Blair says ‘rise up’ against Brexit plan
Ex-prime minister says government set on a divorce from EU at any cost
Former British prime minister Tony Blair issued a battle cry against a socalled ‘hard Brexit’ yesterday, calling on voters, businesses and campaigners to “rise up” and back a coordinated effort to temper the terms of, or even halt, Britain’s European Union (EU) exit.
In his first major political intervention since Britons voted 52 to 48 per cent to leave EU last June, Blair said Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May was pursuing “Brexit at any cost”, and must be challenged.
“The people voted without knowledge of the terms of Brexit.
“As these terms become clear, it is their right to change their mind. Our mission is to persuade them to do so,” he said in a speech.
“This is not the time for retreat, indifference or despair, but the time to rise up in defence of what we believe.”
May has vowed to start the legal process of leaving the EU next month, and it is not clear whether the process could then be reversed. Her vision is for a clean break from the bloc, including leaving its single market and customs union.
Blair, who won three elections at the head of the Labour Party, has also spoken out in the last 18 months to warn Labour members against electing the hard leftist Jeremy Corbyn as their leader, and to urge voters to shun Brexit. Neither intervention was successful.
His speech was aimed at rallying disparate and cowed pro-EU lobby groups into a coherent voice against Brexit, said the organisers of the event, the Open Britain campaign group.
He stopped short of calling for a second EU referendum.
The speech drew criticism from pro-Brexit campaigners. “Blair is yesterday’s man,” said Nigel Farage, ex-leader of the UK Independence Party. “He seems to think we are going to change our minds. He clearly hasn’t grasped that, if that referendum was held tomorrow, the margin would be at least three times bigger.”
The EU has not formally addressed the question of whether a reversal of stance is possible, although Donald Tusk, who will oversee Brexit negotiations as chair of EU leaders’ summits, did say in October that he had received legal advice that it could be stopped.