Blunkett: Better Whitehall the only way to see off ‘far-right’ threat

Labour can “pull it ’round” at Rachel Reeves’s second Budget, David Blunkett has said.

Lord Blunkett served in former prime minister Sir Tony Blair’s New Labour cabinets between 1997 and 2004, and again in 2005.

The former home secretary suggested the Chancellor’s Budget next month was an opportunity to see off a “far-right” threat to his party, by making Whitehall “work better, more effectively, more speedily for people out there”.

He told the PA news agency: “We need to be bold.

“We need to have a very clear narrative about what we’re about, what we’re trying to achieve.

“We need to be decisive, audacious, as some people would put it, in terms of the policy offer.

“And we do not need to be too afraid of being brave when it comes to raising the resource to make the world a better place, to make things work effectively.

“There’s only one way of seeing off our opponents, including those from the far-right, and that’s to make Government work better, more effectively, more speedily for people out there.

“And if we do that, then we can pull it ’round.”