Tony Blair's legacy narrowed Labour's big tent

David Hallam, a former Labour MEP, writes that Tony Blair's leadership fractured Labour's broad coalition and that internal dissent was treated as treason; he also links changes in electoral rules to UKIP gaining an early platform.

David Hallam, a former Labour MEP, writes about Tony Blair's premiership as a period of mixed results and lasting change within the Labour party. He credits Gordon Brown with much of the domestic policy work but describes the foreign policy as patchy. Hallam says Blair and his faction treated internal questioning as treason and that this stance altered the party's culture. He recounts being deselected after publicly opposing the move away from public ownership. Key points from the letter: - David Hallam describes the Blair years as a mixed blessing, with some domestic achievements and a patchy foreign policy. - He says Blair's leadership broke the broad Labour coalition that had existed for about 90 years. - He states he was deselected as a Labour MEP after publicly questioning the abandonment of public ownership. - He says the government introduced a form of proportional representation that, he argues, gave Nigel Farage and UKIP their first parliamentary platform. - He contends that hard-left elements later adopted similar ruthless tactics under Jeremy Corbyn, which he says brought the party close to extinction. Summary: Hallam presents these developments as a long-term weakening of Labour's broad coalition and as factors that reshaped internal party dynamics and wider political competition. Undetermined at this time.