Blair holding crisis talks with Starmer behind closed doors – ex-PM pulling Labour strings

Tony Blair calls for ‘vastly increased scale’ of vaccine rollout

The former Prime Minister has been vocal in his opinions on how the Government could improve its response to the pandemic. His charity, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, has refocused its effort since last March to consider how to respond to Covid.

As well as advising the Government on how to act, the Labour Party has admitted the former Prime Minister is also briefing the Leader of the Opposition.

Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said: “Yes they speak, like Keir speaks to all former leaders of the Labour Party.”

The official refused to provide any details as to how often the pair talk or when they last spoke.

Praising the role Mr Blair for his efforts since the start of the pandemic, he added: “Tony Blair has played a really important role in the last couple of months in terms of putting forwards proposals for how the Government can improve its testing system, and how it could roll out the vaccine.

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Tony Blair has been quietly briefing Sir Keir Starmer (Image: PA)

“Keir supports all former Prime Minister, all parts of the country who are helping in the national effort to get us through this pandemic.”

The ex-Labour leader was the first person to call on the Government to change its two jab vaccination programme and instead focus on giving as many people a single dose of the antidote as possible.

His global think tank also pushed for mass testing early into the pandemic last year, even using the word “moonshot” in the foreword of a report on the matter.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled a mass testing plan of the same name in the autumn.

Mr Blair, who led to UK through the foot and mouth crisis in 2001, is thought to be hoping to use the pandemic as an opportunity to help rebuild his reputation, with his popularity having plummeted since leaving office in 2006.

A poll of 2,000 people by JL Partners earlier this month found Tony Blair was the second most popular of the UK’s eight former Prime Ministers to lead the country out of the pandemic.

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Tony Blair has been advising Boris Johnson on the crisis (Image: PA)

Keir Starmer’s spokesman refused to say how often the pair talk (Image: PA)

Only Margaret Thatcher was favoured more by Brits to take charge of the crisis.

Even Nigel Farage, a long-standing critic of Mr Blair, has praised his interventions during the pandemic.

The leader of the Brexit Party, now rebranded as Reform UK, has even called for him to be given an official Government role.

He said: “We are in a national crisis and a Government of all the talents, including Blair, makes sense.

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Nigel Farage has said Tony Blair should be given a role in Government (Image: GETTY)

“He seems to have a grip on this far more than the Cabinet.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman refused to be drawn this afternoon on whether the Labour leader would welcome back his predecessor to a role in frontline politics, either in the House of Commons or in the House of Lords.

“That is a question for Tony,” he said.

The Sunday Times reported Mr Blair was hoping to make a “de Gaulle-style comeback”.

A friend of the former Prime Minister said: “Tony believes deeply, as do many of the people around him, that he left office at the peak of his powers.

Tony Blair suggests UK use ‘polling stations’ for vaccinations

“He got better at governing as time went on.

“Ten years later, he is definitely animated by a burning feeling that the British governance is inadequate.

“He feels that he has the drive and ideas to change that.”

A spokeswoman for Mr Blair said the ex-Labour leader “has spoken privately to others in government and is happy to help in any way he can.”