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London - Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said he fears that an wider majority for Theresa May’s Conservatives in the June 8 general election will give her “a blank check for Brexit at any cost.”
Voters should elect candidates of any party who will “keep an open mind” on the shape of the trade deal the UK reaches with the European Union, Blair, who won three UK elections for Labour from 1997 to 2005, said Sunday on BBC Radio 4’s “The World This Weekend” program. “This is bigger than party allegiance,” he said.
“The line that Theresa May and the Tory party are pursuing is to say she’s got to have her hand strengthened for this negotiation,” Blair said. “What is essential to realize, however, is that she has already tied her hands in this negotiation, because she’s taken off the table the one thing that undoubtedly would be best for British industry and British trade, which is membership of the single market.”
Opinion polls suggest the Conservatives may be heading for a majority of more than 100 in the 650-seat House of Commons.
Blair described May as “very sensible” and “perfectly decent” but said that “she’s pursuing an unreasonable policy” on Brexit.
“We’re just allowing ourselves to be hijacked by what is actually quite a small group of people with a very strong ideology,” Blair said. “I look at the British political scene at the moment and I actually almost feel motivated to go right back into it.”
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