Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the immediate impact of leaving the European Union has not gone as swimmingly as supporters of the Brexit referendum had claimed, and he refused to rule out the possibility of the nation having second referendum vote.
“I think what will now happen is the claim and counterclaim of the referendum campaign is going to all fall away and now what you are going to be faced with is the reality,” Mr. Blair said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “That is why I say we are a real-time, real-life, experiment in this populist politics.”
Mr. Blair supported remaining in the EU and said the decision to leave has so far had hurt the economy.
“The people who wanted us out said, ’Look it is going to be fantastic. This thing is going to work wonderfully,’ and secondly they said, ’And all those people who are telling you it is not and it is going to be a disaster, they are the establishment, they are the elite, they don’t know what they are talking about. You just thrown them to one side and you go with us,’ ” Mr. Blair said. “We are three days into it, our stock market has crashed, our pound had dropped to its lowest level since the 1980’s. We have had our credit rating downgraded. So things are looking a little different.”
Mr. Blair said, “I wouldn’t write us out of Europe, yet.”
“I think there is a lot still to come,” he said. “The question is what type of relationship. I can’t see us having another referendum at this point, but I would not rule anything out. Let’s wait and see.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.