Who else feels insulted by Blair's suggestion that we should 'prise apart the alliance which caused us to vote to leave the EU?' It is an instant reminder of how far we have come since his resignation in 2007.
But his premiership helped create the Brexitthat the former prime minister is intent upon delaying, or worse, destroying.New Labour sowed the seedsto bring about our departure from the EU.
Broken promises
New Labourrose to prominence after John Smith's death in 1994 underBlair'sleadership. Considering Major brought about the death of the last Conservative government by signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and withdrawing Britain from the European Rate Mechanism the same year, the EU had become a contentious issue for British politics in the 1990s.
To be considered aBrexitsupporter then, you would have been labelled a 'Little Englander.'
The former Labour leader thought that the best way to bypass the issue of Europe was to have a referendum on the single currency. So who invented the idea of European referendums? TonyBlair.
But did a referendum on any stage of EU enlargement take place throughoutNew Labour's rule? No. What people who believed in the centre-left party's solution to Europe were left with were broken promises. Their stewardship of the economy for ten years was their saving grace (which we all know ended in disaster eventually). The 'working man's' party should have lost office for their failure to protect Britain's best interests in Europe and for their stupidity in taking us into an Iraq War based on dodgy dossiers.
Labour's record in Europe
No one knew that the euro would become an unmitigated disaster once it was launched in the 1999. It was no secretBlairwanted Britain to join the single currency. The issue would linger over the years until it became clear by 2008 that it caused abstract poverty and misery in southern Europe. But at the time, it was seen as a source of prosperity andNew Labourwanted our country to be part of that.
The party's manifesto in 1997 stated that there would be a referendum on the euro, but by 1999 it became clear that Brown had vetoed the dream of monetary union.
The tide of Euroscepticism turned against the former Labour government when they flirted with the idea of signing the EU Constitution in 2004. The entry of ten new European countries into the EU which then caused an influx of immigration.
Brits were promised a poll on the new constitution, but after France and the Netherlands rejected the proposals in 2005, a referendum was quietly dropped that year.
But it was Brown's arrogant behaviour in 2007-8 that also madeBrexitinevitable. Continuing in his shameless predecessor's steps, he outright refused to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 (the 2004 EU Constitution under a new name) and signed it the following year. This reckless behaviour only came back to haunt the two former Labour leaders this year.
The result?
It is quite apparent that many traditional Labour voters have felt betrayed by their natural party. 58% and 53.7% of people voted to leave in the North-East and the North-West respectively.
In Boston, 76% of voters backed Vote Leave. Professor Matthew Goodwin suggested this was a result of the anti-EU group tapping into voters' hopes that they could 'take back control' over a large force seen as undemocratic and responsible for mass immigration, which the former Labour government encouraged.
For all of Cameron's faults in regards to his embarrassing deal with Brussels in February, the stupid decisions, bailouts and disasters that have come from Europe since 2010 and the rise of UKIP left the former Tory leader with no choice but to hold an 'In-Out' vote during his 2013 Bloomberg speech. For the sake of ending this debacle, this year's poll was necessary.
So who is to blame for Brexit?New Labourare the guilty culprits, your honour.
