Labour has just issued a response to Tony Blair’s sharply critical piece in the centenary issue of the New Statesman (180 pages, out today). A party spokesman said:
It is always important to listen to Tony Blair because he has important points to make, including in this article where he emphasises our top priority must be growth and jobs.
As he was the first to recognise, politics always has to move on to cope with new challenges and different circumstances.
For example, on immigration, Labour is learning lessons about the mistakes in office and crafting an immigration policy that will make Britain’s diversity work for all not just a few.
It is by challenging old ways of doing things, showing we have understood what we did right and wrong during our time in office that One Nation Labour will win back people’s trust.
In other words, Ed Miliband’s position remains as before: Blair’s “third way” does not represent an appropriate response to Britain’s current economic and social problems.
It is notable that rather than rejecting his warning not to “tack left on tax and spending”, the party chose to highlight the example of immigration (he urged the party not to “tack right on immigration”). Blair is known to disagree with Miliband’s recent decision to apologise for not imposing transitional controls on migration from eastern Europe, which he regarded as essential to fill gaps in the labour market at a time of growth. For Miliband, this is a useful example of how he is moving on not just from New Labour’s excessive economic liberalism but also what an increasing number in the party view as its excessive social liberalism.
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