Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair on Sunday launched an intervention in British politics following Keir Starmer’s landslide election victory, urging him to “come up with a plan to control immigration”.
Blair warned Starmer, who begins his second day as prime minister with a visit to Scotland, that the anti-immigration Reform UK party poses a challenge not just to the Conservatives but also to Labour.
The Reform UK party, led by Brexit extremist Nigel Farage, caused maximum damage to the Conservatives in the election by splitting the right-wing vote.
It won five seats in the Westminster parliament and 14 percent of the vote, leading Farage to warn that it would now target Labour voters.
“Across the Western world, traditional political parties are struggling against disruption,” Blair wrote in an article in the Sunday Times titled “My advice to Keir Starmer.”
“Wherever the system allows new people to emerge, they create havoc. Look at France or Italy.
“We need a plan to control immigration,” he said. “If we don’t have rules, we will have prejudices.”
Blair, the only Labour leader to lead his party to three consecutive election victories, starting with a landslide victory in 1997, offered his “advice” in an article about harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
He said he believed digital ID technology was the best solution to control irregular immigration, which was a major issue during the election campaign.
“As the world moves towards digital IDs, we must do the same,” he wrote. “If not, new border controls will need to be highly draconian.”
Other suggestions included “a tough new approach to law and order”, as “currently criminal elements are modernising more rapidly than law enforcement”.
He said the government must “avoid any weakness on ‘awareness'”, warning against policies that many see as overly politically correct.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)