Tony Blair led Labour back into government after 18 years in the political wilderness, achieving three electoral victories, two of which were landslides. He remains the longest serving Prime Minister in Labour's history.

His decade-long premiership resulted in such initiatives as the minimum wage, civil partnerships for same sex partners, the Human Rights Act, peace in Northern Ireland and significantly increased spending on public services and social security.

Labour and its leadership have never been as consistently unpopular as they are now, and all indications are that the party will suffer a landslide defeat at the next election and enter yet another prolonged period in the political wilderness. 

The party leadership has displayed contempt for the opinions of the Parliamentary party, to whom it owes its own obligations of loyalty and compromise, as well as for the consensus of popular opinion on which the party depends for its performance at the ballot box. It has also completely failed to stamp out the sexist and racist abuse which has reared its ugly head in the party since the enormous influx of members attracted by Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

On the issue of the EU especially, the party leadership has completely failed to communicate a clear progressive position, and as a result the Tories have been given free rein to pursue a policy of hard Brexit without seeking Parliamentary approval which will prove deeply traumatic to Britain's economy and is, I daresay, opposed by most Britons.

The party and the country at large are in desperate need of a figure who can competently lead the centre-left and represent their views.

We call on Tony Blair to once again commit himself to front-line party politics, for the avoidance of a one-party state and the destruction of the centre-left in Parliament.