Burnham urges Labour to listen to Blair's warning

Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham,who has previously criticised Tony Blair for making "dire predictions" about the prospect of a victory for rival Jeremy Corbyn, has said the party would be mad not to listen to the former prime minister now.

Mr Blair has issued a final warning to Labour supporters to reject the "Alice in Wonderland" appeal of Jeremy Corbyn or risk driving the party into an abyss.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Burnham said: "Tony Blair won three general elections for Labour. If we have got to a point now where the Labour Party says it doesn't want to listen to him then I would think we have lost the plot.

"We have got to listen to people who have been there in the past and seen Labour when it had difficulties in times gone by. People like Neil Kinnock who were there in the mid-1980s when Labour did start fighting itself and left the pitch clear for Margaret Thatcher to bulldoze her way through communities."

"We don't want to go back to that and let the heirs to Thatcher, Cameron and Osborne, do the same", he said.