Blair calls on Labour to shift ‘contradictory’ Brexit stance
TONY Blair warned that Labour will pay a “heavy price” at the ballot box for Jeremy Corbyn’s “closet Euroscepticism”.
The former prime minister warned that Labour’s current position on Brexit was “contradictory”.
He said the party should back a fresh referendum, with the public asked to decide whether or not to accept the Brexit deal and an option of staying in the European Union.
Mr Blair said Labour was “in the worst of both worlds” with neither Leave voters nor Remainers supporting its position.
Labour’s support for a customs union is an “unacceptable compromise” for Leave voters. But it is also a “contradictory” position given the party leadership’s refusal to support being in the single market.
“If the reason for being against Efta (the European Free Trade Association) or the single market is we don’t want to be merely rule takers, then the customs union solution has the same objections,” he said.
Mr Blair added that Remain voters were also “losing faith in Labour as a route to avoid Brexit”.
“The Labour Party will pay a heavy price for the leadership’s closet Euroscepticism,” he said. “The tragedy is the price the country will pay for Labour’s failure to lead.”
He said Labour could be in an “electorally winning position” if it promised to give the people the final decision on Brexit.
“Labour cannot argue for a ‘jobs-first’ Brexit and then oppose what is plainly the only way of protecting British jobs, which is to remain part of Europe’s economic structures,” he said.
Mr Blair backed Labour and Tory rebels prepared to support an amendment to the government’s Brexit legislation aimed at keeping the UK in the single market.
His comments came as his thinktank published a report setting out that the losses from Theresa May’s plan to leave the customs union “significantly outweigh any gains”.
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change report on customs found that Mrs May’s hopes for a customs partnership would not deliver the same benefits as the full customs union.