Labour accused of trying to reverse EU vote

Senior party MEP wanted to change parliamentary documents to suggest exit could be ‘reconsidered’

LABOUR has been accused of a secret plot to reverse Brexit after its deputy leader in Brussels deleted lines in parliamentary documents promising to “respect” the referendum result.

Richard Corbett, Labour’s second most senior MEP, tabled a string of amendments seeking to water down the importance of the country’s vote to leave the EU.

One changed a line that said the European Parliament “stresses that this wish [to leave the EU] must be respected” to simply that the body “notes” the referendum. Another added that the EU “should not stand in the way of any reconsideration by the UK of its intended departure”, while others weakened the significance of the vote.

The changes would have meant MEPs formally suggesting Britain could change its mind on leaving the EU if they were adopted, according to Brussels insiders.

News of the proposals – revealed in full in today’s Sunday Telegraph – caused fury among Tory Eurosceptics who said the public would be “shocked”. Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, said it showed Labour was “ignoring” voters while Dominic Raab, a former frontbencher, dubbed the move “sneaky wrecking tactics”.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, is now facing calls to publicly distance himself from the changes amid claims they contradict his stance on Brexit. Just days ago Keir Starmer, the shadow secretary for exiting the European Union, promised that the result would be “accepted and respected” by the party in a speech during which he attacked the Liberal Democrats for calling for a second referendum.

The row threatens to reopen questions about Labour’s commitment to Brexit, with the party formally backing a Remain vote in June but now officially supporting exit.

Mr Corbett has been Labour’s deputy leader in the European Parliament since 2014 and has repeatedly called for the UK to “rethink” Brexit since the referendum. He proposed a string of changes to an “initiative report” passing through the European Parliament which addresses Bexit and the future set-up of the EU.

Such reports are effectively a way for MEPs to give their collective view on a topic and are seen as advice for the European Commission, the EU’s law-making arm. One amendment deleted the words that the EU Parliament “stresses that this wish [to leave the EU] must be respected”. In its place was put a line saying the body “notes” the vote to leave the EU, “while taking account of the 48.1 per cent who wished to remain in it”.

Another deleted the suggestion Brussels “will” need to make arrangements for how Britain helps form EU decisions before exit, adding the word “may” instead. A third deleted a line discussing the “decision to leave the EU resulting from the UK referendum”, adding in its place simply a reference to the “result”.

The changes were proposed in October but rejected earlier this month by a vote in Brussels’ constitutional affairs committee. The report is due to be voted on by all MEPs in February.

Mr Corbett, a respected EU constitutional expert, stood by the amendments last night and cited a High Court ruling saying MPs needed to approve Brexit talks despite the referendum result.

“The amendments were simply to give the correct legal situation as confirmed by the court, that the actual decision to leave has to be made by Parliament. The referendum was, in legal terms, advisory,” he said.

However, the changes – which critics said would have increased the possibility of the Brexit vote being reversed – triggered anger on the Tory backbenches. Mr Duncan Smith said: “This man now seems to speak for the whole Labour Party on this issue, which ignores the will of the British people. It’s clear they intend to press on with what we always suspected, which is to keep demanding more referendums until we get it right.”

Mr Raab, the former justice minister, said: “The public will be shocked to learn that Labour’s deputy leader in Brussels is telling the EU it doesn’t need to respect the referendum result, and is manouvering to engineer its reversal. If Jeremy Corbyn wants to backslide on Brexit, he should at least be honest about it.”

‘It’s clear they intend to press on with what we suspected, demanding referendums until we get it right’