Tony Blair, the most successful leader in Labour’s history with three consecutive election wins, on Wednesday blamed current leader Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘comic indecision’ on where he stood on Brexit as one of the key reasons for the party’s defeat last week.

Seeking to retain the support of voters who voted to leave and remain in the EU, Corbyn consistently refused to say which side he favours during the election campaign. The policy was pursued despite advice from top aides to have a clear position on Brexit,

Blair, who was prime minister from 1997 to 2007, told a conference that the party should have taken the position that it is for the government to negotiate the Brexit agreement but reserved the right to critique it, and should it fail to be a good deal for the country, advocate that the final decision should rest with the people.

“This is not about Jeremy Corbyn as a person…But politically, people saw him as fundamentally opposing what Britain and Western societies stand for. He personified an idea, a brand of quasi revolutionary socialism, mixing far left economic policy with deep hostility to Western foreign policy, which never has appealed to traditional Labour voters”, he said.

Blair’s intervention came amid increasing criticism of Corbyn from shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry and shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer; the former said she had warned him not to pursue the ambiguous policy, while the latter regretted he was sidelined during the campaign.