LABOUR’S decision to mark May Day with a video from Tony Blair endorsing Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership prokoved criticism from trade unionists and peace campaigners today.

In the video, Mr Blair marks the 25th anniversary of Labour’s May 1 1997 landslide election win, listing achievements including introducing the minimum wage, peace in Northern Ireland, investment in public services and progress on women’s, ethnic minority and gay rights. 

He praises Sir Keir for giving the party “a new sense of purpose and mission.”

But food workers’ union BFAWU president Ian Hodson told the Morning Star that Labour could not deliver for working-class people unless it recognised the role the Blair governments had played in “laying the foundations for the problems our country now faces.”

In power, Mr Blair had “protected Thatcher’s legacy,” leaving anti-union laws untouched, while the introduction of a complex system of in-work benefits “shifted the need from employers to pay a decent wage to the taxpayer subsidising corporate profits.

“His premiership ended in shame due to his decision to take part in an illegal war that unleashed death, destruction, hardship and terror across the world.”

Mr Hodson’s union disaffiliated from Labour during the party’s conference last September, saying that it had “travelled away from the aims of working-class organisations like ours.” The BFAWU had been a founding member of the party.

The veteran trade unionist said today that Sir Keir’s “shameful” purges of socialists from the party were not a sign of strength but of “bullying and weakness.

“The strong win debates – they don’t take the ball home so the other side can’t play,” he said, arguing that without sabotage from within the parliamentary party, Labour would have won the 2017 election.

“Like the Liberals before them, the Labour Party has abandoned our class and they will pay a price.”

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said it was “amazing Blair thinks he has the right to advise anyone, given his record of war and neoliberalism.

“If restoring purpose to Labour means more wars, more nukes and devotion to Nato, then Starmer is already on message. Working-class people will not thank him for spending money on war while we all suffer the worst cost-of-living crisis in generations. But what would multimillionaire Blair know or care about that?”

But retail union Usdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis said: “Today we celebrate 25 years since Labour’s largest landslide victory. The 13 years of Labour governments that followed delivered huge achievements for our members and all working people.

“We have now suffered over a decade of Tory government that imposed austerity, oversaw wages declining in real terms, stood by during a cost-of-living crisis and raised taxes on working people. The only way we can bring this to an end is by securing another Labour government. 

“We very much welcome the endorsement of Keir Starmer by Labour’s most electorally successful leader.”

Sir Keir described Mr Blair’s endorsement as “very valuable” since he had won three elections, but insisted that he was not going to “hug any previous Labour leader.”