GET US OUT OF THE EU
As arrogant Tony Blair tries to block Brexit a new poll reveals an increasing number of voters are demanding...
SUPPORT to “get on with” Brexit is growing despite a desperate bid by Tony Blair yesterday to urge voters to think again.
The ex-prime minister’s call for pro-Europeans to “rise up” came as a poll found the vast majority of voters wanted politicians to get on with quitting.
Mr Blair’s arrogant speech sparked outrage and even some Remain supporters were aghast at his bid to reverse June’s historic decision to leave the European Union.
Respected pollsters ICM revealed that 68 per cent of voters now agreed the Government should “get on with implementing the result of the referendum... and in doing so take back control of our borders, laws, money and trade”.
That was up from
54 per cent in December when people were asked a similar question.
Significantly, 42 per cent of Remain voters now back swift progress – up from 26 per cent in December.
Mr Blair claimed Theresa May was being rushed by Right-wing Eurosceptics into “Brexit at any cost” when fuller debate was needed on every aspect of the exit deal.
Conservative MP Dominic Raab, of pro-Brexit group Change Britain – which commissioned the poll – said: “These figures show how out of touch Tony Blair is with the mood of the country.
“Far from wanting to reverse the referendum, the overwhelming majority want the result respected and for politicians to get on with making a success of Brexit.
“Tony Blair wants to go on putting the question over and over again until he gets a different answer.
“It is the height of arrogance and nothing could be more likely to convince the EU to offer the UK the worst possible deal than his suggestion that the decision could be overturned.”
Earlier former Ukip leader Nigel Farage told his party’s spring conference in Bolton: “Tony Blair clearly hasn’t grasped that if that referendum was held tomorrow the margin would be at least three times bigger than it was in June.
“Blair is yesterday’s man. He’s like the heavyweight world champion who has been retired for a few years but needs a bout to make some money and he comes back and he gets knocked out in the first round.
“And by the end of today Blair will be on the canvas, alright?”
Mr Blair’s speech for pro-EU group Open Britain was at the London headquarters of US financial media giant Bloomberg where then Tory prime minister David Cameron in 2013 first promised to negotiate new EU membership terms and hold an in-out referendum.
Former Labour leader Mr Blair said he accepted people voted to leave and there was currently no huge appetite to rethink.
But he said people voted without knowing what Brexit would mean and should be asked at every stage of the complex looming negotiations the Prime Minister is set to trigger by March 31.
Mr Blair added: “Is the pain worth the gain? As these terms become clear it is their right to change their mind.
“Our mission is them to do so.
“We must, day in day out, articulate the reality: the pain is large and the gain largely illusory.”
He stressed a second referendum was not necessarily needed to show a change of heart as he to persuade