Back in July 2023, Keir Starmer and Tony Blair appeared on stage together for the first time. “You’ve done an amazing job,” said Blair, who had sometimes been critical of the Labour leader. But he warned: “What you’re going to inherit next year is grim.”
As Starmer contends with a fraught political landscape, he has increasingly turned to figures from the Blair administration. Jonathan Powell, who was Downing Street chief of staff from 1997-2007 (making him the longest-serving Blair aide), has been appointed national security adviser – a recommendation first made to No 10 by Peter Mandelson. It was Powell, an expert on conflict resolution, who negotiated the recent deal for the UK to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.
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