Tony Blair tells MPs to vote down ANY deal and push for a new referendum to cancel Brexit
- Former Labour PM has urged MPs to vote down any Brexit deal made in Brussels
- Blair is determined to thwart Brexit and believes threat of no deal would help
- He said there could only be a ‘pointless, painful or fudged’ Brexit deal
Tony Blair (file) today urged MPs to vote down any deal from Brussels to build pressure for a second referendum to cancel Brexit.
Tony Blair today urged MPs to vote down any deal from Brussels to build pressure for a second referendum to cancel Brexit.
The ex-PM said the negotiations were ‘approaching crunch time’ and warned the House of Commons there was no good deal available.
Mr Blair insisted the only choices on offer were ‘pointless, painful or fudged’ meaning MPs should vote with their conscience and say no.
He claimed No MP would lose their seat for voting in defence of the nation despite the 17.4million votes in favour of Brexit at the 2016 referendum.
Writing in the Observer today, Mr Blair said: ‘We are approaching Brexit crunch time
Everyone is going to come under intense pressure to agree a ‘reasonable deal’, Labour MPs especially. They should resist.
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‘There is no ‘reasonable deal’. There is the pointless, the painful or fudge through postponement of the core issues. Each option is bad. MPs should vote it down and give the people the final say.’
Amid fears from Remain MPs they will kicked by the voters for blocking Brexit, Mr Blair adds: ‘I promise them as someone who used to win elections: no one will lose their seat on this basis.
‘But vote through a botched negotiation that you don’t believe in and the backlash will last a political lifetime.’
Mr Blair insisted the only choices on offer were ‘pointless, painful or fudged’ meaning MPs should vote with their conscience and say no to whatever Theresa May (pictured in Downing Street this week) brings home
Mr Blair said the only way to protect Northern Ireland in the Union was staying in the EU Customs Union and Single Market – something the Government has vowed not to do.
Mr Blair said: ‘They made a rash commitment last December that the Northern Ireland issue would be resolved as a part of the withdrawal agreement, with the border frictionless and with backstop to guarantee it.
‘There is simply no answer to the Irish issue.’
Mr Blair’s warning came as more than 70 business leaders backed a referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal, warning that the UK faces ‘either a blindfold or a destructive hard Brexit’ that would be bad for both firms and jobs.
Waterstones chief executive James Daunt, ex-Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King, Lastminute.com founder Baroness Lane-Fox and Innocent Drinks co-founder Richard Reed were among signatories of a letter calling for a People’s Vote on leaving the European Union.
The letter argues that both the Government’s current plans for Brexit, and a no-deal Brexit, would leave the country worse off than they were being in the EU if the country left in March.
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