It would be fair to say that Tony Blair casts a long shadow over early twenty-first-century politics. Always a slick media operator with an instinctive understanding of PR, Blair remains a prominent figure whose opinion is sought whenever anything of note takes place. At the start of the 2020s his role appears to be a sort of undead management guru for the British media establishment. Whether the topic of debate is the Labour leadership, Brexit, COVID-19, or Scottish independence, Blair is the go-to pundit for moments that require nothing in particular to be said in the most authoritative terms.

An afterlife as an elder statesman is standard fare for most former prime ministers. However, there is something remarkable about both the extent of Blair’s lingering celebrity and his ability to endure reputational catastrophes which would have destroyed almost any other major public figure.

In 2011, Blair became godfather to one of Rupert Murdoch’s daughters. In doing so, he cemented a long-running friendship with the world’s most powerful right-wing ideologue — curious form for the ex-leader of a democratic socialist party. In 2018, it was revealed that the Tony Blair Institute had received a £9 million advisory fee from the Saudi Arabian government, making him the indirect beneficiary of a murderous regime condemned by Amnesty International and the UN for its human rights abuses.