Great Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair criticized the British Labour Party’s approach to the Brexit, remarking that keeping both sides happy is not feasible.
“It would’ve been better if we’d been able to fight it in a clearer way,” said Blair in front of an audience in London yesterday at an event hosted by the Guardian at the Barbican center. In his address, Blair also confirmed his intention to vote for Labour.
Several Labour MPs and representatives are currently pushing for a confirmatory referendum, conditioning their support to any eventual agreement to the inclusion of a mechanism that would take into account the people's will. However, many conservative MPs and representatives want to take the 2016 referendum results into account.
Blair supported the idea of a new referendum, remarking that despite the fact that he considers Labour to be correct when the party accepted the results of the 2016 referendum, it should have supported the calling of a new one given the failure of the Brexit talks.
He also said that a no-deal Brexit was “very unlikely” and that the Brexit discussion has been distracting the British government from other important political and economic domestic issues that are currently affecting the country.
“The great irony of Brexit is, the future of the National Health Service is decided in Westminster. The person who’s got the opportunity to do something about knife crime is Theresa May, not Jean-Claude Juncker,” he said, “Brexit’s distractive effect is almost as bad as the destructive effect,” he added.
Issues with health and police funding and lack of opportunities for the young Britons should be among the top priorities of the parliament according to Blair.
He also criticized the conservative party, accusing them of following the steps of Labour.
“My view is that both the main parties have made the same mistake if you try and face both ways you end up pleasing no one,” he commented.
Blair criticized the Brexit strongly adding that "it’s the answer to nothing”, despite attributing to legitimate concerns about immigration and globalization.