Tony Blair is set to accuse Boris Johnson of lacking a coherent blueprint for dealing with the major strategic challenges facing the United Kingdom.
In an online address on later today, Thursday January 20, the former Labour Prime Minister will say that whether or not Johnson survives the row over the lockdown Downing Street parties his biggest problem is the absence of a plan for the country's future.
Blair is expected to say changes resulting from Brexit, the technological revolution and the ambition to be carbon neutral in 25 years pose an unprecedented set of challenges which the government is ill-prepared to address.
He will say: "There is a gaping hole in the governing of Britain where new ideas should be.
"We are living through three revolutionary changes simultaneously and are ill-prepared for any of them. Each of them would require major changes to the way we work as a nation.
"All of them together pose a challenge which is unprecedented in recent history."
Blair will say that the government's slogan of "levelling up" did little to clarify the real issues facing the UK.
"Other than a desire to give opportunity to those without it, which is obviously hard to disagree with, the slogan risks misdirecting the framing of the country's problem," he will say.
"We face a national challenge - all the country, not simply the areas 'left behind'."
He will add: "I understand completely the rage against what happened in Downing Street during lockdown and how the country feels.
"Maybe Boris Johnson goes and maybe he doesn't. But the real problem is the absence of a Government plan for Britain's future."
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