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Blair warns Labor faces 'annihilation' if it chooses Jeremy Corbyn as leader

“Labour party is in more mortal danger today than at any point in the over 100 years of its existence” argued former PM Tony Blair in The Guardian

Former British prime minister Tony Blair made a dramatic intervention into the debate over the future leadership of the Labor Party this week, warning Labour voters that the party faces “annihilation” if it chooses Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

 In a strongly-worded op-ed for The Guardian newspaper, Blair — who led the party to successive election wins in 1997, 2001 and 2005 by tacking to the centre with his “New Labour” brand — said the “Labour party is in more mortal danger today than at any point in the over 100 years of its existence.”

“The leadership election has turned into something far more significant than who is the next leader. It is now about whether Labour remains a party of government,” he wrote.

Corbyn, the 66-year-old Member of Parliament for Islington North in London, has risen from an unknown backbencher to potential future leader in just a few months and has won plaudits for his appearances on the campaign trail and connection with grassroots activists.

He seeks to return the party to its left-wing socialist roots and has publicly discussed nationalizing parts of Britain infrastructure, a move that has shocked “New Labour” Blairites who feel such a move would deem the party unelectable.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re on the left, right or centre of the party, whether you used to support me or hate me. But please understand the danger we are in, Blair wrote.

“With Corbyn as leader it won’t be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, annihilation. The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched, over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below. This is not a moment to refrain from disturbing the serenity of the walk on the basis it causes ‘disunity.’ It is a moment for a rugby tackle if that were possible,” he concluded.

Blair’s former director of communications Alastair Campbell, whose reputation in politics precedes him, made a similar plea earlier this month in a post on his blog, saying Labour voters must choose “ABC — anyone but Corbyn.”

Branding Corbyn a “nice guy” and a “good MP,” the former spin doctor said those flirting with supporting the candidate had forgotten the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives won successive elections.

Recent polls indicate that Corbyn is odds-on favourite to win the internal Labour Party election. a YouGov poll this week had the backbencher scoring 53 percent of first preferences, a rise of some 10 points since July.

Rivals including Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall trailed considerably, with only Burnham scoring above 20%.

Corbyn’s surge is a relative shock. He initially struggled to win enough nominations to stand for the leadership and both Burnham and Cooper have heeps of political experience, dating back to the time of Blair and his successor as PM, Gordon Brown.

According to the poll however, Corbyn’s support is stronger among those who joined the party after Labour was resoundingly beaten by the Conservative party in a general election in May. His centrist rivals, who include two former Cabinet ministers, say the perception that Labour was anti-business was one of the reasons it lost in May.

The Labour leadership election, the result of which will be known on September 12, has garnered thousands of column inches in the British press of late, as the debate captures the attention of the UK political press. Part of the reason why is that all “party members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters” can cast a vote.

That decision has sparked claims of political rivals signing up as members in order to swing the vote, but others say the party’s devastating defeat at the general election has reanimated its base.

Either way, there has been a surge in membership. Sky News reported last month that as many as 190,000 new members have signed up since the general election, giving a potential electorate of up to 400,000.

In his article, Blair implied the growth in support for Corbyn was part of a “protest movement” and said voters were not thinking about electability.

“Governments can change a country. Protest movements simply agitate against those who govern,” the former PM wrote.

“The reality is that in the last three months the Labour party has been changed. Its membership has virtually doubled. Some will have joined in shock at the election result; many more are now joining specifically to support the Jeremy Corbyn campaign; some with heavy organization behind them.

“These last two groups are not many in number, relative to the population. But ... they’re easily big enough to mount a partial takeover. The truth is they don’t really think it matters whether Labor wins an election or not.”

Campbell had trod a similar line a few days earlier in his blog post. Dismissing the support for the bearded newcomer as “Corbynmania,” the former Downing Street “spin doctor” compared the leadership campaign to a car crash, saying the argument Labour lost the general election because it wasn’t “left wing enough” was nonsense that only benefitted the Tories.

Campbell argued that Labor governments did more for ordinary citizens than the Conservatives ever will, but said getting elected had to come first.