Brexit a success is EU, says Tony Blair
Corbyn fought the general election, but said that “doesn’t make that programme right”.
Mr Blair admitted the open borders he presided over are no longer appropriate and put his name to a report calling for tighter domestic controls and the negotiation of modified free movement rules with the EU.
He has been blamed in many quarters for the rise in public concern about immigration which culminated in the Brexit vote, after failing to impose transitional controls on migrants from new EU member states in 2004.
But he said “the times were different” as he released a Tony Blair Institute report calling for tough new measures, including forcing EU immigrants to register on arrival and restricting benefits or access to the NHS for certain groups such as nonworkers.
The ex-Labour leader also argued that the UK can negotiate a change to free movement rules with Brussels that would allow an “emergency brake” on EU immigration if public services are overstretched.
Urging MPs to put forward a “different or better way” to the public, Mr Blair said: “I’m trying to say this in the end Brexit is a distraction not a solution to the problems this country faces.
“If Members of Parliament really believe that then their obligation is to set out solutions that deal with the actual problems communities and people have and not do Brexit which is actually going to distract us from those solutions and going to cause real economic and political damage.”
Sir Michael dismissed Mr Blair’s comments, telling Marr: “It’s a bit late now this epiphany, I’m not sure where he’s been – well we know where he’s been, he’s being travelling the world.
“The country wants proper controls over immigration, we saw that in election after election and we saw that in the referendum last year.
“The country has taken it’s decision, we’re leaving the European Union now, and that means freedom of movement has to end whether we like it or not.”
He added: “The country has decided we’re leaving the European Union, we’ve got to get on with that, Tony Blair has got to get over it, and we’ve got to get a smooth and successful exit from the union.”
Pro-EU Conservative former cabinet minister Ken Clarke said it is “hopeless” to expect the UK to stay in the EU.
He told Sky News’ Sunday with Niall Paterson: “Tony (Blair) still thinks we can stay in the EU. I think the mood in the country is it’s hopeless to expect that. What we now need to address is the practical consequences of what is our new relationship.”
Mr Clarke said a transition period of “two, three, four years” will be needed.
Unite boss Len McCluskey said Mr Blair “misses the point” because the only way to stop abuse of migrant workers by “greedy bosses”, which brings about undercutting of wages and conditions, is to properly regulate the jobs market after Brexit.
Describing the ex-PM as “yesterday’s man”, Mr McCluskey told Pienaar’s Politics on BBC Radio Five Live: “He’s as out of touch now as he was in 2004.
“He doesn’t address the idea because what Tony Blair and the New Labour government were a part of, and certainly what the Conservatives have continued, is creating this race to the bottom culture within our society rather than a rate for the job society.”
Conservative former minister Nick Boles quoted Oscar Wilde while criticising Mr Blair, tweeting: “’Yet each man kills the thing he loves’.
“Blair is tortured by knowledge that his immigration policies finished off our membership of the EU.”