Blair blames ‘revolutionary socialism’ for Labour defeat

LONDON: Former British prime minister Tony Blair urged his Labour party on Wednesday to abandon "quasi-revolutionary socialism" as it seeks a new leader after its worst election defeat since the 1930s.

Britain´s shellshocked left entered a period of soul-searching and mourning in the wake of last Thursday´s drubbing at the polls. The electorate handed Prime Minister Boris Johnson´s Conservative party a clear mandate after he promised to take Britain out of the European Union on January 31. But it also redrew the political map of England as swathes of its working-class north voted Conservative for the first time.

Labour´s socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn -- a 70-year-old who campaign on a radical platform of state spending and re-nationalisation -- has since promised to step down. The formal campaign to replace him is not set to begin until next month. Yet several prominent Labour figures have already signalled their intention to enter a leadership contest.

Blair castigated Corbyn for "almost comic indecision" about which position to take on Britain´s near half-century membership in the EU. "The absence of leadership on what was obviously the biggest issue facing the country reinforced all the other doubts about Jeremy Corbyn," Blair said in a speech in London. "Politically, people saw him as fundamentally opposing what Britain and Western countries stand for. "He personified politically an idea, a brand of quasi-revolutionary socialism, mixing far-left economic policy with deep hostility to Western foreign policy, which never has appealed to traditional Labour voters."

Blair´s popularity in Britain suffered from his decision to support the 2003 US invasion of Iraq on what proved to be false allegations that it had weapons of mass destruction. Yet his 1997-2007 spell in office marked one of Labour´s most electorally successful eras in its 119-year history.