LONDON (AP) – Former Prime Minister Tony Blair launched a new campaign Friday to persuade Britons to change their minds about leaving the European Union, arguing that those who want to remain should rise up and have their voices heard.
Blair urged voters to speak out against what he said was the government’s drive to exit the EU at any cost, arguing it could damage future generations and the unity of the country itself. In a speech for Open Britain, which is campaigning against leaving the EU’s single market of 500 million, he argued last year’s vote to leave was “based on imperfect knowledge,” and that Britons voted without knowledge of the true terms of Brexit.
“As these terms become clear, it is their right to change their mind,” he said. “Our mission is to persuade them to do so.”
Blair’s intervention reflects the ongoing division in Britain that followed the June 23 referendum. Though the U.K. voted to leave the 28-nation bloc, the specifics under which Britain would go weren’t agreed on. Some in this country of 64 million have expressed disquiet at the potential consequences.
“They will say we don’t represent the people. We do, many millions of them and with determination many millions more,” he said. “They will claim we’re dividing the country by making the case. It is they who divide our country – generation from generation, North from South, Scotland from England, those born here from those who came to our country precisely because of what they thought it stood for and what they admired.”