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Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, is giving a speech on the future of Britain later this morning. On the basis of the extracts sent out in advance, he thinks the real problem with Boris Johnson’s leadership is not partygate, but that he does not have a plan for the future. Blair is expected to say:
I understand completely the rage against what happened in Downing Street during lockdown and how the country feels. Maybe Boris Johnson goes and maybe he doesn’t. But the real problem is the absence of a government plan for Britain’s future.
I hesitate when I hear the government slogan ‘Levelling Up’. Other than a desire to give opportunity to those without it, which is obviously hard to disagree with, the slogan risks misdirecting the framing of the country’s problem. We face a national challenge – all the country, not simply the areas ‘left behind’.
There is a gaping hole in the governing of Britain where new ideas should be.
We are living through three revolutionary changes simultaneously and are ill prepared for any of them. Each of them would require major changes to the way we work as a nation. All of them together pose a challenge which is unprecedented in recent history.
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