So what if Tony Blair is pulling Keir Starmer’s strings?

Is the ex-PM behind a dastardly plot to persuade his successor to reverse Brexit? Steady on, says John Rentoul. The truth is rather more nuanced – but Labour could benefit from a bit of Blair backseat-driving

Tony Blair is said to have used his EU contacts to help arrange Keir Starmer’s extraordinary Elysee visit (PA)

Daily Mail readers were supposed to be horrified to learn that Tony Blair was behind Tuesday’s meeting between Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.

“A Whitehall source said the former prime minister had used his extensive EU contacts book to arrange the meeting,” said the Mail, painting a lurid picture of a secret plot by the Conservatives’ arch-enemy to reverse Brexit.

The newspaper noted that not only had the Labour leader met the French president, but on the same day the French and German governments launched a joint plan to create a four-tier Europe as part of the next phase of expanding the European Union. The scheme offers the prospect of the UK joining tier three, alongside Switzerland and Norway, which the Mail said “could see Britain effectively rejoin the EU as an ‘associate member’”.