TONY Blair has said the UK should keep its “options open” about leaving the European Union because the “will of the people” could change and the electorate may want to pull back from a Brexit.
The UK Government should delay triggering Article 50, the two-year process for formally quitting the bloc, “for as long as it takes to get an idea of how the other side looks”, according to the former Prime Minister.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn have both ruled out a second EU referendum. Blair stopped short of calling for a second vote on EU membership, but suggested the electorate may change its mind about Europe before the Brexit process is complete.
The former Labour leader suggested a downturn in economic fortunes could lead to such a change in attitudes about the country’s future outside the EU.
Blair told the Murnaghan programme on Sky News: “One of the reasons why we should keep our options open is that yes, the referendum expressed the will of the people, but the will of the people is entitled to change.
“Right now, over the next two months, even while this psycho-drama within the Conservative party is going on, we’ve got to have the national interest protected by trying to set the scene for any negotiation.”
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He added: “I don’t think you can override the settled will of the people but it’s 52 to 48. Supposing some weeks or months down the line, as it becomes clear what we are moving to, as that becomes clear, if it becomes clear these terms are bad for us, if people start to worry about their jobs, we should just keep our options open.
“I’m not saying we should have another referendum, I’m not saying you can revisit this. I’m simply saying there’s no rule about this – we’re a sovereign people, we can do what we want to do.”
Blair also said concerns about immigration were “real” but insisted the answer was not to quit the EU.
In a separate interview, he told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: “One of the things we should be looking at in these next months are other ways of dealing with that that don’t mean we have literally to eject ourselves from the entirety of the European Union for that.
“Even if you apply an Australian points system to European migration, you are still going to get European migrants.”
Blair said David Cameron should be holding talks with the leaders of the 27 other members of the bloc over the next few months to find out “what is the room for manoeuvre” on a range of issues in the Brexit negotiations.
Meanwhile,Tory leadership candidates vying to replace Cameron as Prime Minister have been urged to guarantee that the three million EU nationals already living here are not deported when Britain quits the bloc.
Campaigners from both sides have also called for contenders to pledge to fight for a similar deal for UK citizens living in the other 27 countries in the EU. They include Brexit backers Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP, Labour’s Gisela Stuart and Ukip’s Douglas Carswell, and Remain supporters Yvette Cooper , the former Labour leadership candidate, and Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
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