TONY BLAIR has admitted he got it wrong when he blamed the murder of toddler James Bulger on a general breakdown in society under Tory rule.

In his memoirs, published today, he said he was mistaken in building Labour social policy around that flawed assumption, instead of directly targeting out-of-control and lawless youngsters.

And it was not until the end of his premiership in 2007 that he realised he had blundered.

Mr Blair wrote of his period as shadow home secretary when he took political advantage of the killing.

He said: “In February 1993 there had been a horrific murder of a two-year-old boy, James Bulger, by two 10-year-olds in Merseyside.

“The tragedy became representative of social breakdown. The 10-year-olds were, needless to say, from broken families. The reporting of the murder was laced with descriptions of the life, times and mores of certain groups of young people whose families seemed separated from the mainstream.

“Very effectively I made it into a symbol of Tory Britain in which, for all the efficiency that Thatcherism had achieved, the bonds of social and community well-being had been loosed, dangerously so.”

Mr Blair referred to a speech he made at the time saying: “The news bulletins have been like hammer blows struck against the sleeping conscience of the country, urging us to wake up and look unflinchingly at what we see.