Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday that there was nothing to prevent the United Kingdom from organizing a second referendum on Brexit, adding that Britain’s separation from the European Union would be extremely difficult. Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Blair said there was absolutely no reason to rule out all options, and that people had the right to continue to look at the issue and if necessary, change their minds.
"If it becomes clear that this is a deal that doesn’t make it worth our leaving [the EU] or, alternatively, a deal that’s going to be so serious in its implications that people are going to decide that they don’t want to go, there’s got to be some way, either through parliament or (…) possibly through another referendum in which people express their view,” he said.
Writing in the latest issue of The New European, Blair, who was Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, dubbed Brexit a “catastrophe” and called on supporters of remaining in the EU to mobilize against the advocates of withdrawal. “Now we’re the insurgents,” he wrote in the pro-Europe weekly four months after the referendum on 23 June in which 52% of Britons voted for a break with Brussels.
He said Britain needed to make important concessions to maintain its access to the single market if it did not wish to be exposed to “serious” economic consequences.
(Source: Belga)
