Labour Candidates Dismiss Tony Blair’s Impact On Election Campaign

The former prime minister gave his full backing to Ed Miliband and the Labour party. But candidates aren’t too sure it’ll have an impact.

Labour candidates have dismissed the impact of Tony Blair's intervention on Tuesday, with one calling him "yesterday's man".

Labour candidates have dismissed the impact of Tony Blair's intervention on Tuesday, with one calling him "yesterday's man".

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The former prime minister delivered a speech yesterday morning in which he focused on why Britain should remain a part of the European Union and gave his full backing to Labour leader Ed Miliband.

But a number of Labour candidates told BuzzFeed News that Blair's intervention is unlikely to have any real impact on the campaign.

Roger Godsiff, who was the MP for Birmingham Hall Green until the dissolution of parliament for the general election campaign, said voters in the constituency "will be totally ambivalent about the whole thing because Tony Blair is yesterday's man".

Godsiff went as far as to suggest that Blair was arrogant and that his speech was "irrelevant".

He said: "One of the problems about all politicians is that they can sometimes think they have a bit too much self-importance so I've never thought that, and as so far as I'm concerned, I think it's irrelevant what Tony Blair says."

"I'm doing some telephone canvassing at the moment and I've done about 20 phone calls to people and no one mentioned it," he told BuzzFeed News. "Let's put it that way."

Roberston, who could lose in the constituency to the SNP, according to Ashcroft polls, admitted he was relieved that Blair did not say anything to disrupt the campaign.

"Honestly, it won't have an effect at all," he added.


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