Tony Blair Believes Theresa Needs More Time to Put More Options to Parliament | Good Morning Britain

how would you reply if someone said this is actually partly your fault you have been going over to Europe you've talked to the French presidents Emmanuel macron and said if you hold out and you don't give Theresa May what she wants then you are more likely to get a second referendum which may mean that you UK stays in the EU so I keep reading this this is what I've been saying to macro I haven't been saying that to macro what I've said to President macros which is the same I said to all the European leaders there's nothing to do with the negotiation because by the way in the end the Europeans know perfectly well what their position is then they're going to stick to that position for reasons I can explain what I have been saying to them is that if Britain thinks again if you get to the point where we do go back to the people then Europe should also think again because the issues that drove brexit immigration questions around the brussels bureaucracy the way europe operated are actually Europe wide concerns are not just British concerns but the idea I've been going over to Europe and st. these leaders no hold firm you know don't give in the reason why they exactly the words apparently that you've been accused of using yeah I think you'll find that's from a conservative source hmm so Peter Bowen is a euro skeptic turns abdomen piece this is totally acceptable for a former prime minister to go around the heads of European countries an undermine the government's position but you admit you've been speaking to the leave yeah of course I'm going to speak to a lot of the European leaders I still know them but look the reason they've got a problem is not because I've given them a problem I mean really you know I haven't been Prime Minister for 11 years they're the government and the European Union leaders deal with the government but here's the central problem this is the reason why we're in this mess and let me just take a moment to explain it basically when you do breaks it you can do it in one of two ways you can have a soft break sit or a hard break sit we have been part of the European trading system that's the single market of Europe the customs union of Europe for four and a half decades a whole set of arrangements have grown up as a result of that commercial Arrangements trade investment all the rest of it now when you do breaks it you can do it staying in those trading systems that's a soft brexit or you can do it getting out of those trade systems and deciding you want to make your own rules around trade in which case that's a hard break sit the central problem is that all the way through the Europeans have been saying to Britain because this is the reality you have to choose which of those two options won't be fair to the millions who voted I think many of them understood because they were told even by the Prime Minister that if you voted for brexit you would come out of the customs union and you would come out of the single market so they were voting for exactly that yes so some people I personally think that it was a majority of people who actually voted for that heart breaks it but when you get down to the detail of what it means this is where you've got this difference some part actually this is a difference even within the cabinet somewhat the soft breaks are and somewhat a heart breaks it what we should have done over the last two and a half three years is force Parliament to choose between those options once you choose between those options the rest of the negotiation is relatively so is think umber wherever the government of the day is to be prepared for any eventuality and what it seems to me is we've reached a point now where no deal has been effectively although not completely removed from the table by Parliament because most parliamentarians most MPs acknowledge and realize we're simply not ready to crash out with no deal to which my response is well why aren't we ready why is this country not prepared for the two options that you laid out soft Briggs's or hard raising we should have been prepared for both and that's a failure of Parliament and the government I think to prepare the country properly for any event you Allison yeah but I mean is that right yeah no I agree with that I mean that is a problem but if you so the question is what do you do now because leave aside all the stuff in those speaker's ruling and all the rest of it the most sensible thing is for the Prime Minister to go to the European Council this week and say to them we have now a plan to put before Parliament the options you can have a soft brakes it or you can have a hard brakes it or if you can't agree on either then that's when my type of position comes into play okay Parliament's going to decide that is actually the first question before you get to the length of the extension that's the first question and then in order to make sure that you're not extending the whole Briggs it nightmare frankly then you should take that out of the transitional period so at the moment for example we have a situation where in a curious way we agreed to do the all the withdrawal negotiation first and then you have a 21-month period of transition really the most sensible thing is to have a longer period where you're negotiating so that you know exactly what it is you're going to before you leave and then you can shorten the transition period that requires Theresa May going back on everything that she'd agreed I mean what you're saying is she made a catastrophic error right at the beginning to trigger article 50 and to negotiate a withdrawal agreement without deciding what the trade agreement was going to be that is my view but on the other hand you know that's as it were water under the bridge yeah so what she she can still now rescue this situation if she puts before Parliament the core options cuz the real reason why Parliament is is rejecting this deal I mean there are lots of different reasons but at the heart of it is the fact that her deal leaves Northern Ireland in a bit of a mess because you're not quite sure what the situation is there and the future relationship a mystery and that is not a sensible position as we are another reason is that two-thirds of parliament voted remain but the Prime Minister voted remain and there is a growing sense amongst those who voted for break said that the people driving the Train don't want to arrive at a brexit destination actually they want to keep this on pass going make it as muddied complicated as possible so eventually it may come back to a second vote which might overturn the first vote without the first vote ever even being implemented and that's the point where me as a remain voter says hang on a second here our democratic process surely rests