Blair says Labour's headed for a loss unless Starmer dumps net zero

Tony Blair's back with opinions nobody asked for. The former PM dropped a 5,700-word essay Tuesday night basically telling Keir Starmer he's running the party into the ground, and he didn't hold back.

In the piece, Blair accuses Starmer, Andy Burnham, and Wes Streeting of abandoning the political centre — the exact ground he built his whole career on. He's worried Labour's got what he calls an "almost infinite capacity for self-delusion," and frankly, he thinks that's going to cost them the next election.

So what does Blair actually want? He's pushing for tougher welfare rules, scrapping oil and gas restrictions, and getting cosy with Donald Trump. Yeah, that Trump. The interventions are blunt and, well, pretty unusual coming from a former Labour leader who's theoretically retired from this stuff.

Blair's essentially saying Labour's shifted too far from where it was winning. He's not wrong that the party's been through a rough patch — losing seats, losing momentum, losing the plot depending on who you ask. But his prescription is basically to become even more centrist and less committed to environmental policy, which is sort of the opposite direction most of the party's been thinking lately.

The timing's weird too. Starmer's already under pressure. Internal grumbling's been constant. And now the guy who dominated Labour for over a decade is telling him he's doing it all wrong. It's the kind of intervention that either looks like helpful advice or like a retired player criticizing the current team from the sidelines — take your pick.

Whether anyone actually listens is another question entirely.