Tony Blair warns the EU could collapse if it fails to reform, claiming ‘populist’ uprisings like Brexit will spread to other countries
Ex-PM said ‘anxieties’ which led to Brexit are not confined to Britain, urging Brussels to ‘to deal with those underlying issues’
TONY Blair has warned the EU it could collapse if it fails to reform as he claimed populist uprisings like Brexit will spread to other countries.
The former Prime Minister said the “anxieties” which led to Brexit are “not confined to Britain” and urges Brussels to “to deal with those underlying issues”.
He was speaking to a German newspaper a day after he was warned he risks sparking riots on the streets after not ruling out holding a third referendum if a second one still sees us vote to leave the EU.
Mr Blair continued his anti-Brexit crusade by suggesting to the BBC that Brits could put a stop to our exit from the bloc it in a special general election on the issue.
But he was criticised for suggesting the public should be entitled to "think again", with presenter John Humphrys saying he threatened to create “civil disobedience”.
And the former chancellor Norman Lamont trashed his intervention as a mere “attempt to sabotage the result of the referendum”, and an "incentive" for EU to offer us a bad deal.
Today Mr Blair, a committed Europhile once tipped to be President of the European Council, told Die Welt anti-EU sentiment was spreading.
He said: “Let’s be clear: the anxieties of the British people that led to Brexit are not confined to Britain.
“With strong leadership we would seize the moment of Brexit also to deal with those underlying issues which are not only the preoccupation of the British people but are the preoccupation right across Europe.
“Because otherwise, this populism will get fuelled.”
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He said the EU needed to understand there were countries who were worried about migration from outside the EU.
The former Labour leader highlighted Holland, Denmark and Sweden as places where “people aren’t sure the people coming are sharing our values”.
And he added: “We need to use Brexit to find answers to the underlying issues. Otherwise, Europe's populism will only grow.”
