Only a Tory Party united around Boris can stop Tony Blair influencing Britain's future, warns Dan Wootton

So "Slippery Starmer" is in full damage control tonight. For very good reason: the bloke has been found out, his true motives exposed.

The chaos and havoc he would unleash on the country in a Remoaner coalition government with the SNP, Greens and Lib Dems is starting to sink in.

The Union itself is at threat in this socialist hellscape of the future.

Of course, this could all turn out to be academic if the Durham Police follow the law and issue Labour’s troubled leader with a fixed penalty notice for ignoring the ludicrous lockdown rules he strongly supported.

But for now, Starmer remains in post, plotting a plan to convince us all that we should discount his previous words on Brexit and believe him that he would spurn a dirty deal with the SNP.

What’s most worrying though is the figure who menacingly lurks behind-the-scenes in this scenario pulling Starmer’s strings, one Sir Tony Blair, who will never give up on the idea of reversing Brexit.

It’s a horrific thought but Blair views his Future of Britain event, held last week, as a way to bring together the likes of Rory Stewart, Patricia Hewitt, Andrew Adonis and Gina Miller – all arch remoaners – to quote "prepare for a new world"…

Senior Tories fear a PM Starmer would simply operate as a CEO for “El Presidente” Blair.

Details of Blair’s disturbing plan were revealed by his close pal and establishment favourite Andrew Neil – nope, me neither ­– at the weekend, who wrote in the Daily Mail…

"Tony Blair has a new mission: to be the mastermind behind a centre-Left government that would replace the ailing Tory administration of Boris Johnson at the next General Election."

Neil goes on to say that Blair has concluded that “Labour under Keir Starmer is highly unlikely to win an overall majority” so he wants to ape the German centre-Left government of Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrat liberals.

Here, it would feature Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens.

Neil added: "Better to start now on the sort of policy agenda that could bring them together, not in a formal David Cameron-Nick Clegg coalition but in a working arrangement in which certain key policies are agreed. How better his legacy would look if he could be the guiding hand behind a new Blairism 2.0 for the 2020s."

Disturbingly, Neil writes that Blair “will attempt somewhere down the road” to overturn the vote to leave the EU, the biggest democratic mandate in British history.

While this sort of socialist centre – putting Brexit and the Union at stake if the SNP have to get involved, too – seems perfectly palatable to Andrew Neil, it’s my idea of hell.

As Trevor Kavanagh writes in The Sun today: "Blair may be despised by many but he remains a beguiling figure for New Labour Long Marchers, the BBC and shadowy Common Purpose influencers who operate below the radar within the public service Blob.

"Blair thinks the time is ripe for a new political movement, perhaps under the Labour Party umbrella but with himself as backseat driver. This is a dagger aimed at the heart of the Conservative Party — and Brexit.

"Blair already has the backing of Tory and Labour dissidents who might form an alliance with the Lib Dems at the next election."

I really do wish Conservative rebels would get out of their own self-absorbed bubble and stop doing everything possible to bring down Boris Johnson and think of what’s really at stake at the next election.

Only a Tory party united around the Prime Minister can stop the prospect of Tony Blair wielding out-sized influence on the future of Britain.