Sir Tony Blair said he believes the UK will go back into the EU in the future, as a new poll showed support for rejoining the bloc was at a five-year high.
The former Labour prime minister told the New Statesman magazine that “a future generation” would take Britain “back into Europe”.
The comments came as Deltapoll published a survey showing an increase in support for rejoining the EU. Its latest tracker poll, conducted between July 21 and 24, found 56 per cent of people would vote to rejoin if a second referendum was held.
That number was up by four points when compared to the previous poll, carried out between July 14-17. Some 38 per cent of people said they would vote to stay out of the bloc, down by three points.
Deltapoll said it was the highest level of support for rejoining the EU recorded since it started its tracker poll on the subject in September 2018.
Sir Tony was asked during an interview with Andrew Marr if he saw any realistic prospect of the UK going back into the EU or joining the customs union or single market.
He replied: “Well, I believe at some point a future generation will take Britain back into Europe, and, you know, you just have to look at what’s happened.”
Sir Tony, who was a prominent Remain campaigner, described Brexit as “a constant sadness to me”.
Peter Bone, a leading Tory Brexiteer, said “more than 17 million people” had disagreed with Sir Tony at the EU referendum in 2016 and the comments showed he was “out of touch”.
“Since then we have ended the free movement of people, we are not paying billions of pounds to the EU and we are making our own laws,” said Mr Bone.
“On what possible basis does Tony Blair believe we would want to sign up to less control of our laws and to return to a system where anyone can come to this country from the EU? I think he is out of touch with the British people.”
Sir Tony’s comments will be viewed as unhelpful for Sir Keir Starmer, who has repeatedly said a Labour government would not reverse Brexit.
In May, the Labour leader said that “Britain’s future is outside the EU” as he ruled out single market or customs union membership. He said such arguments were “in the past, where they belong”.
He has said a Labour government would seek to “improve” the current divorce deal between Britain and Brussels in a bid to “make Brexit work”.
However, Tory MPs claimed the plan to renegotiate showed that Sir Keir “cannot be trusted on Brexit” and planned to take the UK back into the bloc by stealth.
It’s funny that Blair was simultaneously a willing lapdog for American interests and also a strong Europhile.
Of course, when Europe’s interests clashed with America’s he always chose America.
Who says Europe is willing to get the UK back in?
Why would we want that? When Britain was part of the EU they were never completely committed. Then they had this ‘we can do better on our own’ episode. They are struggling with human rights and the state of their democracy. Their economy is tanking.
We already have Hungary and Poland to deal with. We don’t need more problems.
UK is *definitely* a cat.
Tony, while you are making statements, tell us how many WMD’s did you finally find in Iraq?
My mind is very clear after trying for two weeks to export a pressure vessel component from Poland to the UK only to have it get stuck in customs.
We export to the US and other countries, but the EU plays a significant role in our supply chain.
And when we do, workers from the UK will visit Polish construction sites and send money home to our families there.
10 comments
Sir Tony Blair said he believes the UK will go back into the EU in the future, as a new poll showed support for rejoining the bloc was at a five-year high.
The former Labour prime minister told the New Statesman magazine that “a future generation” would take Britain “back into Europe”.
The comments came as Deltapoll published a survey showing an increase in support for rejoining the EU. Its latest tracker poll, conducted between July 21 and 24, found 56 per cent of people would vote to rejoin if a second referendum was held.
That number was up by four points when compared to the previous poll, carried out between July 14-17. Some 38 per cent of people said they would vote to stay out of the bloc, down by three points.
Deltapoll said it was the highest level of support for rejoining the EU recorded since it started its tracker poll on the subject in September 2018.
Sir Tony was asked during an interview with Andrew Marr if he saw any realistic prospect of the UK going back into the EU or joining the customs union or single market.
He replied: “Well, I believe at some point a future generation will take Britain back into Europe, and, you know, you just have to look at what’s happened.”
Sir Tony, who was a prominent Remain campaigner, described Brexit as “a constant sadness to me”.
Peter Bone, a leading Tory Brexiteer, said “more than 17 million people” had disagreed with Sir Tony at the EU referendum in 2016 and the comments showed he was “out of touch”.
“Since then we have ended the free movement of people, we are not paying billions of pounds to the EU and we are making our own laws,” said Mr Bone.
“On what possible basis does Tony Blair believe we would want to sign up to less control of our laws and to return to a system where anyone can come to this country from the EU? I think he is out of touch with the British people.”
Sir Tony’s comments will be viewed as unhelpful for Sir Keir Starmer, who has repeatedly said a Labour government would not reverse Brexit.
In May, the Labour leader said that “Britain’s future is outside the EU” as he ruled out single market or customs union membership. He said such arguments were “in the past, where they belong”.
He has said a Labour government would seek to “improve” the current divorce deal between Britain and Brussels in a bid to “make Brexit work”.
However, Tory MPs claimed the plan to renegotiate showed that Sir Keir “cannot be trusted on Brexit” and planned to take the UK back into the bloc by stealth.
It’s funny that Blair was simultaneously a willing lapdog for American interests and also a strong Europhile.
Of course, when Europe’s interests clashed with America’s he always chose America.
Who says Europe is willing to get the UK back in?
Why would we want that? When Britain was part of the EU they were never completely committed. Then they had this ‘we can do better on our own’ episode. They are struggling with human rights and the state of their democracy. Their economy is tanking.
We already have Hungary and Poland to deal with. We don’t need more problems.
UK is *definitely* a cat.
Tony, while you are making statements, tell us how many WMD’s did you finally find in Iraq?
My mind is very clear after trying for two weeks to export a pressure vessel component from Poland to the UK only to have it get stuck in customs.
We export to the US and other countries, but the EU plays a significant role in our supply chain.
And when we do, workers from the UK will visit Polish construction sites and send money home to our families there.
Tony The Optimist.
I think so too. In 20-30 years.