Sir Keir Starmer: Labour should be proud of Tony Blair's record
- Published
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said the party should be "very proud" of Tony Blair's record in government.
In an interview with the Financial Times, external, he said too many Labour members were focused on winning internal rows.
He said such disputes are not "changing the world" and that supporters of the party had to "get real".
Labour has lost the last four general elections under Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. Keir Starmer has been leader since 2020.
Tony Blair - who led Labour to three general election victories, starting with a landslide in 1997 - is reviled by many on the left of the party over his economic policies and the war in Iraq.
Sir Keir said Labour needed to not be "arm's length or distant" about Mr Blair's time in office, and it needed to be serious about winning power, rather than merely protesting.
He told the FT he had one goal, and that was to "win the next election".
Tony Blair at the 2005 Labour conference in Brighton
He is preparing for an autumn re-launch of his leadership, after a turbulent period which has seen Conservatives open up a large opinion poll lead over Labour.
Sir Keir said his keynote speech to Labour's autumn conference in Brighton - his first to be delivered to a hall full of activists, after last year's virtual speech - would be "a big moment".
"We have to turn the Labour Party inside out," he told the FT.
He also claimed the British public were beginning to tire of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying: "Over the last two or three months people have started to see the prime minister for who he is".
Issues such as Brexit and the so-called "culture wars" were "running out of road," he added.