This is dubious. Electronic engineers are not common as muck. There is something else going on here if you had to take a retail job, and it's probably not Tony Blair's fault.
Agreed - but not having a degree can still result in you having more limited career/progression options much later in life. When I left school after getting 4 very good A-levels in the late 1980s I decided (much to my parent's horror) that I didn't want to go to university, and went into a banking job as part of a non-graduate 'accelerated training programme'. Fast forward 29 years and I'm a Product Owner in a big global Data Warehousing/Analytics company and am probably earning more and doing more interesting work than I would have done if I had gone and done a degree.
HOWEVER - I have been very lucky in achieving good progression within just two companies during my career. If I actually needed to go out into the job market and get interviews then my lack of a degree would not even get me on the shortlist for many companies, despite all my experience. I did look around, and applied for a couple of jobs a few years ago just to see how easy it might be to jump ship if necessary, and I didn't get to interview stage at some 'blue chip' employers (e.g. Bank of England, major Consulting firms) despite having highly relevant skills and experience - I'm pretty sure that my lack of degree played a large part in that.