Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson has said he disagrees with criticism from Tony Blair and insisted that the government is making progress.
He told GB News: “On the way in this morning, I had a skim read of the 5,700-word essay that Tony Blair has published. I think it is important to listen to what a former Prime Minister has had to say.
“He’s the only Labour Prime Minister in history to win three general elections in a row with quite significant majorities. So I’ll give it a proper read later, but on some of his points, I am afraid to say, even though I respect the man, I just disagree with him.
“I think of people in my constituency who are on zero-hour contracts and work, who struggle, probably this morning, woke up not knowing whether they were going to get a shift. I think it’s the right thing to do that this government has done is to look at the fact that zero-hour contracts, hundreds of thousands of people on them across the country with that uncertainty, and to legislate through our Employment Rights Act to make sure that if people are on them for a few months that they are able to move off them and have that certainty and stability.
“I also disagree with him on economic growth. He’s been critical there, but actually at the start of this year, the first quarter of 2026, the UK had the highest economic growth of any country in the G7 and we’re making some really big reforms, for example, on planning, so we can get more homes built that Tony Blair’s government, and actually governments of all parties, have never managed to do, and never bit the bullet.
“So I think we are making progress. We do need to make more, and my focus as a junior minister in the government, and all ministers in the government, is to get on with the job of delivering change for the British people.”
Asked if the government was penalising businesses, he said: “One of the big things I hear from business leaders and industry when I meet them as a government minister is that it is really difficult in this country because of all the rules and the bureaucracy and the processes to get stuff built, and we passed our planning bill through parliament last year.
“Every opposition party in the House of Commons stood up and found a reason to oppose it. That change will be a game changer for investment in infrastructure for businesses that want to expand high-tech labs, manufacturing, etc, a really important piece of legislation.”
He added: “This government had a choice when we came in. We could have, as the Conservatives love to do, massively increased borrowing that would have added costs to the public down the line in the form of higher interest rates on their mortgages. We could have left public services in ruin, as they were, with waiting lists through the roof, with teachers leaving the profession, with a massive cut in the number of police on the streets, or we could have found fair and proportionate and reasonable ways to increase taxation to fund our public services, we chose the last option.
“People are welcome, Tony Blair, whoever, are welcome to express their views on that, but I’m confident in the choices that we made that the Chancellor and the Prime Minister made to be able to invest sustainably in our public services.
“Waiting lists are falling. We had the biggest fall in NHS waiting lists, I think, in 17 years recently, there’s more police on the streets across the country, we were able to give the teachers a pay rise and we were able to do that in a sustainable and responsible way and I’m very happy to stand by those decisions.”
