Tony Blair, Labour’s longest serving prime minister for the decade from May 1997 until May 2007, has warned ‘the Labour Party is playing with fire’, in an open letter directed at MPs amid turmoil in the party.

In a searing 5000-word letter, the former Labour leader said the party had an ‘almost infinite capacity for self-delusion’, criticising the government’s manifesto commitments on tax changes, workers’ rights laws, net zero, and the increase in the minimum wage rate.

Blair questioned if the government was ‘really prioritising economic growth… if there is a slew of policies we’re implementing which might restrict it’.

‘How do we justify adding to the welfare bill when it is already ballooning, taxes are high and getting higher, and we’re told we have to increase defence spending to prepare for the possibility of war,’ he wrote.

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