“We have made an agreement to exchange, but we don’t yet know the terms of Brexit, we don’t know the costs and the consequences”. However, he said that negative economic consequences, such as the fall in the value of the sterling, damage to the financial services industry and vehicle manufacturing and a reduction in foreign investment in the United Kingdom, could sway public opinion.
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Asked whether it was possible that opinion would move sufficiently to avoid Brexit, Mr Blair – speaking in French – responded: “We can say at the moment it’s not probable, today”.
He rejected suggestions that Remain supporters should simply accept the 52%-48% referendum vote in favour of Brexit as the final word on the issue.
“While this was always the plan – to make product for Europe in Europe (alongside our Croatian factory) – the reality of the Brexit vote has meant we have done it with a bullet”, the company said in an emailed statement.
Britain’s prime minister Theresa May should delay triggering Article 50 until autumn 2017, if the nation has not secured a “good deal of clarity from its negotiating partners that they are in a position to agree reasonable terms”, one of the UK’s most powerful politicians said.
During the referendum campaign the pro-Brexit side argued that leaving would allow Britain to control the numbers of European Union immigrants, especially those coming from poorer eastern member states.
The President of the European Council has slammed “detached” European elites and said the “chaos” of last year’s migrant crisis contributed to the Brexit vote, as he announced a meeting on keeping the bloc together.. It claims that policies such as a migration impact fund and banning agencies from advertising exclusively overseas could be introduced.
The Conservative MP Anna Soubry, a key backer of the campaign, said: “The campaign will marry a commitment to Britain’s membership of the single market with making a positive case about the benefits of immigration”.
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The vote to leave, Mr Blair said, had been a reaction against austerity, globalisation and immigration.
