Nigel Farage, the former U.K. Independence Party leader and one of the architects of the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, said he now thinks the nation should have a second vote on the issue.

Why? To settle the question for a generation and to silence the growing voices calling for Brexit to be abandoned. “Maybe, just maybe, we should have a second referendum,” he tweeted to his 1.1 million followers.

“I think if we had a second referendum on EU membership we’d kill it off for a generation,’’ Farage said on Channel Five chat show The Wright Stuff Thursday. “The percentage that would vote to leave next time would be very much bigger than it was last time.’’

His comments make him an unlikely ally of Tony Blair, the former prime minister, and other Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians who are openly trying to reverse Brexit. Farage slammed Blair -- who is unpopular across the political spectrum in Britain -- and his allies, who have become more outspoken in recent weeks.

“They will go on whingeing and whining the whole way through this process,” he said.

Half of Britons support a referendum on the final Brexit deal that the U.K. reaches with the EU, according to a poll by Survation in December. Another study showed this month that 78 per cent of the opposition Labour Party’s members want a second plebiscite, although among Conservatives the figure is just 14 per cent.

The Labour leadership isn’t calling for a second vote now, saying that to do would undermine Britain’s negotiating position.

Surveys give varying results on how Britons would vote if they got another chance. A poll for the Independent in December showed a majority would vote to remain -- the biggest lead for the “In” camp since the referendum in June 2016. Polls also suggest that more voters think it was “wrong” to vote to leave than “right.”

While Farage is no longer leader of UKIP and the party has no seats in Parliament, he remains an influential figure who can shift the debate in the U.K. He has his own radio show, and an image in some circles as a straight-talking champion of common sense. He also has ties to President Donald Trump, who tweeted Farage would be great U.K. ambassador to Washington.

Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out another vote, saying said such a move would be a “betrayal’’ of the 52 percent of Britons who’d voted for Brexit. Her spokesman James Slack said Thursday “we will not be having a second referendum.”