Brexit news latest: Pressure piles on Jeremy Corbyn to back second referendum

Brexit pressure: Jeremy Corbyn with John McDonnell at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool today
REUTERS
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John McDonnell today gave Labour’s biggest signal yet that it is ready to back a second referendum on Brexit.

The shadow chancellor appeared to race ahead of the party’s official position on a public vote by saying Labour would “go for it” if the Government refuses to hold a general election on Brexit.

He made the pledge as Tony Blair heaped pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to back a second public vote by warning that the “real betrayal of the country would be refusing it”. In a swipe at Theresa May’s battered Chequers Brexit plan, the former prime minister added: “This is what our Government is threatening to stampede through Parliament or else plunge us into the abyss of a ‘no deal Brexit’.”

Mr McDonnell’s comments came ahead of his speech at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.

During his address, he stressed that his preferred route was a general election. “I feel so strongly that these Tories should face the people,” he said. But he added that all the options for “democratic engagement” should be on the table, hinting at a public vote.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at conference in Liverpool
AFP/Getty Images

Amid reports that senior Conservatives are already talking about an autumn poll, Mr McDonnell put his party on an election war-footing. “So the message from this conference is bring it on,” he said.

Labour officials agreed, after a marathon negotiation session last night, on a Brexit motion to be debated by delegates tomorrow. It states that “if we cannot get a general election, Labour must support all options remaining on the table, including campaigning for a public vote”.

Labour Party Conference 2018

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Mr McDonnell was more categoric early this morning, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today’s programme: “If we don’t get a general election, then yes, we will go for a people’s vote.” Pressed if it was a firm promise, he added: “It’s on the table, we have said we want a people’s vote if we can’t get a general election.”

However, Mr Corbyn’s right-hand man strongly downplayed the idea that any second referendum should include the option of staying in the EU, stressing that it should be on the terms of the Brexit deal struck by Mrs May. “If we are going to respect the referendum it will be about the deal,” Mr McDonnell said. But he added that ultimately, “Parliament will decide what will be on that ballot paper.”

He also told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that if there is no election, “We’d have a people’s vote on the deal itself”.

Democracy in action: the Government is under pressure to call another referendum
Getty Images

Labour sources denied that Mr McDonnell was seeking to shift the party on from the agreed motion.

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham and a supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, said: “When the dust settles it’s pretty clear that my party leadership has moved a long way.” He added that it would be “farcical” to offer a referendum between “no deal or a bad deal”, stressing that it “absolutely must include the right to remain in the EU”.

Chuka Umunna, the anti-Brexit Labour MP for Streatham, said: “The change in tone [is] a definite step forward. But we still have some way to go in achieving a completely unequivocal commitment to a people’s vote.”

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