“I hope Brexit won’t happen,” the singer said in an interview with France’s Le Parisien newspaper. “It has been nearly three years [since the UK voted to leave the EU], and I am yet to hear a good reason to leave. Not one. It’s all lies, hot air. [The Leave vote], was a disaster. I think we need to stay in the EU. It isn’t perfect, but it’s only by staying in it that we will be able to change it.”
If the UK leaves the bloc, it will “lose all control,” Sting said.
He added: “The UK is right next to the EU, which is the biggest economy in the world. Leaving is pure folly, there is no logic behind [Brexit].
“Who else will we trade with? [US President Donald] Trump? How can we trust him?”
The Grammy-winning artist deplored the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit talks, adding that he believes another referendum on Britain’s membership would yield “a different result”.
“We are a parliamentary democracy; we don’t function by plebiscite. It’s dangerous. I don’t believe in referendums – Hitler and Mussolini organised referendums,” he said.
People didn’t vote to leave the EU, they voted against the government, he added: “They voted against the austerity measures imposed by the Conservative Party. It wasn’t really a vote on Brexit, it was a way to tell the government to get lost, without thinking of the consequences.”
Brexit has continued to divide the country and cripple the political system.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s minority government missed the March 29 exit date and there is now huge uncertainty over how, when and if the divorce deal will be finalised.
An embattled Mrs May on Sunday exhorted Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to agree to a cross-party deal to leave the EU, following bad results for both parties in local elections last week.
Mrs May’s Conservatives lost more than 1,300 seats on local councils that were up for re-election, and Labour lost 81.
The two parties entered into negotiations over a month ago to try to broker an exit agreement that can secure majority support in parliament after Mrs May suffered three crushing defeats on her preferred deal. The talks with Labour are a last resort.
“To the leader of the opposition, I say this: Let’s listen to what the voters said in the local elections and put our differences aside for a moment. Let’s do a deal,” Mrs May wrote in a Sunday newspaper.
Labour has made a permanent customs union with the EU a key condition for supporting her Brexit plans, but most Conservatives bitterly oppose such a union because it would stop Britain from striking its own free trade agreements with other countries.
A temporary customs union could also lead to customs checks on the border between EU-member Ireland and the UK province of Northern Ireland if it later breaks down – something Ireland objects to strongly.
On Monday, The Daily Telegraph added fuel to the Brexit drama after reporting that Mrs May had carried out “scenario planning” for a second people’s vote.
The Telegraph said that Mrs May had discussed the possibility of a second referendum that would give voters the choice between leaving the bloc with no deal, leaving with a deal, or not leaving at all.
The report cited anonymous government sources, who said the referendum plan would only become relevant if talks with Labour collapsed and a majority of politicians backed holding another public vote.
Mrs May, however, has repeatedly opposed holding a second referendum.
She has said that if talks with Labour fail to bear fruit, parliament will be asked to vote on a series of options on how to break the stalemate.
