Blair’s call to mobilize against Brexit stirs anger
Former British prime minister Tony Blair has come under fire for calling on Britons to “mobilize” against Brexit.
"The issue is not whether we ignore the will of the people, but whether, as information becomes available, and facts take the place of claims, the will of the people shifts. Maybe it won’t, in which case people like me will have to accept it,” the former premier wrote in the New European daily on Friday.
“But surely we are entitled to try to persuade, to make the argument, and not to be whipped into line to support a decision we genuinely believe is a catastrophe for the country we love,” he added.
Although the British people chose to leave the European Union during a referendum in late June, Blair told BBC Radio in a separate interview that all options, including a second referendum to reverse the Leave vote, should be kept on the table.
Stewart Jackson, a Tory MP and parliamentary private secretary to the Brexit secretary, David Davis, called Blair a “snake-oil salesman,” saying his comments would “boost” the case for leaving the EU.
Maria Caulfield, another Tory MP, also attacked Blair, saying he had broken “his own promise of a referendum on the EU, encouraged uncontrolled immigration and now can’t come to terms with the decision of the people of the UK to leave.”
UK Independence Party (UKIP) MP Douglas Carswell said in a tweet that Blair was “seeking to de-legitimize and reverse” the referendum result.
A government spokesman was quoted by the Guardian as saying that the former UK premier was “entitled to put his views to whom he so chooses,” but Prime Minister Theresa May would not overturn the Brexit vote.
“And not only has the PM been clear here but she’s also been clear when she’s met European leaders. There will be no second referendum; Britain is leaving the European Union,” he said.
May has made it clear that she would complete the Brexit process by 2019, despite concerns that the UK might lose its access to the EU single market.
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