Blair wants to leave our future to the markets. I believe democracy can still shape our lives for the better | Wes Streeting

The inequality caused by technological innovation is not a given. Labour can harness that change to serve society, not dominate it

• Streeting and Burnham accuse Blair of failing to confront inequality in Labour criticism

Tony Blair is right about one thing: we are living through a historic rupture. The old certainties of the 20th century are breaking apart under the pressure of technological revolution, geopolitical instability and economic insecurity. AI will transform how we work, learn and govern as profoundly as steam power or electricity reshaped the world before it.

Britain needs a seriousness equal to the scale of that challenge – and Labour needs the confidence to shape the future rather than retreat into arguments about the past. The answer to global disruption cannot be a longing for the Britain of the 1970s, nor even the Britain of the 1990s. The task of progressive politics is not to recreate yesterday, but to ensure ordinary working people have power, protection and opportunity in the world now emerging.

Wes Streeting is Labour MP for Ilford North

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