Tony Blair has set out a diagnosis of the country’s problems today that is, in large part, correct. We need to be honest about that.
The government elected to be pro-business has spent eighteen months making business harder. Growth has stalled and the state is not delivering.
Blair is right about the radical centre. He defines it as the place where you begin by working out the right answer, then building the argument for it. Policy comes first, politics second. We have been short of leadership willing to do that – leaders who set out a vision, propose solutions to match and don’t dodge the hard choices. That is the space the country is looking for and for too long it has been left empty.
He is right on many of the policy proposals too. Planning reform, cheaper energy, welfare that makes work pay, a real response to the technology revolution, a partnership with Europe built from strength at home and defence for the world we live in. Every one of those arguments sit comfortably in Prosper UK.
At the heart of the issue is the question of radicalism. The sensible people, Blair writes, are not radical, and the radical people are not sensible. The reasonable centre has stopped offering bold change, and the fringes offer change the country does not want.
That is the gap Prosper UK exists to close. We are serious about growth and reform and clear about where the UK stands in a world that has changed. We say what we believe. We are pragmatic but not timid, and honest about the trade-offs. We have no interest in the manufactured fights or the slogans that have come to stand in for delivery.
What Blair gets wrong is the assumption that his own party can rise to the challenge.
The current government took commitments into office that pull in the opposite direction – workers’ rights legislation that raises the cost of hiring, a National Insurance rise that taxes employment and non-dom changes that have pushed mobile capital and talent out of the country. These are not the choices of a government that is pro-growth or preparing the country for the challenges and opportunities posed by AI.
So if the radical centre is the answer, and the governing party looks unlikely to step up, where does the work get done? It has to be done on the centre right.
Our polling with More in Common identifies around seven million centre and centre-right voters who feel no party represents them. Those are likely to be the voters who want the change Blair is describing.
Prosper UK exists to give these voters what they want and do much of the work Tony Blair’s essay calls for – a pro-growth, pro-business agenda, cheaper energy, welfare that makes work pay, a serious response to the technology revolution, a constructive relationship with Europe built on competitiveness at home, and a politics that is honest about trade-offs.
Blair has asked the question. So far, his own party looks unlikely to answer it, but we will.
