Tony Blair: nationalism is a powerful sentiment

Tony Blair is pointing to the huge surge in nationalism in Scotland last year to warn of the possible dangers of a referendum of Europe.

He says that if Scotland had become independent it would not be “economic trauma” renegotiating it’s currency against the background of radically falling oil prices.

However, he says, nationalism is a “powerful sentiment”. He tells the audience: “Let that genie out of the bottle and it is a Herculean task to put it back in.”

Any Prime Minister who runs the country during a referendum on European, he warns, will expend “more energy, will have more sleepless nights about it and be more focused on it that literally any other thing”.

Speaking in Sedgefield, a Labour stronghold with a 8,696 majority, Mr Blair adds that all politicians must be aware of “perilous fragility of public support for the sensible choice.”

Tony Blair “I believe passionately that leaving Europe would leave Britain diminished in the world” – via @tomwhite7 pic.twitter.com/c3QNZ0DJZg

— Press Association (@pressassoc) April 7, 2015