Fury as Tony Blair urges MPs should delay Brexit to have a second referendum and force Britain to Remain

The ex-Prime Minister sparked fresh fury as he said France's leader Macron is "right" and that the EU won't let us extend Brexit day until Parliament sorts out what it wants.

Instead he said that MPs should vote to slap down Mrs May's deal and delay Article 50 – so they can vote on what kind of Brexit they want.

But it would extend the uncertainty and chaos of Brexit for many more months to come, he admitted.

"It doesn't need to be long," he told the Andrew Marr Show this morning.

"Long enough to give us time to make up our minds.

"It's possible to put a set of votes to the House of Commons – hard Brexit, soft Brexit, or back to the people."

Theresa May opened the door to delaying Brexit day this week when she said MPs would have a vote on it if she wasn't able to pass a deal by March 12.

Mr Blair, who has been campaigning for months to try and overturn the referendum result and keep us in the EU against the will of the British people, said the options for Brexit were all bad.

He said a so-called hard Brexit with a Canada-style trade deal would be "economically painful" and a soft-Brexit where we stayed in the customs union would see Britain become a "rule-taker".

After that MPs should "put it back to the people", he insisted.

To delay to thwart the process of Brexit is completely unacceptable.

"Once obliged to choose, MPs will realise either choice is unattractive and the people will understand neither is better than what we have inside Europe now," he wrote in the Observer earlier today.

"President Macron is right. Any extension of the Article 50 process should be for a reason," he added.

Trade Secretary Liam Fox said delaying Brexit should only happen if we need a short delay to get all the legislation through – but not for Remainers to try and "thwart Brexit".

He told the same show: "Why delay? An administrative extension, I don't think anyone would disagree with – to give more time to prepare for the practicalities on both sides.

"But to attempt to have a delay mechanism to thwart the process of Brexit itself is completely unacceptable and would have a backlash".

If the EU proposed a 21-month delay to Brexit instead of a transition period he would be "shocked" as the EU don't want us to take part in another European election in May, he added.

And justice minister Rory Stewart said on Sky's Sophy Ridge today changing our exit day would leave Britain in a "zombie world, not knowing where we are going".

It would open the door to another election or a referendum that could turn over the result, he warned.

Fresh Tory civil war erupts as Leadsom and Hunt lash out at Remainers for trying to delay Brexit

The two big beast took aim at Amber Rudd, Greg Clark and David Gauke, saying their "active pursuit of a delay" was a betrayal of the referendum result.

Ms Leadsom, a Leaver, and Mr Hunt, a Remainer who now thinks Brexit has to be delivered, said that efforts to push back our Brexit date were risking an "irretrievable breach of trust" to voters.

In an article for the Sunday Telegraph the pair wrote: "The active pursuit of a delay to Brexit – with no purpose beyond frustration – is a betrayal of the referendum result.

"It would lead to an irretrievable breach of trust with those who are already cynical about the will of Westminster to deliver on the result to begin with."

They also lashed our at those Brexiteers who were so committed to leave on WTO terms – saying they were turning their backs on a far more attractive option in the PM's deal".
A good deal is "within our grasp" and they "remain energise to deliver on Brexit," the pair concluded.

Last week Mrs May was forced by the Remainers in her Cabinet to offer MPs the vote on an extension of Article 50.

They threatened to resign if the PM didn't rule out Britain leaving with no deal at all, which might now risk a general election or another divisive general election.

But his latest intervention sparked fury immediately, with MPs telling him that his plan would just extend the chaos further for months.

Tory MP John Lamont stormed: "Listening to Tony Blair on Marr and his obsession with another EU referendum, I do wonder when he last spoke to someone outside of the London bubble.
"If he did, he would know that there’s no support to extend the Brexit uncertainty by having another referendum."

And Labour's Caroline Flint, whose constituency voted leave, said: "No deal will ever be good enough.
"Tony Blair wants to stop Brexit… there's no compromise with him and others like him between a hard or soft Brexit."

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