On May 28, 2026, Prime Minister Keir Starmer published a direct response to Tony Blair's policy interventions, but in the podcast world, Blair is making waves by directly lobbying his former allies. On The Rest Is Politics, Alastair Campbell revealed he received a text message from Blair questioning the UK's green transition: "How can it be in our interest to spend billions accelerating to net zero when our emissions are relatively low?" Blair further pressed, "Why are we stopping our own oil and gas production when we're importing someone else's to meet our needs?"
The intervention has sparked a debate on how to handle the former Prime Minister's ongoing influence. On the same show, Alastair Campbell joked that his own mild rebukes of Blair's stances had gotten back to "His Holiness, Pope Tony." Meanwhile, co-host Rory Stewart admitted he is "taking more of the side" of Blair in their upcoming debate over the UK's energy policy.
It isn't just energy where Blair is trying to shape national strategy. Over on The Rest Is Money, former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg praised Blair's recent tech essay, noting that the UK must "focus on deployment and adoption of AI" because it is a "game of scale." As Keir Starmer attempts to chart his own course, Blair's active WhatsApp finger continues to loom large over Westminster's policy debates.