Zombie Blairites still have British politics in their grip – it’s time to break free | Aditya Chakrabortty

Tony Blair’s departure as PM should have prompted a fresh start for Labour. But Starmer’s sad, backward-looking government remains in his thrall

N ow half term is over, let’s have a quick quiz. Reading these lines, can you spot the common theme? Westminster has been mesmerised this week by the messages of a famous Blairite, Peter Mandelson, especially his damning exchanges with fellow carrier of the Blair torch, Pat McFadden. Last week’s big news was an essay written by Tony Blair himself. That was followed by a report on youth unemployment written by Blair’s former secretary of health, Alan Milburn. The story of this summer is shaping up to be a battle for the Labour leadership between Andy Burnham, whom Blair called “an outstanding member of my government”, and Wes Streeting, who is an outstanding member of his fanclub.

Catch it? That’s right: were little green men to visit Britain, they would think it under the control of some guy called Tony Blair. If not chief executive of these islands, he’s certainly the chair. If it’s not him in the spotlight, some other back number from the class of ’97 is hastily pressed into service. Just taken a massive tonking in the local elections? Better call Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown into No 10 for the photos. On it goes, through Jonathan Powell, Michael Barber, Liz Lloyd, Tim Allan. Need a walking contacts book to charm Donald Trump? Let’s call Peter … Oh dear.

On Blair’s latest encyclical, I’ll spare you my thoughts. You’ve had more than enough from everyone else, which is part of the point. For this column, the Guardian’s research department went through the national newspapers published early last week and found a quite startling fact: Tony Blair landed three times the coverage of Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood put together.

A man who left power almost two decades ago makes more headlines than the serving home and foreign secretaries. He does the big interviews, attracts so many responses and sets the terms of the debate. Why?

Despite what some papers might pretend, Tony Blair is not an inscrutable enigma, the Garbo of SW1 who has broken his silence to make an “extraordinary intervention”. In the past two years alone, he has delighted us with his opinions on Iran (we should have gone in with Trump), digital ID (loves it), net zero (hates it), along with other hobby horses. The man does more encores than Bruce Springsteen.

He’s not doing this to slake the appetite of an otherwise insatiable public. In one recent poll, respondents judged Blair less worth listening to than Boris Johnson. No, his sole audience, the sole group of people who consider his counsel valuable, is the political and media classes.

More years lie between us and New Labour taking office than between New Labour and Harold Wilson. But could you imagine Blair making Barbara Castle his wages tsar? Bringing in Joe Haines to do a bit of comms? The thought would have been laughable; today it is a badge of seriousness.