Blair blames Brown for electoral defeat Tony Blair claims Gordon Brown lost the last election because he abandoned New Labour and lost the "crucial" support of business, in memoirs that give an implicit endorsement of David Miliband as the party's future leader. Mr Blair says he foretold that Mr Brown's premiership would end in "disaster" if he abandoned the party's centrist principles, and the book is a searing account of his fraught relationship with his "maddening" former chancellor. (...) Mr Blair says the loss of business support at the election was "crucial" in the defeat, citing the rise in national insurance and the 50p top rate of tax as bad mistakes. He says VAT should have been increased.
Tony Blair claims Gordon Brown lost the last election because he abandoned New Labour and lost the "crucial" support of business, in memoirs that give an implicit endorsement of David Miliband as the party's future leader.
Mr Blair says he foretold that Mr Brown's premiership would end in "disaster" if he abandoned the party's centrist principles, and the book is a searing account of his fraught relationship with his "maddening" former chancellor.
(...)
Mr Blair says the loss of business support at the election was "crucial" in the defeat, citing the rise in national insurance and the 50p top rate of tax as bad mistakes. He says VAT should have been increased.
And wait, the kicker:
"The danger for Labour now is that we drift off, or even more decisively off, to the left."
Chris Brooke (virtualstoa) on Twitter
Blair, p. 116: "I wanted to preserve, in terms of competitive tax rates, the essential Thatcher/Howe/Lawson legacy."
Corrected keep to the Fen Causeway
