Tony Blair: Labour will vote down Brexit

Blair says the choices are ‘pretty narrow’ for what Theresa May can do to find a solution to her Brexit woes.

The former prime minister has predicted ‘gridlock’ and ‘paralysis’ in the House of Commons because May is unable to command a majority on either a hard or soft Brexit.

He told Bloomberg: ‘If she goes soft Brexit you’ve got people like Boris Johnson who will vote against it. If she goes hard Brexit she’s got the other wing of the party who will vote against that.’

And he said the paralysis will be sparked by Labour’s opposition to Brexit.

Another Brexit vote is "the obvious thing to do" and in the best interests of Theresa May's party, Britain's ex-PM Tony Blair says https://t.co/CUTdOiuTqH pic.twitter.com/fhzNiEseU2
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) September 6, 2018

‘The Labour party will vote against virtually any proposition the government puts forward,’ he said. ‘You either crash out with no deal… or alternatively you have a general election. For the Conservative party to have a general election on the issue of Brexit would be a crazy thing to do.’

A People’s Vote was the ‘rational thing’ to do, the former PM added.

‘Therefore even if people are saying we’re not going to have another vote, if you end up with that paralysis that logical way out is to go back to the people, and it is the rational thing to do.

‘We’ve been over two years trying to negotiate this thing now. We’re really not a great deal further on from where we were in the beginning. That’s why I say in the end people are going to look at this and say ‘well how do you resolve this?”

Asked whether he thought his contributions to the Brexit debate were helpful or not, Blair said: ‘This is a moment of national crisis for my country, this is going to decide the destiny of Britain for many generations to come. If you feel passionately and strongly about it you’ve got a right to speak out about it. There will be lots of debate about who is the best person to speak about it or not speak, but this is an issue of which it is important the arguments are made and I intend to carry on making them.’