TONY Blair has admitted he now finds it a “struggle” to vote for Labour amid worries over its direction.
The former Prime Minister said there is a damaging “sectarianism” that has been built into the party he led for more than a decade.
It came as he pleaded with opposition MPs not to fall into the elephant trap of a general election before Brexit.
He said it was right to go back to the people – but begged politicians not to do this via an election.
Mr Blair was speaking during an event hosted by the Scottish Parliamentary Journalists’ Association in Edinburgh.
READ MORE: Tony Blair pleads with MPs not to allow a general election before Brexit
Earlier this summer, he declined to confirm whether he would vote Labour at the next general election during a TV interview.
Yesterday, he was asked again whether he would back the party he once led to a landslide victory in 1997.
He replied: “I’m not intending to vote anything else. It’s a struggle, I’ll be honest with you, and I’ve said this before – it’s a struggle.
“Because I worry a lot about the direction of the Labour Party.
“I’ve found the debate and the controversy around anti-Semitism distressing, extremely distressing.
“And I think there is a sectarianism that’s been built into the Labour Party that’s damaging.
“So I’ve always voted Labour, despite all the problems, and I voted Labour in the most recent European election and in the local elections.
“I’m not intending to vote anything else, but I repeat – it’s a struggle.”
Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair’s former communications chief, was expelled from the Labour Party in May after saying he voted for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections.
Elsewhere, Mr Blair said a no-deal Brexit is now the most likely outcome, and insisted this would be a “profound threat to the United Kingdom”.
The former Labour leader has repeatedly called for another EU referendum, and previously said it is “brutally clear” an election would split the opposition.
Yesterday, he made a direct plea to MPs to heed his warning.
READ MORE: Tony Blair urges EU27 to help Britain escape "Brexit cul-de-sac"
He said: “I have one major plea that I make of Members of Parliament down in Westminster as they think of the decisions and choices they’re going to make over the next few weeks.
“If there is a deadlock in Parliament – and let’s be clear, there is not a majority for a no-deal Brexit; this would be voted down by a large number of MPs – but if there is going to be a proposition by the Government for a no-deal Brexit and if there is deadlock in Parliament as a result, the right thing is indeed to go back to the people.
“But I beg of you, please, not by way of a general election. To mix a general election up with the specific issue of Brexit is wrong in principle, it’s wrong in politics.”
Mr Blair said the strategy of the Conservatives is to conflate Brexit with a general election and secure “what they would call a mandate for a no-deal Brexit”.
He added: “It’s vast elephant trap of great width and depth, with neon signs flashing around it, saying ‘Elephant trap – elephants of limited awareness, please fall into it’.
“They should avoid that completely. They should keep absolutely clear that a general election may be justified and you can have it, but it should not be mixed up with the specific question of Brexit.”
He said a general election would create a “substantial risk that we end up with a no-deal Brexit”.
Meanwhile, Mr Blair said the Labour Party “has moved further to the left than ever before in its history, and is for the moment at least the only serious contender for government”.
He added: “What all of this will mean, I believe, is that there will be a yearning north of the Border and south of the Border, for a politics that is more rooted in what I would call the rational centre.
“For a politics that is less divided than the politics that we have presently.
“For a politics that sees the divide that we have in the UK at the moment as much a cultural divide as it is an economic divide, and tries to reach for a politics to unify. My belief is that it will be clear over these next months that there is the potential for renewal of the centre-ground in politics. I think that’s true in the UK as a whole; I think that’s true in Scotland as well.
“With the departure from the scene of Ruth Davidson from politics in Scotland, there is a very open space for the competition for that centre-ground vote.”
Mr Blair said there is a “huge opportunity for Scottish Labour if it is a Labour Party that celebrates the Union, recognises that for the UK to stay in Europe is a natural part of sensible alliance building in today’s world, and that reaches for a forward and modern policy agenda that understands that modern world and has policies that are able to meet its challenges.”
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