Tories facing ‘existential crisis’ – MP
VOTERS COULD put a stop to Brexit in a special general election held on the issue, Tony Blair has suggested.
The former Prime Minister said the public should be allowed to “think again” in a fresh vote to decide Britain’s future relationship with the bloc.
Mr Blair insisted there was “little doubt that Brexit is causing economic difficulty” but said it was not the only reason for allowing “the right for people to think again”. He told BBC Radio 4’s
programme: “You could have an election on the issue.”
His remarks yesterday prompted a furious response from proLeave campaigners, who said Mr Blair was determined to “hobble the UK to the very bad deal which we had in the single market and the customs union”.
The former Labour leader said he “accepted entirely” the result of the referendum but insisted “democracy doesn’t just stop on one day”.
“I’m simply saying one very, very simple thing, which is that in 2016 you knew you wanted to get out of the European Union but you didn’t see the terms of the alternative relationship.
“If when you see those terms you think it is better to stick with Europe you are entitled to have that say.”
Mr Blair said whether voters were given a say through an election or referendum was a second order problem.
In an interview peppered with interruptions as John Humphrys challenged the former PM on his claims, Mr Blair urged the presenter to “let me finish” and “let me just explain” his case.
In robust exchanges, Mr Humphrys told Mr Blair he was “conflating two different things” when he said the NHS was facing pressures because of Brexit.
But Mr Blair insisted health service staff were leaving as a result of Brexit and the Government was not able to focus on the problems in the NHS because its focus was on preparing for exit from the bloc.
“Brexit has a massive distractive impact on dealing with the actual challenges of the country and you can see this so clearly with the National Health Service,” Mr Blair said.
Mr Blair dismissed claims he was pushing the case for the elite, telling the programme: “There are elites on both sides of the argument.” THE LEADER of Yorkshire’s biggest council has pledged to protect front-line services as the authority gets ready to rubberstamp a five per cent council tax rise in a bid to plug a £38m funding black hole.
Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council, was speaking just days ahead of the monthly full council meeting which will approve a proposed 1.99 per cent council tax rise, as well as a three per cent social care precept.
It will see the average Band D
It comes after the former PM accused Labour of timidity on Brexit and urged the party he once led to instead “make Brexit the Tory Brexit”.
Mr Blair said he disagreed with the party’s stance strategically, saying it was mistaken tactically.
“First, because the Labour Party is saying that we too would do Brexit, we cannot attack its vast distractive impact.
“Labour could mount such a powerful assault on the Government’s record from the appalling state of the NHS to crime, which through neglect and failure to support the police is on the rise again, if we were saying to the country: here’s the agenda which could be delivered for the people were it not for the fact that all the council tax bill in the city go up by £74, subject to an additional precept from the fire authority and police which are yet to be added.
The full budget, which totals £506m, will be approved next month.
“We are now seeing the impact of eight years of Conservative austerity, with vital public services such as the NHS, transport, the police and council services all severely affected,” Coun Blake said.
“The council has seen its budget cut by 40 per cent since 2010 energies of Government and substantial amounts of cash are devoted to Brexit.
“And, second, it puts us in a vulnerable position when the and has to find a further saving of £38m next year.
“As a council we are determined to protect services for vulnerable people as much as possible, so have increased the percentage of the council budget spent on adults’ and children’s social care to over 65 per cent.
“However, to continue to protect these services we have to make sensible efficiency savings that prioritise those most in need, as well as increase some charges and council tax.
“We are seeing a rising demand Government concludes ‘the deal’ some time in 2018.”
Responding to Mr Blair’s intervention, Richard Tice, co-chairman of campaign group Leave for social care services for older people and children, but this isn’t just in Leeds as nationally there is now a £2bn funding gap for children’s social care.”
Leeds’s budget proposals include a raft of suggested measures to shave costs and increase savings potential across a variety of council-run services .
However, a long list of additional costs that also have to be accounted for has also been published.
This year, Leeds City Council will have all-out local elections Means Leave, said: “Tony Blair and his elite gang are still determined to stop Brexit and hobble the UK to the very bad deal which we had in the single market and the customs union. We will thrive and prosper by leaving both and regaining our rightful place on the global stage as a strong, powerful, independent nation and the sooner the better.”
But Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said: “This intervention shows there is growing support for giving people a vote on the final Brexit deal.
“With the NHS in crisis and the promised £350m a week nowhere to be seen, the case for an exit from Brexit is growing stronger each day.” with running costs estimated at £1.1m. Other money needs to be found to boost the local authority’s minimum pay rate for staff and its implementation of the National Living Wage; spending on May’s Tour de Yorkshire; £400,000 to expand a brown bin food waste collections programme and £6.2m for “other pressures”. And despite the city’s hopes for the 2023 European Capital of Culture title being dashed, £400,000 has still been earmarked for “cultural legacy” work in the coming year. A FORMER deputy chairman of the Conservatives has warned the party is facing an existential crisis because its members are overwhelmingly ageing men.
Members of the two main parties as well as the Liberal Democrats and SNP are in their 50s on average but 44 per cent of Tories are over 65, academics found.
More Tory members are male than other parties, 71 per cent compared with 53 per cent of Labour members, 57 per cent of the SNP and 63 per cent of Lib Dems, according to
published by Queen Mary University of London.
Robert Halfon, a former Minister, said the party’s structures are so bad that health and safety officials would shut them down if they were able to. He said: “We do face an existential crisis, we have a problem with our membership, we have a huge problem with our infrastructure.”