𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Britons have given the thumbs-down to a call by one of the country’s most respected political historians for Sir Tony Blair to return to frontline politics as Sir Keir Starmer’s foreign secretary.

Sir Anthony Seldon earlier this year made the case for bringing this “big beast” back into the cabinet but the public are not delighted at the thought of the triple election-winner returning to a Government rocked by revelations about his former New Labour confidante Peter Mandelson.

Pollsters YouGov found 41% of Britons were “strongly opposed” and 15% “somewhat opposed” such a comeback. In contrast, just 3% strongly backed Sir Tony taking on the role held today by Yvette Cooper, while 12% somewhat supported it.

A recent precedent for such a move was Rishi Sunak’s appointment of Lord Cameron as his foreign secretary in November 2023.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who was PM for just 363 days, went on to serve as foreign secretary under Edward Heath. Arthur Balfour, who led the country from 1902 to 1905, later served as David Lloyd George’s foreign secretary from 1916 to 1919.

Writing in the Observer in January, Sir Anthony made the case for the return of Sir Tony in this way, stating: “The next three years until the general election will see foreign affairs predominate. As Rishi Sunak found, having a big beast on the world stage, well known by all key leaders, freed him to concentrate on domestic policy.

“Foreign issues are sucking up too much of Starmer’s time. With Blair, Britain’s standing in the world would be enhanced, with considerable diplomatic, security and economic gains.”

Twenty-nine per cent of respondents said they did not know whether or not they wanted to see this happen.

Sir Anthony also recommended bringing back former foreign secretary David Miliband to lead an “economic growth ministry”, with ex-PM Gordon Brown returning to “oversee the amelioration of child poverty, or the reviving of the union and regions”.