Blair: Forget about power if you tack left

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie leave after attending a memorial service for victims of the July 7, 2005 London bombings, at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Britain July 7, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

Tony Blair, the Labour Party's most successful election winner, told his party on Wednesday it could not win power in Britain by lurching to the left, urging it to embrace the centre-ground of politics instead.

Labour tacked to the left under Ed Miliband, who quit in May after leading the party to its worst election defeat since 1987. Now, in the midst of a period of soul searching as it picks his successor, the party is split over its future direction. "You win from the center, you win when you appeal to a broad cross section of the public, you win when you support business as well as unions, you don't win from a traditional leftist platform," former prime minister Blair said in a speech in London. Blair won three elections in a row from 1997 to 2007 on a centrist "New Labour" platform. He spoke as a YouGov poll published on Wednesday showed left-wing candidate Jeremy Corbyn, who had previously been regarded as an outsider, could become the party's next leader. The poll of 1,054 people eligible to vote in the contest showed support for Corbyn at 43 percent, with the party's health spokesman Andy Burnham on 26 percent and its home affairs spokeswoman Yvette Cooper on 20 percent. Liz Kendall, considered the Blairite candidate, was on 11 percent.