LONDON (AP) — John Bercow, the former British House of Commons speaker, says Brexit is a historic mistake and the country should not be bound by the close 2016 vote to leave the European Union.

Bercow retired last week after a decade overseeing the business and debates of Parliament.

In that job he had to be neutral. But he now says that Brexit is the U.K.'s biggest foreign policy "blunder" since World War II and that it will leave the country weakened economically and in terms of global standing and influence.

Speaking to The Associated Press on Thursday, Bercow says "the best course for the U.K. is to remain" in the EU.

He says Britain's 2016 referendum to leave the bloc "isn't the final word on the subject" and says it would be democratic to hold a new public vote.

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