Blair: Will Of The People Is Entitled To Change

Tony Blair has told Sky News that Britain must keep its "options open" following the vote to leave the EU as "the will of the people" can change.

"One of the reasons we must keep our options open is - yes, the referendum expressed the will of the people - but the will of the people is entitled to change," the former prime minister told the Murnaghan programme.

Asked if he meant there needed to be a second referendum or that Parliament could override the 23 June vote, Mr Blair responded: "I don't think you can override the settled will of the people but my point is very simple: it's 52 to 48.

"Supposing some weeks or months down the line, as it becomes clearer what we're moving to ... if it's clear that these terms are bad for us ...  if we have major parts of business and the financial sector saying this is not a good deal for us, if people start to worry about their jobs, we should just keep our options open."

He added: "The vote was to leave the European Union ...  but we have no idea what lies on the other side of that and there's a hugely complex negotiation that's now got to take place.

need to see exactly what is the offer - what does Brexit look like?"

"As a country, we should keep our options open because right now we really don't know what's on the other side," he said.

:: LIVE - Leadership Battles Post Brexit

And he also said that since Vote Leave won the referendum their arguments are unravelling.

Let's be very blunt about - some of the claims made for the Brexit case have somewhat collapsed," he said.

He also criticised Tory leadership contender and Brexit campaigner Andrea Leadsom after it emerged she was previously against leaving the EU.

"You find Conservative people who were campaigning for Brexit saying a few years ago it would be a disaster for Britain to leave the EU, so you've got a very strange atmosphere around all this," he said.

When pressed about the upcoming release of the Chilcot report and calls for him to go to jail over his role in the Iraq war, Mr Blair responded: "I think it's best we wait for Wednesday and let's just see what the report brings ... then I can respond properly."

He said he would be "participating very fully" in discussions following report's release on Wednesday.

On Brexit, Mr Blair suggested it was best to hold off on invoking Article 50, which would formally begin the process of Britain's separation from the EU.

"There will be a limit to how long we can do that - but absolutely I think we should keep all our options open," he said.

Asked how long Britain should wait before triggering Article 50, he said: "Frankly my view is for as long as it takes before we can get an idea of what the other side looks like.

"Personally right now I'd have someone very senior - I'd even say the Prime Minister or the Chancellor - visiting every capital in Europe, seeing what the room for manoeuvre is, seeing what they might really want, understanding their politics," he said.

"The most important thing right at this moment is to make sure that we shape the psychology and the thinking of the other 27 countries in Europe," he added.

Mr Blair, who is despised by many of Jeremy Corbyn's grassroots supporters, refused to be drawn on whether the Labour leader should go amid calls for him to resign.

"What I will say is that for a democracy to function you have got to have an opposition with a minimum level of credibility to challenge Government and to hold it to account," he said.

Record Cocaine Haul Found In Diamante Horse Head

Cocaine worth £7.5m has been found hidden inside a large diamante-encrusted horse head in a record seizure of the drug in New Zealand.

Customs officers in Auckland discovered 35 bricks of the narcotic concealed within the bejewelled 63-stone (400kg) sculpture, which had arrived in the country from Mexico.

Three men - two Mexicans and an American - have been arrested in connection with the biggest ever haul of the drug in New Zealand.

Importation of the drug carries a life prison sentence.

Detective Senior Sergeant Colin Parmenter of Auckland's organised crime unit said: "This is obviously an extremely large amount of cocaine, and in the past we’ve only found very small amounts of this drug.

What this find tells us though is that there is obviously a demand for it.

"While it's possible that this statue may have been sent on to another country, but there’s every possibility that the cocaine was destined for the New Zealand market and we would be naive to think otherwise."

Further arrests have not been ruled out by police.

May 'Surging Ahead' In Tory Contest - Poll

Theresa May has a commanding lead in the race to become the next Prime Minister, with six out of 10 Conservatives backing her, latest polling suggests.

Recriminations over Michael Gove's decision to pull his support for Boris Johnson and stage his own bid for the top job appear to have dented his prospects of taking on the Home Secretary in the final vote.

The ICM poll for The Sun on Sunday found Mrs May was backed by 60% of Tory voters, with Justice Secretary Mr Gove second on 10 points and Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom on six.

