Tony Blair has chosen this summer to launch his re-entry mission into British politics. He hired a UK communications director in May, guest-edited the Evening Standard yesterday and agreed to a rather intriguing interview in same paper, stating he would like to return to office, while accepting it was not likely. So what is the aim of Mr Blair’s new campaign?
Blair had little choice than to take a back seat during the Brown premiership. But the dismal failure of his successor, followed by Miliband’s growing authority and strong Labour polling, makes now the perfect time for the former prime minister to start rehabilitating his image.
Until now, he has yet to take up a peerage, as many former Prime Ministers have done. He was also long-rumoured to be in the running as the elected head of the EU council but his enemies halted his chances. Any potential role in Labour politics also remains questionable — as Daniel Knowles wrote at the Telegraph yesterday, it is unlikely that Team Ed would welcome him back centre-stage:
‘Tony Blair’s entire view is that the financial crisis has not changed all that much: Labour needs to stick to the centre ground…but do many people in the Labour party want to hear it? Ed Miliband’s success recently has come from getting the feuding factions in Labour to patch up their differences and at least to pretend that they support the same thing. Bringing back Tony Blair could blow that all apart again.’
The most likely answer is that Blair wants to become the UK premier elder statesman in the mould of Sir John Major, who seems to have made his own re-entry into politics in recent months. Like former US Presidents, Major has managed to successfully rise above the shortcomings of his time in power to become a respected nostalgia figure. Major pops up not only at grand national events (the Diamond Jubilee, royal wedding, Olympics) but also in the media as authentic commentator on Murdoch and even Europe.
But Blair has far more to offer than his predecessor. His prolonged time in office and wider scope of policy views means he could be far more influential. But he has a long way to go — that new communications director has their work cut out.
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