Burnham bites back: Blair 'doesn't understand' people's lives today, blasts Labour leadership hopeful

By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 18:01, 27 May 2026 | Updated: 18:12, 27 May 2026 Andy Burnham hit out at Tony Blair today, saying the former Labour prime minister 'does not understand' people's lives. The Labour leadership hopeful dismissed Sir Tony's warnings about the danger of a further lurch to the Left, saying he was happy to be described as 'Left-wing'. Sir Tony stunned Labour on Wednesday by publishing a 5,600-word essay in which he warned the party's agenda risks pushing Britain into the 'relegation' zone. He said Labour is in danger of losing the next election because it has no 'coherent plan' for the country. The former PM said his party has retreated into a Left-wing 'comfort zone' where it now looks more interested in increasing state benefits than boosting the economy. And he dismissed the idea that ditching Keir Starmer would transform the Government's fortunes, saying that changing the leader would be 'irrelevant if it doesn't start with a policy debate'. In a coded criticism of Mr Burnham, he warned Labour against moving 'even further Left'. In an interview with The Observer last night, Mr Burnham said Sir Tony did not understand the economic factors driving support for parties like Reform and the Greens. Andy Burnham, pictured last year, criticised Tony Blair for not mentioning inequality in his analysis of the Labour Party and the current state of politics Blair published a 5,600-word essay in which he warned Labour's agenda risks pushing Britain into the 'relegation' zone 'He doesn't mention inequality once,' Mr Burnham said. 'If you don't get how that's driving politics now, if you are not rooting your analysis in the fact that people are unable to live and that things that were taken for granted are no longer affordable, then you are not understanding what's going on.' In the wake of New Labour's 1997 landslide win, Mr Burnham was an ardent Blairite, but he has shifted to the Left over the years. Asked if he now sees himself as left-wing, he said: 'If you want to call it left-wing, it's fine by me. It's knowing where you need to take a more Left solution and where you want to be pro-business. 'Blairism sometimes saw the market as always the answer. That's its problem.' Mr Blair yesterday urged Labour to ditch Ed Miliband's 'fantasy' Net Zero targets and give the green light to new drilling in the North Sea. The former prime minister savaged Labour's energy policy, warning that it 'can't solve climate change' but could put British firms out of business. In a series of media interviews yesterday he focused his criticism on the Government's high-tax approach – and Mr Miliband's rush to Net Zero, which he branded a 'quixotic fantasy'. Sir Tony said that taxes are 'too high for working people' and urged the Government to control spending, starting with the Net Zero drive. 'Some of the things we're spending money on, I think we've got to change. So I particularly identify that the very large sum of money we're spending on Net Zero, which I just don't think is the right priority for the country now.' Mr Miliband's plan is designed to switch all of the UK's electricity supply to 'green power' by 2030. Industry experts have warned the timetable could only be met at vast cost, if at all. Mr Miliband has also forced through plans to ban all new North Sea drilling. Asked if he was advising Keir Starmer to rip up Mr Miliband's targets, Sir Tony told Times Radio: 'Yes, I am... and it's not that I'm against renewable energy, clean energy, and it's not that I'm a climate denier, but it's just, it's coming to terms with this reality.' He said that China, the US and India account for more than 50 per cent of emissions and 'all of them are pursuing cheap energy and electrification'. He added: 'Britain's emissions are under one per cent of global emissions. So we can't solve climate change. And to impose costs on our own business and consumers in order to accelerate to net zero, when the rest of the world is not doing so, I don't understand the logic behind it. 'Or shutting down our own oil and gas industry in circumstances where again, I don't have another country in the world that's doing that if they've still got a requirement to import energy from oil and gas.' Mr Miliband has claimed his plan will cement the UK's 'climate leadership' and persuade other countries to follow suit. But Sir Tony dismissed the idea, telling the News Agents podcast: 'Xi Jinping is not sitting there in Beijing saying, I wonder what Ed Miliband thinks.' The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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