Party Europhiles turn up heat on Corbyn

A ROW between Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s Europhile wing escalated yesterday as union leaders and MEPS openly defied him by calling for a second referendum on any Brexit deal.

The Labour leader is facing a widespread backlash over his reluctance to back an unconditional public vote, with one MEP likening the gulf between the leadership and party members to the Iraq war.

Mr Corbyn and his allies believe the party’s Brexit policy – which only calls for a second referendum to prevent no deal or a “bad Brexit” – should remain. Today they intend to present a provisional version of the party’s European elections manifesto to Labour’s NEC for approval. It includes a pledge on a fresh public vote that is believed to be virtually unchanged.

However, Mr Corbyn is under mounting pressure to widen the scope of the policy to include a public vote on any Brexit deal agreed by Parliament.

Yesterday, 22 Labour MEPS and Euro candidates signed a declaration promising to campaign for a public vote – regardless of whether Mr Corbyn or the party approves. They included Richard Corbett and Seb Dance, the leader and deputy leader of Labour’s European Parliament group. Their pledge states that they will push for “a referendum that offers a choice between a Brexit deal and the option to remain in the EU,” adding that they will subsequently campaign to stay in the bloc.

They were joined by the leaders of four of Britain’s biggest trade unions – GMB, Unison, TSSA and Usdaw – who publicly split from Mr Corbyn yesterday to demand a second referendum.

Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, told the Evening Standard: “The Prime Minister’s deal and a nodeal Brexit would be terrible for the UK... That’s why any final proposal must be put back to the country for voters to decide.”

Separately, Jude Kirton-darling, a North East MEP, likened the disconnect between the Labour leadership and the anti-brexit membership to that of Tony Blair’s administration when he took the UK into the Iraq war.

“I can’t think of a time that the leadership have gone directly against the views of the membership and our voters since Iraq,” she wrote on Twitter. “Ironic. The members were right then and they are right today.”

Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson, the Labour MPS behind the parliamentary campaign for a confirmatory referendum, have also written to the NEC demanding changes to the policy. They claim that a second referendum is supported by 203 Labour MPS.