Tony Blair has said Theresa May has no hope of delivering her negotiating aims or avoiding a hard Irish border if she takes the UK out of the single market and customs union.
The former prime minister, who is to make a major intervention in Brussels ahead of May’s Brexit speech on Friday, said the crisis over the border in Irelandillustrated the “central dilemma” facing the UK and said it was “sickening” to hear senior politicians question the relevance of the Good Friday agreement.
On Wednesday, the future of the Brexit negotiations was left in the balance when May dismissed as an attack on the UK’s constitutional integrity the proposal from the EU for a “back stop” plan under which Northern Ireland would effectively stay in the customs union and single market to avoid a hard border after Brexit.
In comments in support of his predecessor in Downing Street, John Major, Blair condemned the government’s approach as unrealistic and insisted it was only by staying in the single market and customs union that a hard border could be averted.
Talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “On John Major’s speech, I really think people should read it and study it. It is heartfelt and very analytical as to what the problems are.
“Neither he nor I want to make her position difficult. This has gone far beyond that. The problem that she has is that there is no way round the dilemma: what she thinks is that it is possible to get the Europeans to give us access to Europe’s markets without the same obligations that the rest of Europe has in the single market. That is not possible.
“It is not a question of a tough negotiation or a weak negotiation. It is literally is not going to happen.”
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