Earlier this week I attended a breakfast event with Tony Blair. I found him engaging and funny but what struck me most was his view of how the world is changing around us. This was the key message of his speech but it is one point that I fear most will overlook. Instead, snippets of what he said will be used to try and prod some life into a lacklustre leadership contest, but if the party ignores his core message, that the Labour party must change, then we consign ourselves to a lifetime in the wilderness. So why is the need to change so important

I consider the journey to my early forties to be nothing out of the ordinary. I come from what people would describe as traditional working-class background with both parents working in factories in the north-west of England. I had an average comprehensive education with a passing interest in politics, only joining the Labour party in 2009. But as I grew up, I saw first-hand how a changing world affected my parents. They struggled, working long hours to make ends meet, having to cope with 15 per cent interest rates and the impact of jobs being exported abroad to countries like China. But as the factories started to disappear, my dad took the courage to retrain and become a carer and my mum, who still works in a factory today, went back to college so she could operate the modern machine lines on the factory floor.

This snapshot of my youth highlights how they had to adapt to technological change and financial pressures not of their own making. But they coped and we survived and the reason for that was because they knew the world was changing and they had to change with it. And this is the point that Blair made this week, about the Labour party and how it has to change and adapt to the world around us. We have to move on from endless discussions about left or right, or about being a Marxist or a Labour ‘Tory’ because, if we don’t, we will be out of power for a generation.

It is important to remember however that while many things change, there will always be ‘constants’ that people want within society. Just like when I was growing up, most people want to know that their kids will get a good education, that if they fall ill, the system will look after them and that when they grow old, they won’t be forgotten. They want to know that their job is secure, which means having confidence in a party to run the economy. But they also want to know that if they lose their job through no fault of their own, they will get help to get back into work and if they can’t work, they will be looked after. However, the future Labour party must also understand that people want to be rewarded, not penalised, for working hard, and they want to feel that what they get out of the system in some way matches what they have put in. Now, I am no academic (it has taken me over 40 years to get a degree) but this does not strike me as rocket science or particularly aspirational. But it begs the question: how do we achieve this?

The Tory way is to use the free market to find a solution which is the lowest common denominator, free from compassion, with a bias toward those who have against those who have not. The Labour way ought to embrace the market, harnessing the efficiencies it brings, but not at the expense of social responsibility, mutuality and equality. We need to think of how we face some of the serious challenges ahead such as supporting an ageing population in a society where local communities are diverse and transient. Of how we ensure our children are able to compete in a global economy, especially when countries like China and India together, are producing nearly 20 million graduates each year. And how we make sure that tackling climate change does not fall on the shoulders of the poorest and the young, both here and abroad.

To tackle these challenges we need a modern Labour party that must be both flexible and resilient, open to ideas from across the political spectrum, accepting it has a responsibility to all people across the UK, not just to those within the party walls. It also has to look forward, not back as well as look outward, not in. But, most importantly, it must focus on delivering the ‘constants’ that people want from society while, at the same time, protecting them from the headwinds the country faces in the modern world.

Underpinning all of this, a modern Labour party must not forget that by the strength of our common endeavour, we achieve more than we achieve alone. This is why I am Labour, why Blair is Labour and it is why we now need a modern Labour party to empower Britons to adapt to and manage the changing world around us.

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Jason Prince is a member of Progress. He tweets @Jason_Prince

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In conversation with … Tony Blair is available to watch back online here