Suspicions Tony Blair to form a new political party
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Tony Blair is organizing a conference in late June alongside a new group dubbed the British version of Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche.
The Future of Britain conference, set to take place on June 30 and hosted by former BBC broadcasters Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis, according to several people involved in its planning. It is intended to discuss progressive solutions to the biggest issues facing Britain including the economy, technology and climate change.
Blair will be address the event. Others on the program include the U.S. economist Larry Summers, financial journalist Martin Lewis and former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.
Organizers have set their sights higher yet with a bid to involve French President Macron, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. One person said organizers were “desperate to get him on the program somehow.” There was also a bid to involve David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, to talk about Britain’s place in the world.
The event is being organized by the Tony Blair Institute and the Britain Project — a cross between a think tank and a campaign group. A youth engagement movement called My Life My Say is also involved.
While some see potential for the loose coalition behind the conference to form a new political party, those involved are split about how best to achieve their shared objective to win power from the center of British politics.
The Britain Project, a new group said to take its inspiration from Macron’s LREM, is holding fortnightly meetings to organize the conference and discuss wider plans.
Its advisory board members include former Tory Cabinet ministers Rory Stewart and David Gauke, both of whom were kicked out of the party by Boris Johnson over Brexit. Ex-Labour MPs Angela Smith and Luciana Berger, former Times columnist Phil Collins and broadcaster Trevor Phillips are also on the board.
The group was originally formed a few months after the 2019 general election by its now director Monica Harding, the Liberal Democrat candidate vying to unseat Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab. Former Sunday Times journalist Cherry Norton is co-director.
For some of those directly involved, the group is sowing the seeds for a new party. For others it is a think tank on a mission to give intellectual heft to centrist principles, and perhaps furnish Keir Starmer’s Labour with the policy program it needs to win.
“There are people who think that this is the embryonic new center party, but nobody wants to say it — because they’ll be the person who gets struck down,” one person close to the discussions said. “There’s a bit of that Julius Caesar thing of ‘no, please don’t give me the crown’ going on.”
The group talked about a proposal to approach Tesla founder Elon Musk for funding, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. The group is in the process of fundraising to support its activities, which include holding events and commissioning polling.
