Tony Blair accuses Jeremy Corbyn of making 'same mistake' on Brexit as Theresa May
The former Labour prime minister says his successor must stop "equivocating" and "can't hide" from the EU election results.
Tuesday 28 May 2019 23:04, UK
Tony Blair has accused Jeremy Corbyn of making the "same mistake" as Theresa May for trying to "sit on the fence" on Brexit.
The former Labour prime minister told Sky News his party had to stop "equivocating" and called for it to campaign explicitly for another referendum.
He admitted voting Labour "without any great enthusiasm" in the European elections on Thursday, which saw Labour pushed into third place behind the Brexit Party and Liberal Democrats.
Mr Corbyn has maintained the party will push for another referendum only if it cannot force a general election.
But his shadow chancellor John McDonnell told Sky News getting an election was "highly unlikely" and that the time to campaign for a referendum was "now".
Ramping up pressure on the leadership to swing fully behind one, Mr Blair said Labour "can't hide" from the Euro results.
"It should stop equivocating and come out to a clear position," he said.
"That position in my view should be in favour of going back to the people."
He continued: "Both party leaderships have made the same mistake, which is to think that it's possible to sit on the fence on Europe and appeal to both sides.
"What the European elections show you is that isn't possible."
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The results were "deeply disappointing", Mr Corbyn admitted in a letter to his MPs in the aftermath.
Mr Blair admitted that should Britons back a no-deal Brexit in another national poll, that result should be delivered.
"If that is honestly what the British people want… we're going to have to make the best of it," he said.
Mr Blair also sent a message to his former chief spin doctor Alistair Campbell, who admitted voting Liberal Democrat last week.
"I understand why you did what you did," he said.
"You wouldn't be the only person I know who had voted Labour all their lives that didn't vote Labour in this election."
Mr Campbell later said he had been expelled from Labour over his support for a rival party.
On the Tory leadership contest, he echoed the words of Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has warned picking a candidate so divisive they could spark a general election imminently would see the Conservatives "annihilated".
Mr Blair claimed the party would be "certifiably insane to do a general election" before Brexit was delivered.