CHEQUERS DEAL UNDER FIRE FROM ALL SIDES AS BLAIR AND MANDELSON PILE IN...
THE Prime Minister’s Chequers plan was under fire from all sides after Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson joined Tory Brexiteers to oppose it.
The New Labour architects and diehard Remainers branded her proposals ‘the worst of both worlds’ and called on Parliament to reject them.
Mr Blair said the plan was ‘just mush’ and ‘an Inbetweener half in/half out mess’. Meanwhile, former EU trade commissioner Mr Mandelson gave an interview to the Observer in which he said Mrs May’s Brexit blueprint would lead to a ‘national humiliation’ and leave the country in a worse position than a ‘no deal’.
Remainers believe the best way to defeat Brexit altogether is to talk down the plan and side with its Tory detractors. Both Mr Blair and Lord Mandelson have called for a second referendum on Brexit.
Yesterday, Mr Blair published a piece on the website of his Institute for Global Change saying: ‘This solution – half in/half out – won’t work, won’t end the argument and will simply mean a confused outcome in which we continue to abide by
Europe’s rules whilst losing our say over them.’ Calling on MPs to vote against the plan, the former Labour leader said: ‘It is not making the best of a bad job. It is the worst of both worlds. This is where true Remainers and true Leavers make common cause.’
Lord Mandelson said the plan would deliver ‘the polar opposite of taking back control’ and would mean the EU calls the shots ‘indefinitely’. And in a comment piece yesterday, he said: ‘Britain, in effect, would be entrapped and the more you think through the implication the more the whole thing looks less like a soft Brexit than a national humiliation.
‘Not only would it fail to secure all the trade we have presently but it would severely compromise our ability to negotiate future trade agreements with other countries.’