WARMONGERING former Prime Minister Tony Blair joked about his wealth as he advised Labour to operate from the “centre ground” yesterday.

The multimillionaire warmonger declared: “Reports of my wealth are greatly exaggerated.”

He breezily announced that his real wealth was closer to £20 million than the £100m suggested in some newspapers.

Rebutting allegations that his wife Cherie is besotted with desire for mountains of cash, Mr Blair quipped: “Cherie is asking kind of where it is.”

The shameless Mr Blair appeared in London on the 20th anniversary of his election as Labour leader — in front of a carefully-vetted audience provided by right-wing pressure group Progress.

In a warning against any left turn by Labour, he declared: “Old ideas in new clothing are still old ideas, and are visibly so when undressed by reality.”

Then he added that he backed party leader Ed Miliband, urging the party to work hard for the next Labour government in 2015 “with Ed as PM.”

Mr Blair suggested that “progressive” politics began with an analysis of the world “shaped by reality not ideology.”

Policies should not be based on “delusionary thoughts based on how we want the world to be, but by hard-headed examination of the world as it actually is.”

He argued that no political philosophy would achieve support unless it focused on individual empowerment rather than collective control.

Showing no remorse over his adoption of Thatcherite policies, he claimed that “some of the Thatcher changes were inevitable and we kept them.

“It is why our changes in public services, opening up parent and patient choice, bringing new providers and so on, were also inevitable — even Bank of England independence.”

New Labour had realised that there was no possibility of the British people accepting a programme which pivoted on more state control, Mr Blair said.

“The same is true today.”

In a snub to campaigners demanding more radical policies, the former PM sneered: “Those who shout the loudest don’t necessarily deserve to be heard the most.”

Mr Blair also hit out at London Mayor Boris Johnson, who recently accused him of being “unhinged” for calling for massive military intervention in the Middle East.

“It’s a little disconcerting to be described as mad by Boris Johnson. It’s not a high bar.”