Former PM is not standing in election but says he feels compelled to re-enter political fray to warn of economic perils of quitting single market

Tony Blair has said he plans to become more involved in the debate surrounding Britain’s departure from the European Union because of the harm it would cause the country.



The former prime minister said he would be “getting out more and reconnecting with voters” because of his worries about the economic damage incurred by leaving the single market, and warned that there were some Conservative politicians who wanted to deliver Brexit at any cost.

He said he would not be standing for a parliamentary seat or giving up work with his charitable foundation, but would try to influence the policy debate shaping the government’s exit negotiations.

The 63-year-old, who was speaking on the 20th anniversary of his landslide win over John Major at the general election in 1997, told the Daily Mirror: “I am going to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate and that means getting out into the country and reconnecting … This Brexit thing has given me a direct motivation to get more involved in politics. You need to get your hands dirty, and I will.”

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The ex-Labour leader said that while the final exit deal had yet to be agreed, the perils of a hard Brexit were clear. “The single market put us in the Champions League of trading agreements. A free-trade agreement is like League One. We are relegating ourselves.”

However, Blair, who led Labour to three consecutive general election wins over the Tories, said his desire to re-involve himself in national politics was not just motivated by Brexit. He said: “We live in a world defined by change. There are cultural stresses, people are worried about immigration, the way their communities have changed, economic stresses, people are worried about the quality of their job … whether they will have a job.”

The former MP for Sedgefield did admit that his return to the political fray might not be universally popular with the electorate. “I know the moment I stick my head out the door, I’ll get a bucket of wotsit poured all over me,” he said. “But I really do feel passionate about this. I don’t want to be in the situation where we pass through this moment of history and I hadn’t said anything, because that would mean I didn’t care about this country. I do.”

He denied that New Labour’s legacy, tainted by the Iraq war and foreign policy decisions after 9/11, was a motivating factor in his decision to return, but said that its perceived toxicity made him “sad”.

Blair did not criticise Labour’s current leader, Jeremy Corbyn, but when asked whether his partial comeback was beneficial to the party five weeks away from the general election on 8 June, he said: “Some people say it harms it and other people will say the opposite – and by the way, it’s more mixed than you might think.”

One criticism he had for the current crop of parliamentarians at Westminster was their lack of understanding about the way the world was changing. But he added that Labour could return to power if it presented a vision for the future.

This was a factor, he said, behind Clement Attlee’s success in 1945 and Harold Wilson’s win in 1964. The electorate were inspired to vote Labour into power when they felt there was a “new age upon us and [that] these guys have the answer”.