on at least enacting the result of the first referendum and seeing if it works before you bring in another referendum I do because if you don't why should we ever trust the will of government or Parliament to enact one of the people ever again with a devotee so I understand that I mean to be fair to Therese May I think she genuinely does want to deliver brigs ed even though she voted remain and I think you know you've got a whole set of Labour MPs for example who photoed remain now say no we've got to deliver the Briggs in result and I completely get it and I also get the fact that for the vast majority of British people they're just saying why don't you get on with it voted for it why don't you get on with it okay the the problem is that when we just say get on with it when you come to study the detail it is actually important to know roughly at least in a reasonably clear framework what your future relationship with Europe is before you leave otherwise you know your moving house before you have any idea what the new house looks like so even now I think it would be possible for her to correct this floor by going to Europe and saying to them because by the way I think they would respond perfectly well to this say okay I need some more time to put the options before Parliament once those options come before Parliament Parliament's got a vote they want a soft brakes it they want a hard brakes it they've got to make up their minds and then the question I think would would then be because I think that when people see the detail of what soft and hard means it may be but it may not be but it may be the members of parliament thing actually the final say should go with the people but people are saying on Twitter right already at the moment they heard you were coming on it's like Tony Blair wants a second vote right he wants the people now they're better informed to have a second vote and so on but this is the same guy he took us into war with Iraq right against the will of the British people 1.7 million people marched through London many carrying Daily Mirror at placards which I supplied them with that it's of the mirror and that there was no vote from the people that could have influenced that what turned out to be in many people's eyes a catastrophic decision so their argument is well you know it's all very well you saying here or now I believe in this huge will of the people and democracy and so on but where was that in your head when you took us to war with Iraq and what's the difference well the difference is first of all we didn't have a referendum on where to but we knew the will of the people was significant I think if you look back it's a little less clear than actually peers in Parliament voted because both the Labour Party of the Conservative Party were in favor of doing that we can go back over and argue that rallies are in favor of Briggs it yeah but that doesn't mean it's going to happen look so the parallel is not completely just you know expressional is it except in this case the reason why I say you can't check change Briggs it without a further referendum it's because it was a referendum that mandated it all I'm saying is look I don't think it's unreasonable to say after three years of let's be clear pretty much chaos and mess it's not unreasonable to say to the British people ask and some other people for British people do you really want to proceed with this or not they haven't even we haven't even my point is this and you know I reiterate I voted remain and I would do again but I absolutely believe in democracy and what worries me about this second referendum clarion call is that it it's the suggestions we do this before we even try to enact the result of the first one yeah there I would agree okay so my my view is that the best thing is for Parliament to come to a view because after all as I say the detail does matter I mean whether you stay in the single market in customs you you come out we both the briggsie the Prime Minister has made it very clear her own position in the government's position which is that we come out of the single market because if we stay in the single market we have to keep the four freedoms including freedom of movement and she thought that that was significant she didn't want that anymore we come out of the customs union because without it we can't strike independent free trade deals with other countries but the problem was the border between northern ireland's and the rest of the EU at Ireland and because the EU would were absolutely not gonna Bend on that that's the thing she's come up against you can make it about soft brexit and hard brexit the people voted for brexit and she's come up against a problem in the EU where they won't grant it that's how people see it the problem is she's asking for two inconsistent things so the reason you've got a problem in Northern Ireland and were debating Northern Ireland all the time is that that's part of the withdrawal agreement but actually you're just have the same problem the Irish problem writ large for the whole of the UK when you come to the future relationship because she's saying two things at the same time she wants an open frictionless border between the north and south of Ireland but she wants Northern Ireland out of the single marketing customs yeah those two that political will could make that happen no it couldn't that's that's the problem there's this is why all the way through it's less of a negotiation than a choice if you come out of the single market in customs union you obviously can't have the same frictionless access to the trading arrangements you will and energy into fixing it somehow for instance through alternative arrangements technological technology rights and what the EU have said until you get this technology which no one's actually invented you've got to guarantee that Britain or that Northern Ireland and therefore the UK will stay inside a customs union which means you can't have your independent trade relationships so this is what I'm saying when you go into the detail of this you come up against a very simple choice you're in the single market and customs you you're out of it it's a binary choices it's one or the other and the best thing is to force Parliament to make that decision and then frankly it's a matter of debate that I mean that today's debate is not about whether you have another referendum you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 33,893

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, tony blair, prime minister, european union, uk politics, second referendum, theresa may, jeremy corbyn, tony blair brexit, brexit news, labour party, brexit deal, tony blair interview, 2nd referendum brexit, theresa may brexit, brexit peoples vote, peoples vote

Id: W5Xfrsbmg90

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2019