Keir's comrade: how Blair made a No 10 comeback

The former prime minister's influence on the current PM is everywhere, from AI to Gaza. But is that something about which we should be thankful or fearful?

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The Labour faithful have left Liverpool on the sugar high of a stirring conference speech by Keir Starmer. From taking the fight to Farage, interweaving personal experience with self-deprecating jokes, to a quick-fire list of achievements in office and new ideas sprayed like artillery back at detractors, it was a slicker performance than previous plodders. This should not be surprising, given that Starmer now has as his chief communications guru Tim Allan - who, with Alastair Campbell, overhauled Labour’s shouty speech style to reach middle England and set the party on a path out of the wilderness.

Allan, returning from a lucrative career in the private sector, is, as one Downing Street joker puts it, “Tony’s political love child”. He is also one of a small group of Blairites familiar enough to talk about his old boss casually as “Mr Tony”. He adds to the penumbra of staffers, counsellors and policy wonks who all have roots and contemporary connections to Tony Blair’s New Labour era from 1997-2007 - either having worked in government or more recently in the ever-expanding Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI).

As soon as Starmer left the safe harbour of opposition for the pitfalls of government, he began to flounder. Underprepared for national challenges on everything from the rise of Reform UK in the red wall, to redefining immigration and asylum rules and rebooting UK growth amid global conflict and trade wars, he was feeling the strain. Whereas Tony Blair made governing with a huge majority look like a breeze - fun, even - the pressure quickly began to show on Starmer.

When I encountered Blair and Starmer alongside each other at a centre-left gathering in Canada two years ago, the dynamic was fascinating. Starmer scanned his notes assiduously on big topics as we spoke, like a man overpreparing for a big exam.