Blair warns of ‘populist’ tide threatening Europe
The EU should realise the concerns that led to the Brexit vote are not confined to Britain and implement reforms that would allow the UK to remain in the bloc, Tony Blair has said.
The former prime minister said elections in Italy and elsewhere had shown voters are concerned about issues including immigration and changes had to be made to allow the UK to remain in the EU “with dignity”.
Mr Blair’s comments came after a speech on globalisation in which he warned that the rise of populism and protectionism had echoes of the 1930s.
The former Labour leader said he still believed that Brexit “can and should be stopped” as he hit out at Theresa May’s handling of the negotiations.
“Up to now, the negotiation with Europe has been conducted by civil servants in a state of despair overseen by politicians in a state of denial,” he said.
Preparations should be made to delay the March 2019 Brexit date unless the Prime Minister and her Cabinet were able to decide on a course of action, he said, but there was an impasse between those who wanted close ties to the EU and those who sought a clean break.
However, he also said Brussels had to acknowledge discontent with the EU was not confined to the UK.
Mr Blair said: “The sensible thing – maybe this is too rational a view for today’s world – is for Europe to realise that the Brexit vote represented a feeling that is not specifically or exclusively British.
“That’s what all these elections have shown over the last few months. This is a European-wide feeling.
“So the sensible thing is for Europe to reconsider and rethink its positions, and come to a view about reform and change in Europe, particularly over these issues to do with migration, and for Britain to be made an offer that allows us to stay with dignity.”
Mr Blair acknowledged that his government “did miscalculate the numbers of people that came” to the UK after the enlargement of the EU, but insisted he would have acted sooner to address voters’ concerns about levels of immigration if he had stayed in power.
In a speech at the Chatham House foreign affairs thinktank, Mr Blair also hit out at Mr Trump’s trade policies.
“There is little doubt that protectionism harms prosperity. That is the one unequivocal lesson of the 1930s,” he said.