The Workers’ Party has condemned the visit today (Thursday) by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to the conference of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Wicklow, the European parliamentary party of which Fine Gael is a member.

Gavin Mendel-Gleason, Workers’ Party representative for Dublin North West, said Blair’s appearance at the conservative party conference shows up the reality of Blair’s politics – and his acolytes in social democratic parties across Europe.

Mendel-Gleason said:

That in the middle of an election in the UK, Tony Blair would spend time speaking at a conservative party conference rather than campaigning for the Labour Party in Britain, speaks volumes about the true nature of the warmongering, neoliberal school of social democratic politics which Blair helped to promote across Europe.

Like the Irish Labour Party’s performance in government here, Blair’s politics have far more in common with Thatcher than with Connolly. His appearance today at a conference of the Tory-ite EPP shows that clearly.

Mendel-Gleason said:

With Blair and his acolytes siding with pro-austerity conservatives, positive political change – in the UK elections, and also in Ireland – can only come from those who abandon Blair’s pro-business, anti-worker so-called ‘compromise’ and return to socialist values.