Former Labour leader says there is no outcome Theresa May can secure that will be good for the country

Tony Blair is urging all MPs to vote down whatever Brexit deal Theresa May presents to parliament and to push instead for another referendum, warning that if they fail to do so there will be a backlash from voters that will last a political lifetime.

Writing in Sunday’s Observer, the former prime minister, who won three general elections as Labour leader, says there is now no outcome May can secure that can be good, or even reasonable, for the country.

“We are approaching Brexit crunch time,” he writes. “Everyone is going to come under intense pressure to agree a ‘reasonable deal’, Labour MPs especially. They should resist. There is no ‘reasonable deal’.

“There is the pointless, the painful or fudge through postponement of the core issues. Each option is bad. MPs should vote it down and give the people the final say.”

With expectations rising that a deal may only be weeks away, and that the prime minister could put the outcome to a vote in parliament before Christmas, Blair says that rather than being afraid of voting it down, Labour and other MPs should be more worried about the consequences of inflicting a bad outcome on an electorate that would prove unforgiving.

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Describing May’s Chequers plans as “madness”, he writes: “Time has not lessened my sense of the catastrophic effects of Brexit. It has increased it. MPs should vote against the deal, while saying to their constituents: ‘We cannot, in all conscience, agree with this, but the final decision is yours.’”

He adds: “I promise them as someone who used to win elections: no one will lose their seat on this basis. But vote through a botched negotiation that you don’t believe in and the backlash will last a political lifetime.”

Blair argues that the government has tabled a series of “incompatible demands” which has led to a negotiating impasse.

“They want a frictionless border in Ireland. That can only happen if Northern Ireland remains in the customs union and single market, at least for goods and agricultural products. But they want the UK to leave the customs union and single market.

“However, they also want Northern Ireland and Britain to be in the same relationship to Europe as each other.

“And they made a rash commitment last December that the Northern Ireland issue would be resolved as a part of the withdrawal agreement, with the border frictionless and with a backstop to guarantee it. There is simply no answer to the Irish issue.”

Blair’s comments come as the campaign for a second referendum received a further boost when more than 50 business leaders signed a letter calling for another vote. Signatories included the chief executive of Waterstones and the former boss of Sainsbury’s, Justin King.

Lady Lane-Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com and a director of Twitter and Chanel; Lord Myners,a former chair of Marks & Spencer; and Richard Reed, co-founder of the Innocent drinks company, are among further signatories to the letter published by the Sunday Times.

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The letter concludes: “We are now facing either a blindfold or a destructive hard Brexit. Given that neither was on the ballot in 2016, we believe the ultimate choice should be handed back to the public with a people’s vote.”

Meanwhile, a new study by YouGov for the People’s Vote campaign shows that the 67 Conservative MPs with majorities under 5,000 are all in constituencies where there is a majority in favour of a people’s vote. The average support for the public being given the final say in these seats is 56% – compared with 44% against – when “don’t knows” are excluded.

In each seat, the number of Conservative voters who back a people’s vote is significantly bigger than their MP’s majority at the last election. Voters in Labour’s top 100 target seats – including those that it needs to win if it is to form a government with a workable Commons majority – also back a people’s vote by an average margin 58% to 42%.