Blair launched his new campaign to expose the "imperfect knowledge" on which 52 percent of people voted to leave the EU in a referendum on June 23, 2016 saying future generations would give Brexiteers a "rancorous verdict."
Speaking at an Open Britain event, February 17, Blair said: "I want to be explicit. Yes, the British people voted to leave Europe. And I agree the will of the people should prevail. I accept right now there is no widespread appetite to re-think."
Tony Blair today gave a keynote speech where he made clear that we must avoid 'Brexit At Any Cost', which the Govt are currently pursing: pic.twitter.com/hyZbdDwRAJ
— Open Britain (@Open_Britain) 17 February 2017
"But the people voted without knowledge of the true terms of Brexit. As these terms become clear, it is their right to change their mind. Our mission is to persuade them to do so.What was unfortunately only dim in our sight before the referendum is now in plain sight. The road we're going down is not simply Hard Brexit. It is Brexit at any cost.
"Our challenge is to expose relentlessly what this cost is, to show how the decision was based on imperfect knowledge which will now become informed knowledge, to calculate in ‘easy to understand' ways how proceeding will cause real damage to our country; and to build support for finding a way out from the present rush over the cliff's edge," said Blair.
Boris Johnson has called on people “to rise up and turn off the TV when Tony Blair next appears with his condescending campaign.” Brilliant!
— Change Britain (@Change_Britain) 17 February 2017
"I don't know if we can succeed. But I do know we will suffer a rancorous verdict from future generations if we do not try," Blair added.
'Better for Brexit'
However, his comments were seized upon by — among others — the UKIP party, which campaigned for Britain to leave the EU. Its said the campaign to leave the EU was discussed at length and that people in the UK knew what they were voting for.
"Everybody listened to the arguments for months on end until we were bored witless. Tony Blair was nowhere to be seen. He was probably off abroad raising money for his foundations, or whatever he gets up to. We didn't see much of him during the campaign," David Coburn MEP told Sputnik.
Outside the EU’s single market, we can end freedom of movement and implement a fair immigration system pic.twitter.com/LSFFjskpe1
— Change Britain (@Change_Britain) 17 February 2017
"I think he's a busted flush. I don't think that people take him seriously. I think he got us into a lot of wars that people weren't very happy about. I don't think that we need any advice from Tony Blair. And I think that's the view from within his own party. The Labour party were glad to see the back of him, so I don't feel it will have any effect. I think the more he talks, the better it is for Brexit," Coburn told Sputnik.
The inquiry into the Iraq invasion, headed by Sir John Chilcot, found that policy on Iraq was based on flawed intelligence and assessments and that the legal case for going to war was "far from satisfactory". Chilcot said Blair's government had not exhausted peaceful means of dealing with Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction — clearly inferring Blair had jumped prematurely into war.
