Pro-EU politicians must show courage to oppose Brexit, says Mandelson

Pro-EU politicians need to show more courage in opposing Brexit, Peter Mandelson has said, as he urged the public to donate in support of Tony Blair’s call for an uprising against leaving the bloc.

Lord Mandelson, who was one of the architects of New Labour, said many people were feeling bulldozed into a Brexit they did not vote for, adding that the government’s pursuit of leaving the EU at any cost must be challenged.

As the Brexit bill heads to the House of Lords this week, Mandelson also said he believed the government could be defeated in the upper chamber on the issues of a meaningful parliamentary vote at the end of negotiations and guaranteed rights for EU citizens in the UK.

“There is strong body of opinion across the parties and independent peers as well that both these issues are very serious,” he told the BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

He said the most crucial issue was the ability of MPs and peers to look at the deal Theresa May strikes with Europe and turn it down.

“If it’s not good for Britain, send the government back to the negotiating table,” he said.

His comments come amid reports that up to six Labour peers are thinking of giving up the party whip in the Lords and may unofficially follow the Liberal Democrat whip because of the party’s support for Brexit.

Mandelson said it was not his advice to support the anti-Brexit Lib Dems but for people to “put pressure on parliamentarians from all parties” to oppose the government’s plans.

“[We are] trying to instil a bit of courage in the Tory MPs – most of whom seem to have capitulated to the ideologues – pressure on Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens, to say you’ve got to speak up for us when the time comes,” he said.

Amid depressed poll ratings for his own party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, the peer said he believed Labour “can recover its ground but to be successful it must demonstrate strength, clarity, sureness of touch”.

Mandelson’s arguments echoed those of Blair, who gave a speech on Friday that said Brexit could be stopped if people changed their minds.

“The reason why we asked [Blair] to make it last week is that we firmly believe many people had no idea of the terms by which the government would decide leave the EU.

“There are many people across the country who don’t have an extreme view one way or the other – they are not extreme left or right. They feel their views are being bulldozed … We are saying sign up to Open Britain, give us some money and help us campaign against this Brexit at all costs,” Mandelson said, referring to the pro-European campaign group set up after the EU referendum.

Blair’s intervention was welcomed by some Labour MPs and senior Lib Dems but rejected as “unhelpful” by the Labour frontbench, which supported May’s Brexit legislation to trigger article 50. It also comes ahead of two crucial byelections in the leave-voting seats of Stoke-on-Trent and Copeland, where Labour is trying to convince voters of its pro-Brexit credentials.

Mandelson and Blair’s campaign was dismissed by senior Conservatives, who accused them of trying to “frustrate the will of the British people”.

Liz Truss, the justice secretary, said she was a remain supporter who would now vote out because it was the “settled will of the people”, and that triggering article 50 would be irrevocable.

She said she fully expected the Lords to “recognise the will of the people”, telling the Andrew Marr Show: “Peter Mandelson and others in the Labour party are trying to frustrate the will of the British people, trying to refight a battle he conclusively lost last year.”