One Blairite MP is now so far right of Labour that he’s literally become Tory propaganda

Chris Leslie
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Committed Blairite and MP for Nottingham East Chris Leslie has been attacking Labour’s plans to mobilise £500 billion for a new national investment bank.

Even the Conservatives have noticed his farcical claim that Labour would have to “double income tax” and national insurance to raise the money. And now they’ve literally turned his opinions into a pro-Tory PR piece.

Conservative attack ad

Matt Zarb-Cousin is a former spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn and general purveyor of centrist tears. He pointed out on 12 September that Leslie’s sloppy understanding of fiscal policy has become Tory propaganda:

And people on Twitter didn’t need much of a push to share their own thoughts about Leslie:

Labour supporters quickly ripped through the former shadow chancellor’s own personal version of the Conservatives’ ‘magic money tree’ argument, pointing to the fully costed investment plans in Labour’s manifesto:

Failing Labour

Twitter users knocked sideways by Leslie’s gall brought up the damage that his wing of the Labour party caused to the British economy under Tony Blair:

Hypocrisy strikes again

And the fact the Tories’ attack on Labour only highlighted their own hypocrisy didn’t escape notice:

QT cut-down

With Leslie appearing on Question Time shortly after the Tories coopted his opinion, Twitter dealt the final blow:

https://twitter.com/alexnunns/status/1040364971643871232

Heading for extinction

Chris Leslie is a relic of the past, all the way from his clipped Blairesque accent down to his 90s schoolboy quiff. And his dinosaur economics are past their sell by date.

If it wasn’t clear, refusing to invest in the British economy has steamrolled the British economy.

From the deep pain caused by Conservative austerity to the 2008 financial crash spurred on by neoliberal economics, it doesn’t take an economics degree to see that the centrist model is failing.

Luckily, there is a party with a radical answer to Britain’s fiscal woes. And if Twitter is right, the dinosaurs of the Labour right-wing will have to look on from their post-parliamentary think tanks as their former party implements it.

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Featured image via James’s Reality – Youtube

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