Although the poll puts the Mr Gove ahead of Mrs Leadsom, bookies have slashed the odds on the junior minister making it through the knock-out stages in Parliament to go up against Mrs May in the head-to-head.

Some 55% of those polled by ICM were unable to give any view on Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, who have lower profiles than the long-standing Cabinet ministers, and 42% had the same problem with former frontbencher Liam Fox.

Latest estimates show that Mrs May has the support of 104 MPs. Mr Gove is believed to be the nearest challenger with 27 and Ms Leadsom has 21.

At Least 75 Die In IS Bombing In Baghdad

An Islamic State group suicide bomber killed at least 75 people in a busy Baghdad shopping district, officials say.

Animal Caretaker Killed By Tiger In Benidorm

An animal caretaker has been killed by a tiger at a nature park in the southern Spanish town of Benidorm.

The 37-year-old woman was attacked by the tiger while she was in his cage at 5pm on Saturday.

According to news website Ultima Hora, she had left a gate to the tiger area open.

Police contacted the Red Cross and ambulances rushed to the scene - Terra Natura de Benidorm nature park - but they were not able to act until the tiger had been tranquilised.

The woman's body was later found in the cage.

Police are investigating the death and say that the reason for the attack is unclear.

Corbyn 'Ready To Reach Out' To Rebels

Jeremy Corbyn has insisted he is "ready to reach out" to his opponents in the party, but warned he would stand for re-election if they staged a challenge for the leadership.

In an article for the Sunday Mirror, the Labour leader said: "I am ready to reach out to Labour MPs who didn't accept my election and oppose my leadership - and work with the whole party to provide the alternative the country needs.

"But they also need to respect the democracy of our party and the views of Labour's membership, which has increased by more than 60,000 in the past week alone.

Scots Seek Guarantees On EU Citizens Staying

Nicola Sturgeon has written to David Cameron and the five candidates bidding to replace him, saying it was "imperative" to "respect" the rights of Scotland's 173,000 European Union citizens.

The First Minister's demands for "immediate guarantees" on EU nationals comes ahead of a meeting with consuls-general of EU member states and diplomats at her official residence in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

The summit follows a series of talks in Brussels with European political leaders aimed at securing Scotland's place in the EU.

Scots voted to remain in the EU by 62% in the referendum, but 52% of British voters as a whole voted to leave.

Ms Sturgeon said: "People from EU countries are an important part of Scotland's future.

"I am therefore seeking immediate guarantees from the Prime Minister, and all Conservative leadership candidates, that the residency status and the other existing rights of the 173,000 EU nationals living in Scotland will remain unchanged, now or in the future.

"This is a commitment that can and should be made and enforced now."

In a similar move, Brexit backers Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP, Labour's Gisela Stuart and UKIP's Douglas Carswell as well as Remain supporters Yvette Cooper, a Labour former frontbencher, and TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady, have all signed a letter to the Sunday Telegraph calling for Mr Cameron to take immediate action over the future of EU nationals.

Ms Cooper said: "The Prime Minister must not wait to sort this as it is causing great anxiety for EU citizens living here and British citizens living abroad.

"And it is being exploited by extremists to run horrible 'Go Home' campaigns that no one wants to see in Britain."

Last week, the Prime Minister said European citizens living in the UK would face no immediate changes in their circumstances.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Cameron said: "Leave campaigners were fairly clear that they wanted to protect the rights of people who are already here who have come to live, work and study, but obviously the final clarification of that and of the rights of British people living in other parts of the European Union will have to wait for the complex negotiations."

Meanwhile, an ICM poll for the independent think-tank British Future has found that 84% of the public supports allowing migrants to stay, including 77% of Leave voters and 85% of Conservative supporters.

It comes as separate research found immigration fears that fuelled the vote for Britain to quit were driven by concerns that public services are being put under strain by migrants.

Nearly three-quarters of voters (71%) believe the pressure schools face from migrants is greater than any benefits that may be gained through their tax and staffing contributions, according to the 2015 British Social Attitude survey.

More than six in 10 (63%) also think the NHS is being stretched by immigration, according to the study by NatCen, an independent social re