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Former prime minister refuses to back David Cameron plans and urges George Osborne to show caution Tony Blair has distanced himself from claims that he is backing David Cameron’s public services changes and has urged George Osborne to show flexibility by cutting the deficit at a pace consistent with maintaining growth and jobs. At prime minister’s questions this week, Cameron three times claimed the support of Blair for his reforms, including his deficit reduction programme but, in a Guardian interview, the former prime minister reasserted his own political identity, saying: “I have not endorsed anything.” However, he urged the Labour party to be relaxed when there was a crossover in policy, saying it was happening the world over. The manner in which Blair’s recent interviews, coinciding with the publication of a paperback version of his book, The Journey, have painted him as supportive of Cameron, has hugely irritated the circle around the Labour leader Ed Miliband, and to a lesser extent Blair. But Blair stressed Labour goals would always differ from those of the Conservatives, even if there were policy overlaps. “The objectives of a Labour government are always going to focus on those who are most disadvantaged: that is what we did in government, and that is what we think now.” Speaking from Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he is pushing ahead with a pan-African drive to improve governance, he said: “I want to make it clear that I support the election of the Labour party and a Labour prime minister. “All I have said is that insofar as [the coalition] are continuing the reform programme that we did when I was in government, I cannot suddenly turn round and say I am not in favour of this. I am in favour of them.” But he refuses to accept that education secretary Michael Gove’s academies programme is the same as the one he developed. “We used the academies programme to help the poorest and most disadvantaged children, and I would still want the programme to achieve that.” Gove has broadened the academies programme to cover all types of schools, not just those in poor areas. On health, Blair said he agreed with the assessment given by the former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn, who this week dubbed the government’s redrawn health reforms as a train crash. He described Milburn’s intervention as “an extremely good critique” and said it would be wise for Labour “to follow it”. “I do agree with the introduction of different providers in the health service. That is what we did in government. If they [the coalition government] are now backing away, that would be a mistake.” He freely admits he is not across all the technicalities of current policy debates, but urges Labour to be relaxed. ” Some of the technicalities of reforms today will cross party lines and I think people have to got to get used to that – it is the same the world over.” He also denies he has endorsed the Conservative deficit plan and points to the plan of the Labour chancellor Alistair Darling to halve the deficit over four years. He urges the Conservatives to take a flexible non-ideological approach that takes into account its impact on jobs. “This to me is a right/wrong judgement, it is not a left/right judgement. You have got to reduce the deficit, but to do it in such a way that you do your best to restore confidence without damaging growth. “The question you ask is, what is the best way to get growth and jobs back into the economy? That is the question against which I would test everything. “You have got to reduce the deficit in order to restore confidence, but you have got to do it at a pace which is consistent with maintaining growth and jobs so that is a judgement and you calibrate. “That is all I am saying, so I am not backing them on that either. The guide is not an ideological one. If they are sensible they will leave themselves some room for manoeuvre.” He also said that, as envoy to the Quartet on the Middle East, he believes the crisis in the region created by the Arab spring can become an opportunity to restart peace talks. He is flying to Jerusalem this weekend and on Sunday will hold a joint meeting with the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Lady Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief. “We need to go back and talk about how we can establish a framework for future negotiations. We have got to use this crisis to push forward in talks,” Blair said. He also called for the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to be more openly discussed, and said the possibility of delaying elections needed to examined to give longer for the newer democratic parties to be established. On the Brotherhood, liable to be beneficiaries of early elections, he said: “The important thing is that we are working with modern democratic people who believe that with the freedom to vote comes freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Some parts of the Muslim Brotherhood would be happy with that, and some would not – that is why you have got to engage with everyone. But it is a real issue and you have got to surface it and be prepared to talk about it, and not think just because they have democracy that is enough in itself.” On the removal of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, he said: “You have just got to hang on in there and see it through. It is going to be difficult.” He doubted that President Bashar al-Assad could remain in power in Syria. “You cannot have a situation when hundreds and thousands of people die because they are exercising the right to protest. It is very hard now to see how he is going to pull back, and go in the right direction. It is not sustainable to go on like this. “Across the region leaders have got a choice: they can either have a steady process of evolution – which is the best thing – or they can have revolution. That is the way the world works now because people can see you don’t have to live like this. Sometimes the concern that we are imposing things is a far bigger worry for us than it is for them. If you are living under a brutal repressive regime you are quite glad of someone helping them.” Without making any direct reference to the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, he said: “There is even in Iraq no one actually thinking it would be better if Saddam was still there.” Tony Blair David Cameron George Osborne Economic policy Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk