Tony Blair: ‘Get tough on immigration to stay in EU’

The former PM defends open-door policy but says circumstances have changed

Tony Blair at an event organised by anti-Brexit group Open Britain in February 2017
Tony Blair at an event organised by anti-Brexit group Open Britain in February 2017
(Image credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)

Tony Blair has called for tough new immigration rules to keep the UK in the EU - while defending his own government's open-door policy against accusations that it led to the Brexit vote.

In what The Sunday Times described as “an explosive intervention that will electrify the Brexit debate”, the former prime minister argued that by bringing in tougher immigration controls it would be possible to take back control of Britain’s borders without leaving the EU.

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