blair swept to power in a landslide election that gave the Labour Party its largest ever majority - 179.
Today things couldn't look more different as Mr Corbyn appears on track to lead Labour into defeat in June's snap election.
Latest polling for the Sun on Sunday show he is still 19 points behind in the national vote.
It points to a landslide victory for May, who would be returned as PM with a 142-seat majority.
Mr Blair defended his record in government, rattling off a list of the "huge achievements" his party secured.
"It’s very important for progressive people to be proud of what they did together," he added.
But he was happy to admit that he had made big errors in his time.
"I’m not saying I haven’t made mistakes in that because I think I did," he said.
