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Blair Warns Of Corbyn 'Annihilation' Of Labour

Blair Warns Of Corbyn 'Annihilation' Of Labour

Tony Blair has stepped into the fray again to try to halt Jeremy Corbyn's runaway campaign success.

The former Prime Minister has upped the rhetoric saying that if Mr Corbyn is elected leader it could lead to the party's "annihilation."

Mr Blair's latest intervention follows a YouGov poll suggesting Mr Corbyn could win in the first round with 53% of the vote.

Tony Blair writes in the Guardian newspaper: "It doesn't matter whether you’re on the left, right or centre of the party, whether you used to support me or hate me. But please understand the danger we are in."

He adds: "If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won't be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation."

The metaphors couldn't be stronger: Mr Blair goes on to say the party is not only walking "over the cliff’s edge," but one with "jagged rocks below." Earlier this week, his former spin doctor Alistair Campbell described the prospect of a Corbyn leadership as "a car crash".

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Mr Blair writes: "The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched over the cliff's edge to the jagged rocks below. This is not a moment to refrain from disturbing the serenity of the walk on the basis it causes 'disunity'. It is a moment for a rugby tackle if that were possible."

It's Mr Blair's second intervention - last month he suggested Corbyn supporters should "get a heart transplant". The veteran left-winger dismissed his warnings as "silly".

The former prime minister's latest comments come as the other three Labour leadership candidates have written to the General Secretary of the party to complain that there is "not a level playing field" when it comes to access to members registered to vote.

Campaign managers for Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper have written to Iain McNicol asking for urgent access to accurate lists of people who have signed up to vote, warning that "affiliated supporter data is likely to be made available to candidates who have that respective union support. This would not be a level playing field for all the candidates".

Their letter suggests Jeremy Corbyn, who has gained large scale Union support, will have access to their registered candidates to send out marketing material.

However, a spokesperson for Mr Corbyn's campaign said: "As it has been reported that affiliated supporters' data is likely to be made available to campaigns with respective union support, from Jeremy's campaign we wish to be clear: this is, simply, factually inaccurate - all campaigns get the same data at the same time."

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The row comes as a last minute surge of people wanting to register to vote caused the party's website to crash. Supporters were given an extra three hours to sign up and the deadline has now passed to be included. Members will begin to be sent ballot papers on Friday.

Amid concerns that non-Labour supporters have infiltrated the ballot, it's emerged 1,200 members or supporters of another party have already been excluded from voting in the contest, including hundreds who stood against Labour in local or national elections.

Labour HQ has told Sky News nearly 80 staff are working in London and Newcastle creating a database of candidates for other parties and people who nominated or seconded those candidates, so they can be excluded from the list. They are also checking comments on social media of people registered to vote. Although, one Labour member close to the Kendall campaign described it as an "impossible task."

In response to Tony Blair's comments a Jeremy for Labour spokesperson said: "We are keeping our campaign positive and remain focussed on our policies which offer the sound economic choice of investment and growth, not the politically driven agenda of austerity and cuts preventing economic recovery."

Some MPs worry that Mr Blair's intervention will only drive more people towards Jeremy Corbyn. There are also rumours another former prime minister, Gordon Brown, could enter the fray in the days to come.