Tony Blair could be about to launch a new centrist party at a conference next month, an insider has claimed.
The former Prime Minister will appear at The Future of Britain conference at the end of June.
The event is being organised by the Tony Blair Institute and the Britain Project.
Tony Blair
Owen Billcliffe/Institute of Global Health Innovation
The Britain Project has been likened to Emmanuel Macron's La République En Marche party, with Rory Stewart and David Gauke among advisory board members.
And an insider has alleged the event could be used to launch a new political party.
An insider told Politico: "There are people who think that this is the embryonic new centre party, but nobody wants to say it — because they’ll be the person who gets struck down.
“There’s a bit of that Julius Caesar thing of ‘no, please don’t give me the crown’ going on.”
A spokesman for the Tony Blair Institute said: “The event planned for 30 June was flagged in Tony Blair’s speech in January on the Future of Britain, when he said: ‘There is a gaping hole in the governing of Britain where new ideas should be …
Above all, we need to make our economy highly competitive, attract world-class talent, and make our independence from the EU a platform for economic growth.
But it needs a plan, into which hard work and thought has gone. Policy detail. Strategic analysis. At present, there isn’t one.'”
The spokesman added: “The event has nothing to do with creating a new political party. It’s an ideas conference.”