Tony Blair has advised voters to consider backing Conservative or Liberal Democrat candidates in June’s general election, if they promise to have an open mind on the terms of the final Brexit deal.
The former Labour prime minister said the public should set party allegiance aside in an effort to prevent the June 8 poll becoming what he called a “steamroller election”, and maximise the number of MPs willing to vote against hard Brexit when Theresa May brings the deal back to the House of Commons.
In an interview on the BBC’s World This Weekend, Blair also said he was so concerned about the prospect of Britain plunging out of the single market that he could even return to frontline politics, saying: “I look at the political scene at the moment and I almost feel motivated to go right back into it.” Blair said that if Theresa May won a landslide, as the polls currently suggest, the Conservatives would read it as a mandate for “Brexit at any costs” – and voters concerned about the risks of leaving the EU should press every candidate to ask whether they had an open mind about whether the final deal was in Britain’s interests.
“The absolutely central question at this general election is less who is the prime minister on June 9, and more what is the nature of the mandate, and in particular – because otherwise frankly this is a steamroller election – is it possible that we can return as many members of parliament as possible to parliament that are going to keep an open mind on this Brexit negotiation until we see the final terms.”
Asked if the approach he was advocating could mean voting LibDem in a lot of cases, he said: “What I’m advocating may mean that. It may mean voting Labour. It may mean, by the way, that they vote Tory, for candidates who are prepared to give this commitment.”
He added: “This is something that’s bigger than party allegiance, in this particular election.”
He said he would campaign to ensure that candidates in every constituency were put under pressure to answer the question: “Will you back Brexit at any costs, or are you prepared to say, this deal is not in the interests of the country?”
Blair’s intervention will infuriate Labour’s campaign team, who have been trying to toe a careful line on Brexit that alienates neither anxious Remainers, nor Leave voters in its traditional heartland seats. The former leader said he would vote Labour himself. But he appeared to be sailing dangerously close to Labour party rules which ban members from supporting candidates from rival political parties. Some party members were prevented from voting in last year’s Labour leadership contest because they had previously publicly expressed support for other parties, in many cases on social media.
Blair: hints at return to frontline politics.
