'We're a mess': Tony Blair unloads on Labour, Conservative parties ahead of UK election

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says neither his own Labour Party nor the Conservative Party deserves to win a 12 December election.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair had harsh words on Monday.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair had harsh words on Monday. Source: Getty

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair says Britain is in a mess, warning that neither his own Labour Party nor the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, deserves to win a 12 December election.

"We're a mess," Mr Blair said at a Reuters Newsmaker event on Monday.

"The buoyancy of the world economy has kept us going up to now, but should that falter, we will be in deep trouble."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the campaign trail last week. Polls have him ahead.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the campaign trail last week. Source: AAP

Mr Blair, Labour prime minister from 1997 to 2007, has repeatedly called for Brexit to be reversed and used his speech to argue for a second referendum on the decision to leave, saying it would need to be followed by another general election.

Britain is holding an election three years ahead of schedule because parliament had become deadlocked over Brexit, unable to agree on the right way to leave the European Union and with some still arguing for the decision to be reversed.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn at the launch of the party's youth manifesto.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn at the launch of the party's youth manifesto. Source: AAP

The 12 December vote offers a stark choice between a socialist-run state under Labour, which is offering a second referendum on leaving the EU, and the free-market Conservatives, who want to get Brexit done by the end of January.

Mr Blair, who ran a centrist pro-business government, said that current party leader Jeremy Corbyn was promising a revolution.


"The problem with revolutions is never how they begin but how they end," he said.

"The truth is: the public aren't convinced either main party deserve to win this election outright."


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