{"id":25806,"date":"2018-12-16T22:22:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T22:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25806"},"modified":"2018-12-16T22:22:19","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T22:22:19","slug":"british-pm-theresa-may-slams-tony-blair-over-anti-brexit-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25806","title":{"rendered":"British PM Theresa May slams Tony Blair over anti-Brexit moves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May<\/a> has accused former British leader Tony Blair<\/a> of insulting Brexit<\/a> voters by trying to undermine her negotiations with the European Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

May said in a statement issued late on Saturday that Blair – the United Kingdom<\/a>‘s prime minister between 1997 and 2007 – was in Brussels advocating for a second referendum on Brexit.<\/p>\n

His move was “an insult to the office he once held and the people he once served”, according to May.<\/p>\n

“We cannot, as he would, abdicate responsibility for this decision. Parliament has a democratic duty to deliver what the British people voted for,” she said.<\/p>\n

May has repeatedly ruled out holding a new referendum, saying the result in 2016 was clear.<\/p>\n

But growing numbers of MPs believe a “people’s vote” is the only way to break an impasse that risks Britain leaving the EU on March 29 without any agreement at all.<\/p>\n

‘The sensible thing’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Blair’s latest speech on the issue came on Friday as May met EU leaders in Brussels to discuss how to save the agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, he said in a statement it would be “the sensible thing” to allow parliament to vote on each of the forms of Brexit canvassed, including the deal May agreed with the EU.<\/p>\n

“If they can’t reach agreement then the logical thing is to go back to the people,” he said.<\/p>\n

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Brexit fishing rights: Questions about North Sea ownership<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Blair said it was “irresponsible” to try to “steamroller MPs into accepting a deal they genuinely think is a bad one with the threat that if they do not fall into line, the government will have the country crash out [of the EU] without a deal”.<\/p>\n

Also on Sunday,\u00a0May’s supporters dampened suggestions that the government was planning a second referendum, arguing another Brexit vote would exacerbate divisions in the UK, not heal them.<\/p>\n

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC: “Suppose we had another referendum. Supposing the ‘remain’ side won it by 52 to 48, but it was on a lower turnout – entirely possible.<\/p>\n

“If there is another referendum, which I don’t think there will be, people like me will be immediately demanding it’s best of three. Where does that end up?”<\/p>\n

Education Minister Damian Hinds stuck to the same script in an interview with Sky News: “No, a second referendum would be divisive. We’ve had the people’s vote, we’ve had the referendum, and now we’ve got to get on with implementing it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

May’s chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, said on Twitter: “Happy to confirm I am *not* planning a 2nd referendum with political opponents [or anyone else to anticipate the next question].”<\/p>\n

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What’s the cost of brokering Brexit? | Counting the Cost<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May has accused former British leader Tony Blair of insulting Brexit voters by trying to undermine her negotiations with the European Union. May said in a statement issued late on Saturday that Blair – the United Kingdom’s prime minister between 1997 and 2007 – was in Brussels advocating for a second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}