Looking cosy, Blair and ‘old friend’ Juncker
HE recently woke from his political retirement to brand himself an ‘insurgent’ who could help stop Brexit.
So it will come as little surprise that Tony Blair was back on the frontline of European politics yesterday as he cosied up to EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
The ‘old friends’ met to discuss the UK’s impending departure from the EU during a 40 minute-long private meeting at the Brussels chief’s Berlaymont headquarters.
Although the pair have enjoyed numerous encounters in recent years, eyebrows will be raised at the timing of yesterday’s visit, just weeks before Article 50 is triggered.
It remains unclear whether Mr Blair gave the EU chief any tips about how European negotiators should approach the impending talks with the UK.
A source said the pair – who are described as ‘very close’ – only had a ‘brief exchange’ on Brexit. Shortly before the meeting, Mr Blair spoke at a Holocaust memorial event in the European Parliament, which he described as a place where ‘people live together in harmony’. He added: ‘This is a time also to ask what do we stand for today in Europe? What are the values that we are prepared to defend whatever the pressures politically and whatever the cost?’
In November last year, Mr Blair said that the economic case for Brexit did not ‘stack up’, and the ‘pain’ from cutting ties with Brussels could last a decade.
He also suggested using the millions he has earned as a speaker since leaving office in 2007 to set up a new political movement which would part-focus on Brexit.
But last week Chancellor Philip Hammond suggested that Mr Blair was partly to blame for the Brexit result due to his failures to control migration while in office.