Germany: Blair calls Brexit 'terrible historic mistake' in Munich

Tony Blair, former UK prime minister: "It's an unwise politician who tells you that you should let the people make the decision, OK. Truthfully, I was opposed to the referendum being held. And just, it's a matter of interest really that, nothing more, in 2015 you had a general election in the UK, which David Cameron won with a majority and Europe was barely an issue. In fact, I think I made the only speech in that election campaign and that was about Europe, the second referendum was not a good idea. Then in 2016 we had the referendum. It's such a huge decision. It's difficult to do, especially when you've done it, and the last 30 months, 32 months, have been an education about what Brexit really means. And this is why it's still now today, I think very uncertain as to what will happen in the UK. It changes almost day by day. I mean, look, I'm, I should make an honest confession from the beginning. I am completely opposed to Brexit. I think it is a terrible historic mistake for my country and I will do everything I can until the last moment to stop it. There it is."
Former British prime minister Tony Blair described Brexit as "terrible historic mistake" and vowed to do "everything" to stop it, in a speech from Munich on Friday.
Addressing a crowd of students at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Blair said he was still "uncertain" about whether the UK will leave the European Union (EU) on March 29.
"It changes almost day by day," he told the crowd.
Blair, who led the country between 1997 and 2007, said the referendum result could threaten the viability of the Union, with Scotland voting heavily to remain in 2016.
"This is causing tension between Scotland and England. I think if we do a Brexit that is a 'hard Brexit', so we actually get out of the European trading systems, this is going to be a problem," he said.
The ex-Labour leader also believes "the vote might be different today", with the narrow advantage in favour of Brexit, which won by 51.9% to 48.1%, potentially cancelled out as younger remain-supporting voters replace older leave-supporting voters.