Labour poised to back MPs’ bid to force second EU referendum

LABOUR is on the brink of backing a move to force a second EU referendum, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said last night.

He said the party was “moving towards” a fresh poll and overturning the 2016 vote would be on the ballot paper.

At last year’s party conference, Labour kept open the option of backing a socalled People’s Vote if Theresa May cannot get a deal through Parliament.

Mr McDonnell admitted: “We’ve kept it on the table and we’re moving towards that.”

The party could back a plot by Labour MPs Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson to back Mrs May’s Brexit deal if it is put to a public vote.

MPs could be asked to vote on the Kyle-Wilson amendment next week.

Mr McDonnell said that any referendum would have remaining in the EU the alternative to the deal.

He said: “If we were going on a People’s Vote based on a deal that has gone through Parliament in some form, if that got voted down then you’d have status quo, and that would be Remain.”

Eurosceptics warned Labour would suffer at the next election if it ignored its northern Leave heartlands. MP Mark Francois, vice chairman of the Tory Brexiteer European Research Group, said: “We already had a people’s vote in 2016 when 17.4 million UK citizens voted very clearly to leave the European Union.

“I think it would be a mistake for Labour to go down this route, as many of their northern voters would no doubt remind them.”

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the Party of European Socialists’ meeting in Madrid that he was in “no doubt” Labour’s alternative plan was “credible and could be negotiated with the EU”. “amenable” and “preventable”.

Amenable deaths could be avoided through more timely and effective healthcare, while preventable deaths could be stopped by better public health interventions.

Prof Viner added: “More needs to be done in relation to reducing child poverty – a factor which underpins many of these issues.

“Investing in health visitors and reversing cuts to public health budgets is an important place to start.

“With the highest avoidable mortality rates in the UK, the Scottish Government, in particular, has an important job to do.”

Overall, more than 140,000 deaths in 2017 – 23 per cent of the total – were avoidable.

ONS statistician Chris White said the rate was the lowest since the current definition was introduced in 2014.

Professor John Newton of Public Health England said: “These figures highlight why our work to improve the nation’s health is so important, to help increase life expectancy and reduce inequalities.”