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Blair gives masterclass in farewell speech


TONY Blair bade an emotional farewell to the Labour Party conference with a passionate lecture on the lessons of leadership and one last piece of advice - get after the Tories.

The Prime Minister used his 13th and final conference speech as party leader to give his would-be successors a masterclass in the art of political speaking.

Apart from saying goodbye, he claimed a wide-ranging mandate for his last few months in office, including a personal pledge to work for peace in the Middle East.

While mounting a passionate defence of his own record, Mr Blair praised Gordon Brown as a "remarkable man, a remarkable servant to this country" without whom Labour could not have won three elections - although he did not formally endorse him as his successor.

He even found time for a quip on the Chancellor's stormy relationship with Cherie Blair.

The day after Mrs Blair upstaged Mr Brown's leadership pitch with a reported aside that he was lying, Mr Blair started his speech at the conference in Manchester by thanking some of the people who had helped him over the past decade, including his wife.

"I mean, at least I don't have to worry about her running off with the bloke next door," he joked, prompting a tide of laughter from the floor. "Sorry, I couldn't resist that one."

Mr Blair then went on to list some of the achievements since the first of three election wins in 1997, including the minimum wage, gay rights legislation, increased expenditure on the NHS and the campaign against child poverty.

"Of course, the daily coverage of politics focuses on the negative. But take a step back and be proud: this is a changed country," he declared.

"Above all, it is progressive ideas which define its politics. This is the real result of a third term victory. And the Tories have to pretend they love it.

"The Bank of England independence, they never did in 18 years, the minimum wage, they told us it would cost a million jobs. The help for the world's poor, they cut. The fall over themselves saying how much they agree with us."

"Don't lose heart from that; take heart from it," he added. "We have changed the terms of political debate."

In a passionate and perfectly delivered speech, which provided a stark contrast with Mr Brown's more pedestrian effort yesterday, Mr Blair went on to address his own departure from office - for which he has yet to set a clear timetable.

"The truth is, you can't go on forever," he said. "That's why it is right that this is my last conference as leader. Of course it is hard to let go. But it is also right to let go, for the country and for you, the party.

"Over the coming months, I will take through the changes I have worked on so hard the past years and I will try to help build a unified party with a strong platform for the only legacy that has ever mattered to me - a fourth-term election victory that allows us to keep changing Britain for the better.

"And I want to heal. There has been a lot of talk of lies and truths these past few weeks. In no relationship at the top of any walk of life is it always easy, least of all in politics which matters so much and which is conducted in such a piercing spotlight.

"But I know that new Labour would never have happened - and three election victories would never have been secured, without Gordon Brown. He is a remarkable man, a remarkable servant to this country, and that is the truth."

Delegates, many of whom had to queue for hours to get into the conference hall, were delighted by the performance. "It was definitely emotional, you could feel that. It was electric in there," said Stuart Bourne, a constituency delegate from Kent.

But although Mr Brown was the only senior minister singled out for praise, some felt that the endorsement had been at best half-hearted, given Mr Brown's declaration yesterday that he would "relish the opportunity" of taking on Labour.

"In my opinion, it was probably the least he could say and possibly the best he could say, when you consider what's gone on in recent weeks," said John Owell, a councillor from the London borough of Hillingdon.

Mr Blair started his speech by remarking on the changes Labour has undergone since his election as party leader in 1994, acknowledging the fact that he now looked a lot older.

He also recalled his first speech to conference as leader, when as a fresh-faced 41-year-old catapulted into office after the death of John Smith, he picked his first battle with the party over the rewriting of Clause IV.

Urging Labour not to retreat into the "comfort zone" or to lose the psychology of a governing party, he declared: "As I said in 1994, courage is our friend, caution our enemy."

Mr Blair spent much of the speech focusing on foreign policy and the battle against terrorism - a battle which, he said, "will last a generation and more".

"This terrorism isn't our fault. We didn't cause it. It's not the consequence of foreign policy," he said.

He went on to defend Britain's role in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and to praise the efforts of British soldiers there.

"If we retreat now, hand Iraq over to al-Qaeda and sectarian death squads and Afghanistan back to al-Qaeda and the Taleban, we won't be safer; we will be committing a craven act of surrender that will put our future security in the deepest peril," he said.

"Of course it's tough. Not a day goes by, or an hour in the day, when I don't reflect on our troops with admiration and thanks, the finest, the best, the bravest any nation could hope for. They are not fighting in vain, but for this nation's future.

"But I know this is not a conventional war, it can't be won by force alone. It's not a clash of civilisations, it's about civilisation, the ideas that shape it."

In what appeared to be a concession to party concern about the war in Iraq, however, Mr Blair spoke of the lessons he had learnt as leader. "The British people will, sometimes, forgive a wrong decision," he said. "They won't forgive not deciding."

In a speech that lasted almost an hour, delivered slowly and punctuated by repeated bursts of applause, Mr Blair went on to urge the party to face the future with optimism and courage, whatever the pollsters say.

"Polls now are as relevant as last year's weather forecast for tomorrow's weather. It's three years until an election," he said.

"The first rule of politics: there are no rules. You make your own luck. There's no rule that says the Tories have got to come back. David Cameron's Tories? My advice: get after them."

Criticising Mr Cameron for an expedient foreign policy that would sacrifice British influence in both Europe and America, as well as attacking him over immigration, nuclear power, human rights and crime, he added: "Built to last? They haven't even laid the foundation stone.

"If we can't take this lot apart in the next few years we shouldn't be in the business of politics at all."

He rounded off his speech by talking about his own battles with the party and the accusations, still widely repeated, that he was a "closet Tory".

"In the 1980s, some things done were necessary. That's the truth," he said. "Saying it doesn't make you a Tory. I'm a progressive.

"They say I hate the party and its traditions. I don't. I love this party. There's only one tradition I hated: losing. I hated the 1980s not just for our irrelevance but our revelling in our irrelevance.

"So it's up to you. You take my advice, you don't take it - your choice. Whatever you do, I'm always with you, head and heart. You have given me all that I've ever achieved and all that we've achieved, together, for this country.

"Next year, I won't be making this speech. But in the years to come, wherever I am, whatever I do, I'm with you, wishing you well, wanting you to win.

"You're the future now. Make the most of it."