General election 2010

Tony Blair throws himself into election campaign with praise for Gordon Brown and harsh words for Tories

'Time for a change' if the voters do not know what change will bring, former prime minister says
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Tony Blair addresses party members at Trimdon Labour Club in Sedgefield today Link to video: Tony Blair heaps praise on Gordon Brown's leadership

Tony Blair hailed Gordon Brown's leadership today, praising his successor as prime minister for setting the country on the road to recovery after the financial crisis.

In his first intervention into the pre-election fray, Blair declared he was "optimistic" about the prospects for the future under Labour.

Speaking to activists in his former constituency in Sedgefield, County Durham, the former prime minister hit out at David Cameron, dismissing the Conservative leader's "time for change" slogan as "the most vacuous in politics".

Blair said that while Britain was not yet "out of the woods" following the financial crisis, it was "on the path out" as a result of the actions taken by Brown.

"At the moment of peril the world acted. Britain acted. The decision to act required experience, judgment and boldness. It required leadership. Gordon Brown supplied it," he said.

Blair acknowledged that it would be a "big thing" for Labour to win a fourth successive general election – something the party had never achieved before.

However, he said that as voters began looking more closely at what the Tories were offering the race was narrowing.

"The tough thing about being in government, especially as time marches on, is that the disappointments accumulate, the public becomes less inclined to give the benefit of the doubt, the call for 'a time to change' becomes easier to make, the prospect of change becomes more attractive," he said.

"But, as I always used to say when some in our ranks urged a mantra of 'time for a change' in 1997, it is the most vacuous slogan in politics.

"'Time for a change' begs the question: change to what exactly? And the reason an election that seemed certain to some in its outcome is now in sharp contention lies precisely in that question."

He said that, when it came to the big policy issues, there was a "puzzle" over what the Conservatives stood for.

"Think of all the phrases you associate with their leadership and the phrase 'you know where you are with them' is about the last description you would think of," he said.

"They seem like they haven't made up their mind about where they stand, and so the British public finds it hard to make up its mind about where it stands. In uncertain times, there is a lot to be said for certain leadership.

"What happens after a long period of one party in government is this: the flipside of change being attractive is that the public put a question mark over the party seeking to be the change.

"It is not a cynical question mark. It is not loaded. It's just a simple inquiry: what is it that I am getting?"

Blair said that in the run-up to the 1997 general election, as he and Brown had set out New Labour's positions across a range of policies, the question marks over what they stood for had faded.

In contrast, he said, the question mark over the Tories had "gone into bolder print".

"They look like they're either the old Tory party but want to hide it or they're not certain which way to go. But either is not good news," he said.

"On Europe, they've gone right when they should have gone centre. On law and order, they've gone liberal when actually they should have stuck with a traditional Conservative position. And on the economy they seem to be buffeted this way and that, depending less on where they think the country should be than on where they think public opinion might be."

He highlighted what he said was the "confusion" over the Tories' position on the economy, with the party saying one week that cutting the deficit was the absolute priority, and then the next offering a big tax cut as the centrepiece of its policy.

"The benign but still disqualifying explanation is that the policymakers are confused, not just the policies," he said.

"The less benign one is that one set of policies represents what they believe in; the other, what they think they have to say to win. That's not a confusion, actually – that's a strategy, and the British people deserve to have that strategy exposed before polling day."

In contrast, he said that Labour had mapped out a clear way forward.

"It is consistent. It is solid. It matches a strong commitment to public services with a strong commitment to reform," he said.

"It is clear on crime. The economic policy is measured and set out by the steady hand of Alistair Darling [the chancellor]. The package is coherent and thought through."

Brown welcomed Blair throwing himself into the pre-election race.

He said: "I welcome Tony Blair campaigning and I welcome him saying that there is a real risk, a real danger, a real threat from the Conservative party.

"I ask people to take a second look at Labour but to take a hard, long look at the Conservative risk and the Conservative threat, and what they would do to ordinary families in our country."

The prime minister added: "I think Tony Blair wants to explain, like so many other people in our country, the risk of a Conservative government. That it's got a choice now at the election and people can make their choice.

"They've got to know that the Tory party would take away the guarantees for cancer care, they'll take away the guarantees for tuition being available in schools.

"They'll take away the child tax credits from middle-class families, they'll take away the child trust funds. People need to know that the choice means that we will sustain the recovery out of recession, the Conservatives would wreck the recovery."

Cameron said he was "not at all" worried about Blair's entry to the campaign, joking: "It is nice to see him making a speech that no one is paying for."

Blair has been able to command huge fees as one of the stars of the global speaking circuit since leaving office.

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