Tony Blair: Options must stay open on Brexit

The UK should keep its “options open” over Brexit, Tony Blair has said, adding that a second referendum should not be ruled out.
The former PM told the BBC the vote was a “catastrophe” and said it was vital to study the “real-life implications”.
Mr Blair said he accepted the verdict of June’s referendum, but recommended looking again at Brexit when “we have a clear sense of where we’re going”.
Downing Street said it was “absolutely committed” to seeing Brexit through.
A spokesman said the British people had expressed their view very clearly on 23 June, when 51.9% of voters opted to leave the EU, adding: “There will be no second referendum.”
Supporters of leaving the EU argue it will free up the UK to trade better globally and give the government better control of immigration.
‘We’re the insurgents now’
But Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he believed the Brexit vote was a catastrophe and argued that it was important that the views of the “16 million” people who had backed remaining in the EU should not be ignored.
He added: “If it becomes clear that this is either a deal that doesn’t make it worth our while leaving, or alternatively a deal that’s going to be so serious in its implications people may decide they don’t want to go, there’s got to be some way, either through Parliament, or an election, or possibly through another referendum, in which people express their view.”
But he said the vote for Brexit could not be changed “unless it becomes clear that the British people have had a change of mind”.
Read more: Tony Blair: Options must stay open on Brexit.