Historic third term within reach - Blair

Tony Blair today warned left-wingers not to jeopardise the dream of an historic third Labour term.

The British Prime Minister said another general election victory was within reach. But he said old Labour traditionalists could wreck those hopes with a return to the in-fighting that kept Labour out of power for 18 years.

He told them Labour had given up “the luxury of criticism for the obligations of decision”.

He also warned against complacency, saying the British government must continue its renewal every day and offer voters the most radical and ambitious programme yet.

In a speech to Labour’s national policy forum in Coventry, Mr Blair said the possibility of a third term would have been unimaginable to the Labour Party of old.

But the modernisers had transformed the party following 20 years of “weakness, strife and opposition”.

Today’s meeting was drawing up the blueprint for Labour’s next manifesto. Unions want to force more left-wing policies into that document.

Mr Blair touched on a range of domestic issues. But he conspicuously avoided direct reference to Iraq in a deliberate bid to draw a line under the fractious war.

He told critics: “I know that just occasionally we all wish it didn’t have to be like this. That maybe we could have won as we were, that we could have governed without quite so many tough decisions, that we could win again in a more confined and safe way.

“Unfortunately it is not true. We have given up the luxury of criticism for the obligation of decision. And it is always tougher to decide than to criticise.”

He acknowledged unease among traditionalists over his transformation of the party into New Labour.

But he denied that transformation meant the betrayal of its principles. The party had remained “steadfast in our values, radical in our means”.

He said New Labour harnessed its traditions with modernisation.

“Values, unless added to the real world, are lifeless,” he said.

“They only come alive precisely when set firm in modern reality. And so when we change policy to meet people’s expectations in the modern world, those traditional values are not operating separately from that modern setting, they are in fact shaping it.”

He said Labour has learned “all there is to know” about the difference between ideology and dogma. Ideology gave the party its roots, dogma stopped it growing.

Mr Blair acknowledged the party had come through “a testing time”. Recent months have seen the ongoing row over Iraq, as well as rows over university top-up fees and by-election defeats.

He said the party had come through its trials strengthened and more united ideologically than ever.

To win a third term Labour needed to come through the “fire” and win the “battle of ideas” over the nation’s future.

Mr Blair insisted Labour was on the side of the hard-working family, the good, decent, law-abiding majority.

Returning to a famous phrase he used when taking power in 1997 he said: “They are our boss. We are their servants.”

He said Labour must not let the Tories twist the choice debate, as they had with the economy in the past.

Mr Blair concluded: “Generations of members of this party have only ever dreamt of this opportunity and this possibility of winning a third term.

“We have that possibility within our grasp. We have come through an immensely difficult time.”

Tory co-chairman Liam Fox dismissed the speech as “a classic piece of ham acting by Britain’s fantasist-in-chief”.

He said: “No-one will be fooled by the Prime Minister’s talk of tough choices as he has failed to deliver meaningful reform in public services at every turn.

“His obsession with bureaucracy and red-tape has meant that people pay their taxes but never see any delivery.”