Blair: ‘Even if we land a Brexit deal, it will be bad’

Speaking during Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Tony Blair said: ‘They obviously could land a deal. But even the deal we land is going to be pretty bad, because even the deal the government wants is essentially going to be good for Europe, because it’s going to allow easier trade in goods, but very inhibiting for us on the issue of services.’

He added that he does not think the government will be ‘relaxed’ about a no-deal Brexit, because the UK is facing multiple challenges already: ‘If you’ve got coronavirus and all the economic dislocations that is causing with a no-deal Brexit on top of that, and then you’ve got issues to do with China and Chinese investments, I should imagine they will be trying to get a deal, let’s hope they do.’

Blair said current Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has made the party competitive again by being a ‘serious figure’, and said that the government will need ‘massive changes’ to tackle future economic challenges.

The former prime minister also spoke about the report into Russia which was published this week, and which shows that the UK government ‘badly underestimated the threat from Russia and has been playing catch-up’, according to Ridge.

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Blair said: ‘If someone is interfering with your democratic process you have to know about it. There are governments who want to weaken the west we know why they want to do it.

‘It would be wise to investigate what happened and prepare for the future by building the capability of investigating foreign governments, because this is interference will be stronger and stronger.’