Tony Blair has faced criticism after attempting to spin the European election results as a victory for Remain, despite the Brexit Party's decisive win. The former Labour leader argued that pro-EU parties collectively secured a larger share of the vote than the Brexit Party and UKIP combined, but omitted the Conservative Party's votes, which also support Brexit.
Brexiteers reacted angrily, accusing Blair of misrepresenting the numbers. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: 'For anyone including Tony Blair to think the election was anything but a victory for the Brexit Party is to be in complete denial of the facts.'
This is not the first time Blair's interpretation of facts has been questioned. The 2016 Chilcot report into the Iraq War strongly criticised his decision to lead the UK into conflict based on 'flawed' intelligence. During his evidence to the inquiry, families of fallen soldiers branded him a 'liar' and a 'murderer', though the report concluded he had 'not departed from the truth'.
The Brexit Party won 31.6 per cent of the vote, formed just six weeks before the election. The Liberal Democrats came second with 20.3 per cent, Labour third with 14.1 per cent, the Greens fourth with 12.1 per cent, and the Conservatives fifth with 9.1 per cent.
Blair told Sky News: 'You can argue about the Brexit Party coming number one – but then if you stack up the votes of the pro-remain parties it's a bigger percentage than the Brexit Party and UKIP. So what these results tell you is that this country is profoundly divided.'
Nigel Farage dismissed such claims as 'absolute tosh', arguing that adding the Conservative vote gives Leave a majority. He said: 'Add up the Brexit vote, add up the Ukip vote... add the Conservative vote, who are still a party that says we are going to leave, and you will find that Leave beat Remain.'
