Former Premier Tony Blair today predicted defeat for Jeremy Corbyn but called for a cross-party movement to tie Theresa May’s hands during Brexit negotiations.
Writing in today’s Evening Standard, he said he would back Labour candidates but believed the party was unlikely to take power.
“But the fact is that if the polls are right, Theresa May will be PM on June 9 with a large majority,” he wrote. “The issue is: with what mandate?”
Mr Blair said the public could still influence the future relationship between Britain and the European Union if pro-Europeans united to make their local candidates give clear commitments “in particular, whether they would refuse to support a deal which substantially diminishes our access to the Single Market or a ‘no deal’ outcome”.
The former Labour leader said Mrs May was trying to avoid giving cast-iron promises because she knew that Brexit meant “a choice between bad and downright ugly” terms.
“We need to add a new dimension to this election; a movement of informed voters who can ensure that a re-elected Tory party cannot claim a mandate for Brexit at any cost,” he urged.
Branding Mrs May as “a reasonable person pursuing an unreasonable policy” he said: “We don’t know what size of majority Theresa May will get. But we can determine what mandate she can claim.”
Mr Blair’s appeal came after the European Parliament’s president claimed the UK would be welcomed back by the EU if it abandoned Brexit after the general election. Antonio Tajani said all 27 other countries in the EU would be in favour if a new government decided to reverse the Article 50 process.
But he raised the stakes for Brexit, saying any agreement on the rights of EU citizens must remain subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). That contradicts one of the Prime Minister’s stated goals, which is to end the jurisdiction of the court.
“If tomorrow, the new UK government decides to change its position, it is possible to do,” he said.
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Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon used an anti-Brexit message to squeeze Labour and the Conservatives.
The SNP leader was launching the SNP’s manifesto for local government election in Edinburgh, saying the Conservatives had become “a single-issue, Brexit-at-all-costs machine”.