Tony Blair calls on PM to 'switch course' on Brexit
The former prime minister says there should be a process for MPs to work through various Brexit options to see if they can agree.
Saturday 15 December 2018 06:48, UK
Theresa May must go over the heads of the "very unreasonable people in her party and coalition" and allow MPs to help direct the course of Brexit, according to former prime minister Tony Blair.
In an interview with Sky News, the former Labour leader said the prime minister needed to recognise that hers was a deal "that no-one wants" and is not going to get through parliament.
He said she would do better to "construct a process" in which parliament works through various Brexit options to see if MPs could agree one option.
"I feel very sympathetic to the stress and strain of the job, to the difficulty she's found herself in," Mr Blair said.
"Frankly, she does have some very unreasonable people in her party and her coalition.
"But in the end, while I am sympathetic to her, she has got to realise now that she has to switch course."
"The deal that the prime minister has concluded is a deal that no-one wants."
Mrs May was forced to pull a Meaningful Vote on her Brexit plan earlier this week as it emerged that she was facing a crushing defeat, with over 100 Tory MPs warning they would vote against her.
As her deal flounders, cabinet ministers are privately telling her to test other options.
But they too are divided between a Norway-style softer Brexit that would keep the UK closely tied to the EU but wouldn't end freedom of movement, and a "managed no deal" which would see the UK leave without a deal, but agreeing a series of arrangements to cushion the impact of a cliff edge departure.
But support in parliament is also growing for a second referendum, despite the prime minister having repeatedly ruled it out.
Mr Blair, who is campaigning to have a second referendum, believes that there is a real chance of that happening as the political class reaches an impasse over Brexit.
"I think it [the likelihood of a second referendum] has gone over 50% for the first time.
"It's the old Sherlock Holmes thing: when you exclude the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, is the answer and I don't think it's possible to get any of these other options through parliament."
He also believes the Labour Party will, in the end, move to support a second referendum and says he expects Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, to call a vote of confidence in the government in the next few weeks.
But Mr Corbyn is resisting pressure from his MPs to trigger a no-confidence vote for fear that he would lose the vote and that would in turn force the party into the fraught position of backing a second referendum.
Mr Blair said the Tory party would be "nuts" to vote for a general election which they might lose.
"The one thing that would most imperil the Tories in government is to fight a general election with Brexit as an issue because then you would have people that would vote Labour because they don't like the Conservative position on Brexit.
"If you took Brexit out of the equation and you were fighting what I would call normal politics - the economy, law and order, the NHS and so on - if I was a Tory I would feel a lot more confident about fighting that election than I would fighting another election with Brexit as the dominant issue."
When Mr Blair first called for a second referendum in October 2016 he was derided by Brexiteers, but in recent months the campaign has gathered pace, with more MPs signing up.
Mrs May has consistently said she would not support a second referendum, but the Labour leaderships endorsement for such an option could prove a game changer, given that it would be supported by the SNP and Lib Dems as well as ten Conservative MPs publicly coming out in support.