Starmer mirrored Blair’s “mission-led” approach on entering No.10 and hired a raft of former Blair operatives, including Jonathan Powell to advise on national security and Alan Milburn to work on NHS reforms.
He gave plum Cabinet positions to Blair’s closest intellectual heirs, Wes Streeting and Peter Kyle. Most notoriously, he put Blair’s old lieutenant Peter Mandelson back at the apex of British politics by hiring him as U.S. ambassador, before being forced to sack him amid still-unfolding revelations about his closeness to Jeffrey Epstein.
Despite the numerous threads connecting them, Blair has been a recurring critic of Starmer’s policies, particularly on his net zero agenda, via his eponymous global think tank. But his latest intervention only underlines that when it comes to Iran, Starmer may be quite happy to find himself out of favor with Blair.
Starmer actively talked up the difference between his own actions on Iran and Blair’s role in sending troops to the Middle East, saying last week: “We’ve learnt the lessons of Iraq.”
One former adviser to Starmer, granted anonymity like others in this piece to speak candidly, said: “He [Blair] just needs to stop on the Middle East.”
They added that the rift highlighted that “Tony doesn’t rate Keir very much, while Keir doesn’t like being told what to do.”