Tony Blair has been given a prestigious US prize for democracy – despite his campaign to overturn the Brexit vote.
The former Labour prime minister was yesterday named as the first British recipient of The Lincoln Leadership Prize.
Yet he has been vocal in his desire to overturn the result of the 2016 EU referendum and last week warned of its threat to peace in Northern Ireland.
Tony Blair (pictured today in Brussels) recently called on EU leaders needed to join forces with UK politicians to reverse the verdict from the referendum nearly two years ago
Mr Blair invited President greeting Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Downing Street in 2006 while he was still Prime Minister (pictured) and since leaving office critics have accused him of having too cozy a relationship with the autocratic Central Asian leader
MP Nadine Dorries said it was beyond belief that Tony Blair – the man straining every sinew to overturn the votes of millions of people to leave the EU – is now being lauded for his commitment to democracy
Yesterday Arlene Foster, head of the region’s ruling DUP party, condemned Mr Blair for stoking fears as an ‘insult’ to voters in Ulster.
The Lincoln Leadership Prize honours figures who show ‘great strength of character, individual conscience and unwavering commitment to the defining principles of democracy’ in the spirit of the 16th president of the US.
The award will be controversial because Mr Blair has earned millions advising anti-democratic despots since leaving Downing Street. He has been a strong advocate for a second EU referendum, and in January he argued that Labour voters were ‘entitled to think again, if the circumstances changed’.
Last night Conservatives pointed out the irony of Mr Blair being granted the award for his commitment to democracy. Tory MP Nigel Evans said the former PM had spent much of his time since leaving office advising figures such as the president of Kazakhstan, whose country is accused of human rights abuses. ‘Tony Blair is not a democrat,’ said Mr Evans. ‘He has spent a lot of time advising countries which are total strangers to democracy.’
MP Nadine Dorries added: ‘It is beyond belief that Tony Blair – the man straining every sinew to overturn the votes of millions of people to leave the EU – is now being lauded for his commitment to democracy.
‘I think the Americans should have taken a closer look at his record.’
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation cited Mr Blair’s stewardship of the Northern Ireland peace process, the introduction of the national minimum wage and civil partnerships. It also praised his ‘revitalisation’ of public services including health and education, his record of work in the Middle East and Africa and fighting religious-based extremism.
No mention was made of Mr Blair’s controversial decision to commit the UK to war in Iraq in 2003. Ray McCaskey, chairman of the award’s board of directors, said the former PM shared with Lincoln an understanding that leaders have to take decisions ‘that might be unpopular with the public’. ‘Yet they remained singularly focused on the policies that would strengthen their countries,’ he said.
Previous winners include Bill Clinton, Steven Spielberg and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Yesterday DUP leader Mrs Foster condemned both Mr Blair and Sir John Major for using Brexit to stoke fears about the return of violence in Northern Ireland. Both former PMs voiced concerns about the possibility of border controls being reinstated between the North and the Irish Republic.
But Mrs Foster – whose party props up Theresa May’s Government in the Commons – told business leaders in London: ‘I object in the strongest possible terms to people who have limited experience of the Troubles … throwing threats of violence around as some kind of bargaining chip in this negotiating process.
‘To do so is an insult to the people of Northern Ireland who worked so hard to bring peace to our country.’