Tony Blair believes a Jeremy Corbyn government would take UK ‘further to the left than ever before’

Tony Blair believes Jeremy Corbyn is pro-EU – but would shift Britain “further to the left than ever before” if Labour win the next election.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the former PM said that Mr Corbyn’s left-wing policies would not serve the UK well after Britain leaves the EU.

He told Bloomberg News: “If we do Brexit and then try and implement what is programmed further left than what the Labour Party has put forward before, we’ll have some considerable challenges as a country.

“What is important more generally is how do you push back against the populism of both the left and right that rides the anger very successfully but isn’t so good at producing the answers?”

Despite speaking out against the EU for many years, Mr Blair believes Mr Corbyn is a “pro-European” politician – and will eventually change Labour policy to argue for Britain staying in the single market.

Mr Blair said he took “on face value” Mr Corbyn’s insistence that he is pro-Europe, adding: “The Labour Party feels – for reasons I understand – that it’s got to say ‘We are still in favour of Brexit’.

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“But when you see how the Labour Party is moving, it is moving very much towards a ‘let’s keep the single market’ position.

“It nuances that in what it says, but I think in the end there is a majority within the Labour Party for keeping a close relationship with Europe.

“I think the moment you get to that position, it’s a very short distance to the next position, which is to say ‘let’s not give up our seat at the decision-making table but still be the passive recipient of European rules’.”

Mr Blair believes the Government is heading for a “hotch-potch” Brexit deal amounting to “leaving without leaving” which will not be acceptable to voters.

He suggested that public opinion may shift far enough to force a second referendum when voters are confronted with the reality that the deal they favour is “impossible”.

He said that preventing Britain’s withdrawal from the EU will be possible only if there is a “clear” reversal of the public majority for Leave recorded in the 2016 referendum.

Mr Blair added: “Will the public really shift in its position once it sees the deal the Government is bringing forward? We don’t know.

“But if the deal is the one I suspect, which will be a hotch-potch where the Government tries to stay close to Europe and ‘leave without leaving’, I think it is going to be very difficult to persuade the British people that that is better than what we have now.”