TUC to call for Brexit vote if May fails to protect workers

THE leader of the TUC will support a campaign for a second Brexit referendum if Theresa May fails to secure a good divorce deal with Brussels.

Frances O’grady said she wanted to “serve notice” to the Prime Minister that failure to strike an agreement that protected workers would prompt the TUC to throw its weight behind the campaign for a so-called people’s vote.

It came as a poll of Britain’s three biggest trade unions showed workers backed a new referendum by a majority of two to one. The poll and Ms O’grady’s intervention will put more pressure on Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, to adopt a second vote as party policy. So far the leadership has not ruled out supporting a second vote, with some frontbenchers saying options should be open if Parliament rejects Mrs May’s deal. The issue is likely to come to a head at Labour’s annual conference later this month.

Ms O’grady told the BBC: “I want to serve notice to the Prime Minister today that if we don’t get the deal that working people need, then the TUC will be throwing its full weight behind a campaign for a popular vote. We know that people want a say.”

She added: “They’re really worried about what Brexit means for their jobs, their industries, their communities, their wage packets and prices going up.”

A Yougov poll for The Observer of Unite, Unison and the GMB found two thirds wanted another vote on Britain’s departure from the European Union.