Ex-PM Brown warns of Brexit message to the world

In this Thursday, March 15, 2012 file photo, the Boudica statue stands in the foreground as fog shrouds the clock tower which houses the Big Ben bell at the Palace of Westminster, London. AP FILE

LONDON, United Kingdom — Former prime minister Gordon Brown voiced his fears Saturday about the message it would send to the rest of the world if Britain quit the European Union.

He said if Britain could not cooperate with its nearest neighbors, it would make it harder for young people to plan their futures.

Brown, who was prime minister from 2007 to 2010, claimed around 500,000 new jobs could be created by opening up the European single market further to British firms.

The referendum on June 23 will decide whether Britain stays in or leaves the 28-member EU.

At a speech in London, former Labor Party leader Brown said Britain had engaged with the world for centuries.

“If we the British then decided we were going to walk away from our nearest neighbors, refuse to cooperate on economic and other matters that are vital to our future, deny young people in our country the chance to plan for the future because we are breaking off links to countries that are nearest to us, what sort of message would we send to the world about what kind of world we are going to build for the future if we could not engage in cooperation with our nearest neighbors?” he said.

“By the strength of our common endeavors we can achieve more together than ever we could achieve on our own,” the Scot said.

With a month to go to the referendum, the “Remain” camp is on 55 percent and the “Leave” campaign on 45 percent, according to the What UK Thinks website’s average of the last six opinion polls.

Britain’s possible exit from the bloc took center stage at a G7 meeting in Japan on Saturday, as UK finance minister George Osborne warned a ‘Brexit’ could doom trade deals with EU countries.

Brown, 65, was former premier Tony Blair’s finance minister from 1997 to 2007.