Tony Blair Tells Fox News Britain Needs America to Beat Russia, Same Week His Think Tank Says UK Should Rejoin the EU

Blair to Fox: Don't Push America Away

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany on "Saturday in America" that Europe can't win a fight with Russia without the United States standing behind it.

"If we get drawn into a conflict without the support of America, we don't win," Blair said, according to Fox News.

He argued Britain should have granted President Donald Trump's request to use UK military bases during the Iran conflict earlier this year. "When your ally is an indispensable part of your security, and they come asking for help, it's wise to give it to them," Blair said.

That comment lands against a specific backdrop. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently questioned the "point" of NATO after allied nations blocked the US from using their bases during the Iran conflict, according to Fox News. Blair, speaking days after appearing at a Board of Peace briefing in New York on September 23, is siding with Rubio's frustration.

Blair also said he personally doubts Russian President Vladimir Putin has designs on NATO countries beyond Ukraine, but he acknowledged plenty of Europeans disagree. "There are a lot of people in Europe who think he's got malicious intent towards NATO countries," he said. USA Today, cited by Fox News, has tracked a string of recent incidents feeding that fear: an explosives-laden drone found near a Ukrainian cargo plane at a German airport, airspace violations, and arson attacks blamed on Russian-linked actors.

Same Week, Same Man: Rejoin the EU

Four days before that interview aired, on September 24, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change published a report titled "Beyond Leave and Remain: A Path to Rejoining a Reformed Europe." It says Britain should publicly commit to rejoining the EU within ten years, according to The Daily Mirror.

Blair wrote in the report's foreword that "the red lines which we drew in 2016 are not the same as 2026" and said Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government should stop "inching towards Europe" based on guesses about public opinion and instead say outright that it wants a "structured formal relationship" where "everything is on the table," per The National.

The report points to the EU's move to make Canada its first associate member as evidence of "newfound flexibility" in how Brussels deals with non-members. It also calls for a new UK-EU defense fund, a joint AI strategy, and what it calls a European Energy Security Partnership, tying Britain back into EU electricity markets. The Daily Mirror reported the Institute claims that energy link alone could save British billpayers up to £370 million a year.

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson backed the push in a LinkedIn post, calling the 2016 Brexit vote "an unmitigated disaster" that has cost the UK "up to 8% of its GDP" in lost trade, productivity and employment, according to The Independent. Branson argued British voters deserve a "second chance" to decide the question, comparing Brexit to trading an F1 car for a hatchback.

Where Starmer's Government Actually Stands

None of this is government policy. The Independent reported Starmer's administration is sticking to its 2024 manifesto commitments: no rejoining the single market, no customs union, no freedom of movement. Starmer has said Britain should be "bolder" about getting closer to the bloc, per The National, but has stopped well short of endorsing Blair's ten-year rejoin target. He's scheduled to meet EU leaders at a summit later this year to hash out the future relationship, according to the Mirror.

Polling gives Blair's camp some ammunition. A YouGov poll from June found 55% of British voters would back rejoining the EU against 34% opposed, per the Mirror.

Voters who backed Brexit in 2016 did so specifically to escape single-market rules, customs union tariffs and free movement, and to bring lawmaking back to Westminster. A decade-long public commitment to rejoin, even a "reformed" EU, would reopen a fight most of the country would rather not relitigate, and it hands a former prime minister with no current government role an outsized voice in setting UK foreign policy years after voters removed him from office.

The Unresolved Contradiction

Fox News, Fox Wilmington and the aggregator Europe Says all ran the identical Blair interview about needing American backing against Russia. None of them mentioned that Blair's own think tank was, the same week, calling for Britain to help build the EU into what its report literally calls a "superpower that could challenge the US and China."

Can Blair coherently argue Britain must lean harder on Washington for security while simultaneously pushing London to help construct a rival economic and political bloc explicitly designed to counterbalance American power? Starmer's government has given no public answer, and Blair himself wasn't asked to reconcile the two positions in either the Fox interview or the Institute's report.