Labour’s push for poll

LABOUR’S support for a second EU referendum could cost it the next general election, it was claimed last night.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell gave his strongest hint yet that Labour might back a second vote last Friday.

But backing Remain would risk the party losing vital votes, according to politics expert Richard Johnson, a lecturer at Lancaster University.

Labour’s only chance of securing a majority in the Commons at the next general election is by winning in marginal seats that backed Leave in the 2016 referendum, Dr Johnson suggested.

He argues that if the Tories are to hold on to power they must keep the loyalty of these voters – who he says have not changed their minds on Brexit. Dr Johnson said: “On a pro-Leave manifesto, Jeremy Corbyn increased Labour’s share of the national vote in the 2017 general election by 10 percentage points, the highest increase in the popular vote for Labour in a election since 1945.

“In that election, a majority of the gains Labour made from the Conservatives were in Leave-voting constituencies.

“Overall, 61 per cent of the constituencies Labour won in 2017 are estimated to have voted Leave.

“There is no getting around the fact that Labour’s path to forming a government in the foreseeable future is