Tony Blair warned Labour not to get dragged into a ‘culture war’ over trans rights today, warning the party’s potential leaders it could cost them the keys to Downing Street.
The triple election-winning former prime minister said that fixating on the fringe issue risked putting ‘a whole load of people off’ when it needs to rebuild its support base after December’s election humiliation.
He warned the leader who replaces Jeremy Corbyn not to turn the party simply into a ‘pressure group’ and urged them not to sign up to a 12-point pledge card issued by the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights (LCTR).
The pledge card – already backed by Wigan MP Ms Nandy and Ms Long-Bailey – has caused controversy by calling for ‘expulsion from the Labour Party of those who express bigoted, transphobic views’.
Speaking in London in front of an audience that included his wife Cherie and youngest son Leo, he said Labour should instead be engaging with the formal Government consultation on whether those living as trangender should be able to self-identify.
‘You’ve got to distinguish between the advocacy of things which are right – gay rights, transgender rights – and launching yourself politically into a culture war with the right,’ he said.
‘If you go, ”transgender rights is our big thing,” and the right goes, ”immigration controls is our big thing,” you’re going to lose that.
‘You’re not going to be advancing any of the things you want to do.’
The triple election-winning former prime minister said that fixating on the trans rights risked putting ‘a whole load of people off’ when it needs to rebuild its support base
Speaking in London in front of an audience that included his wife Cherie and youngest son Leo, he said Labour should instead be engaging with consultation on trangender self-identification
On Monday Ms Nandy sparked controversy by saying violent male offenders including child rapists should have the right to serve their sentence in female-only prisons if they transition.
At a campaign rally she was asked her views on whether violent male sexual offenders who transition should be allowed to serve their sentence in a jail assigned to prisoners of their new gender.
Critics of the idea suggest it could put female inmates potentially at harm by forcing them to live alongside violent sex offenders who may still be biologically male.
The Wigan MP on Monday became the latest Labour leadership contender to becoming embroiled in a row threatening to cause a bitter schism within the party
Last week Rebecca Long-Bailey backed a campaign which labelled a women’s rights organisation a ‘trans-exclusionist hate group’
But Ms Nandy, 40, was applauded as she told the audience: ‘I think that crimes that are recorded should be recorded as that person wishes, having gone through that process, received support and self-identified.
‘I think trans women are women, I think trans men are men, so I think they should be accommodated in a prison of their choosing.’
But in his speech today at King’s College London, Mr Blair said: ‘If you’re going to start trying to advocate things in a finger-jabbing sectarian way, saying ”If you don’t sign up to what I’m saying then I’m going to disrupt your meetings and shout at you”, you’re not going to win that battle.
‘You’re just going to put a whole load of people off.’
Mr Blair earlier mocked his left-wing Labour today, pointing out he is the party’s only living former leader to have won a general election since it was established 120 years ago.
The former prime minister used a speech this morning to mark the creation of the Labour Party to criticise the current state of the political vehicle which he led to three election victories.
He admitted his advice is not ‘particularly welcome’ in the current version of the party but warned the three leadership candidates battling to replace Jeremy Corbyn that they must listen to him if Labour is to return to power.
He also attack Mr Corbyn for advocating policies which are ‘hopelessly out of date’ and not suitable for addressing the problems of the 21st Century, warning that ‘Labour’s aim is not to trend on Twitter or to have celebrities temporarily fawn over us, our task is to win power’.
‘Our latest defeat was entirely predictable and predicted,’ he said in his latest savage criticism of his successor.
‘We went into the election with a leader with a -40 per cent approval rating on political ground chosen by our opponents and a manifesto promising the earth but from a planet other than Earth.’
He even suggested Labour might have to join forces with the Liberal Democrats to win power, refusing to talk down an official alliance and saying: ‘How this is done institutionally, that’s a matter for debate.’
His comments come just days before voting in the final stage of the Labour leadership race is due to begin with Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy braced for a showdown in a ballot of party members.