For Labour MPs desperate to return British politics to the centre, Macron's victory is a beacon

French President-elect's claim to transcend the old left-right divide makes him an impeccable example of what Tariq Ali describes as the 'extreme centre': politicians who serve the interests of free market capitalism above all

Brussels will be breathing a huge sigh of relief over Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France’s presidential race: the country’s youngest ever president has centred his campaign around a strengthening of the European Union.

But EU officials will not be the only ones to welcome Macron’s success. In the UK, his rise has been followed with keen interest by politicians keen to lay claim to what they regard as British politics’ deserted centre ground.

With the Conservative Party moving dramatically to the right since Brexit – so dramatically indeed that they succeeded in practically wiping out Ukip in Thursday’s local elections – and Labour heading leftwards under Jeremy Corbyn, many politicians, particularly from the right of Labour and the Liberal Democrats, are keen to revive a brand of neoliberal centrism with a kind face, à la Macron.

At the forefront of such efforts – and with a particularly keen interest in Macron’s victory – is Tony Blair. Last week, Blair held a small, invite-only press conference for a handful of European journalists, during which he declared that Macron would be a “force for change in Europe, including for the UK, because Europe would be more stable”.

With the leadership of both Labour and the Conservatives seeking to portray themselves as the party of Brexit (albeit of very different varieties), Macron’s success on a pro-European platform will be seized upon by those who hope to rally against Brexit.

In the immediate term, the Lib Dems will likely celebrate Macron’s victory because of their own anti-Brexit position. In the longer term, a Macron victory will clearly put wind in the sails of Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change, which he set up earlier this year to combat “frightening authoritarian populism” and Brexit. It will also give a boost to those Labour MPs who may be hoping to steer Labour in a more anti-Brexit direction in the event of a defeat next month.

But Macron is not merely of interest to British politicians because of his pro-European politics. He is also of interest because he has succeeded in beating France’s two dominant parties after launching his new political movement, En Marche!, a little over a year ago.

Comparisons have been drawn between Blair’s new institute and Macron’s movement, though Blair insists he has no intention of setting up a new party. While memories of the catastrophic failure of the breakaway Social Democratic Party still haunt Labour more than 35 years on, Macron’s success will no doubt stir interest in the possibility of new parties breaking through.

Macron insists that he is “neither left nor right”, despite the fact that liberalising France’s labour market is at the heart of his programme – something he already attempted as economy minister for François Hollande. His claim to transcend the old left-right binary makes him an impeccable example of what Tariq Ali describes as the “extreme centre”: politicians who serve the interests of free market capitalism above all.

For those Labour MPs desperate to return to this “extreme centre”, Macron is a beacon. Their worldview profoundly shaken by Brexit and Trump, they once again find themselves in blissfully familiar territory.

Now all they have to do is to wait for Jeremy Corbyn to lose (badly enough for him to step down but not so badly as to kill off any hope of a meaningful opposition) before taking back control of the party. Macron’s victory gives them hope, but the script is far from written.

Gabriel Bristow is a writer and an activist based in Paris, who tweets @gabriel_brist