Blair to voters: Oppose Brexit at all costs

BRITAIN: Tony Blair called on voters yesterday to consider backing Conservative or Liberal Democrat candidates in June’s general election if they wished to oppose ‘‘Brexit at any cost’’.

In remarks that will infuriate the Labour campaign the former prime minister said he was advocating a new dimension to the election to unite Remain voters behind candidates prepared to reject a bad deal for the UK.

Asked whether that could mean Labour supporters voting for other parties, he replied: ‘‘What I’m advocating may mean that. It may mean voting Labour. It may mean, by the way, that they vote Tory, for candidates who are prepared to give this commitment.’’

The pro-EU campaign group Open Britain is understood to be compiling a list of so-called soft Brexit candidates from all parties to help voters to decide who to support.

This will be backed up by local campaigning.

Blair made his comments in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend during which he said that he was motivated to ‘‘go right back in’’ to stop the Brexit debate being hijacked by a ‘‘small group of people with a strong ideology’’.

Asked if he really fancied going back into politics by standing as a Labour candidate Blair replied: ‘‘I tell you what I fancy: I fancy doing whatever I can to make the debate in this election a proper debate.’’

Blair said that he would vote Labour on June 8, but Brexit was bigger than party allegiance and voters should back the best antiBrexit candidate.

‘‘What this election needs is a new dimension in it because otherwise, frankly, we’re going to literally roll through the next few weeks,’’ he said.

‘‘It needs a new dimension where we put would-be candidates and MPs under pressure to say: are you going to back Brexit at any cost or are there circumstances in which you’re prepared to say this deal is not in the interests of the country?’’

Blair said that while he believed that in many regards Mrs May was reasonable on Brexit, he believed she was in hock to ‘‘old men’’ in her party who believed in Brexit regardless of the damage it would do to the UK.

‘‘You look at her and she’s very sensible, she’s a very decent person, she’s very solid, I agree with a lot she says,’’ he said. ‘‘But on Brexit she’s not reasonable’’.

Blair’s comments are likely to lead to calls for him to face disciplinary action for breaking clause one of the Labour Party rule book.

Yesterday a spokeswoman for Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘‘On June 9 we will either have a Labour government or a Tory one.

‘‘If you want Brexit to be used to turn Britain into a low-wage tax haven, vote Tory. If you want a Britain for the many, not the few, after Brexit vote Labour. The choice is clear.’’

Keir Starmer, the party’s shadow Brexit secretary, said that the only way to stop a hard Brexit was to vote Labour.

‘‘This election will be crucial in shaping how Britain approaches Brexit negotiations, and there is a clear choice on the ballot paper,’’ he said.

‘‘A vote for Labour is a vote against a Tory hard Brexit and for a new approach.’’

Asked about the role he would play, Blair said that he could not stand on the sidelines and that for the first time since he left frontline politics he felt like returning.

‘‘I look at the British political scene at the moment and I actually almost feel motivated to go right back into it,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re just allowing ourselves to be hijacked by what is actually quite a small group of people with a strong ideology.’’ - The Times