Keynote Speech at Xcel Centre
Tony Blair breezed into town this week to give a keynote speech at the Xcel Centre, supporting the Labour Party Leader Ed Milliband and the election campaign.
In front of an invited audience with full media coverage, national and local, the former Prime Minister gave an inspiring statesman-like speech which received a standing ovation from the Labour Party faithful.
Our former MP focussed mainly on the referendum to take Britain out of the European Union, dismissing it as an absolute folly which would seriously affect our region and the country’s future economy.
He pointed to the number of jobs reliant on our membership of the EEC and asked the question if Hitachi and other foreign investors would have based factories here if we weren’t members.
Tony Blair siad: “The business case against exit from the European Union is obvious. Over half our trade is with Europe. I am about to visit the Hitachi plant in Newton Aycliffe – a fantastic vote of confidence in the economic future of the North East and a great tribute to Phil Wilson our local MP.
They came here to access the European market. There are millions of UK jobs dependent on that access. I agree that not being part of the single currency is not, at least in the short and medium term, going to imperil the supremacy of the City of London as the world’s greatest financial centre, but leaving Europe altogether, is quite another thing”.
Newscasters from the BBC, ITV and Sky News posed questions which Tony Blair fielded with skill demonstrating the qualities he has as a highly competent communicator.
Labour Party candidate Phil Wilson introducing Tony Blair
