Blair is right on Brexit: parliament must have a democratic debate | Anatole Kaletsky

We must restore the principle of parliamentary sovereignty - Theresa May does not have an open-ended mandate

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair's recent call for voters to think again about leaving the EU, echoed in parliamentary debates ahead of the government's official launch of the process in March, is an emperor's new clothes moment. Although Blair is now an unpopular figure, his voice, like that of the child in Hans Christian Andersen's story, is loud enough to carry above the cabal of flatterers assuring Theresa May that her naked gamble with Britain's future is clad in democratic finery.

The importance of Blair's speech can be gauged by the hysterical overreaction to his suggestion of reopening the Brexit debate, even from supposedly objective media: "It will be seen by some as a call to arms - Tony Blair's Brexit insurrection," according to the BBC.

Related: Blair has a far bigger vision than saving us from Brexit | Matthew d'Ancona