Ed Miliband will lose general election under 'left-wing' Labour, warns Tony Blair

Former PM casts doubt on the prospect of Labour leader taking party to victory at next year’s general election

Tony Blair has cast fresh doubt on the prospect of Ed Miliband of leading Labour to victory at next year’s general election.

The former Prime Minister said he feared the result on 7 May could well be an election “in which a traditional left-wing party competes with a traditional right-wing party, with the traditional result”.

Asked if he meant a Conservative win, he replied: “Yes, that is what happens.”

Mr Blair, who won three elections, said he saw no evidence to back up Mr Miliband’s claim that the political centre ground had shifted to the left.

“I am still very much New Labour and Ed would not describe himself in that way, so there is obviously a difference there,” he told The Economist. “I am convinced the Labour Party succeeds best when it is in the centre ground”.

In his New Year message today, Mr Miliband describes 2015 as a “year of possibility” when the voters have chance to change direction and get a “recovery that reaches your kitchen table”.