Tony Blair calls on remain voters to rise up against Brexit

The former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said Remainers in the UK should come together to put a halt to the UK’s exit from the EU.

Blair interjected for the first time on Brexit since the referendum saying he accepted the verdict of the vote but recommended giving the “16 million” people who backed the remain side another voice when “we have a clear sense of where we’re going”.

He said the voting outcome was a “catastrophe” on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, suggesting that a second referendums should not be ruled out if the public change their minds.

Blair called on Theresa may to keep her options open including the possibility of staying in the union if public opinion shifts.

"If it becomes clear that this is either a deal that doesn't make it worth our while leaving, or alternatively a deal that's going to be so serious in its implications people may decide they don't want to go, there's got to be some way, either through Parliament, or an election, or possibly through another referendum, in which people express their view," said Blair.

"The issue is not whether we ignore the will of the people, but whether, as information becomes available, and facts take the place of claims, the 'will' of the people shifts.

Blair called on the 48% who voted in to come together to fight against the result in an article in the New European newspaper.

“We’re the insurgents now. We have to build the capability to mobilise and to organise. We have to prise apart the alliance which gave us Brexit."

The ex-PM said Remain voters must win the argument that concerns about immigration, globalisation, stagnant incomes, housing and squeezed public services will only worsen if we no longer have ties with the union.

"We are entitled to try to persuade, to make the argument, and not to be whipped into line to support a decision we genuinely believe is a catastrophe for the country we love," he added.

With the government saying it would not provide a “running commentary” on its stance before negotiations begin, Blair feels it is unclear what the outcome will be.

"We've got to work out: are the freedoms that we are going to gain really so substantial that we want to leave the European Union?," he added.

Blair is not convinced the benefits of trading with the UK will weigh in very high in negotiations with EU officials.

"I'm convinced that it's going to be very, very tough. We have to understand we are not going to be conducting these negotiations with a group of European businessmen who might well decide that they want maximum access to the UK. The people we are going to be conducting these negotiations with are the political leaders of the European Union and their parliaments.”

Blair, who was Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, told Esquire magazine earlier this month that he was condiering looking into whether there was a “role” for him in UK politics, after his departure for almost half a decade.

On Friday, he said the current options left millions of people in the middle with noone to represent them. “This is a decision of those who are active in politics now. My view simply is this, if you end up in situation where the political choice is between a hard Brexit Tory party and a hard-left Labour party, there are millions of people who feel politically homeless,” he said.

UKIP MP Douglas Carswell tweeted that Mr Blair was "seeking to de-legitimise and reverse" the referendum result.

Tory MP Maria Caulfield, member of the Exiting the European Union Select Committee, said Blair “broke his own promise of a referendum on the EU, encouraged uncontrolled immigration and now can’t come to terms with the decision of the people of the UK to leave. Instead of desperately trying to find ways to thwart the will of voters and talking down Britain’s prospects, Labour should be concentrating on helping to make a success of Brexit”.