Back second Brexit poll or face exodus, Corbyn told

Jeremy Corbyn pledged to make a second referendum central to his Brexit plans yesterday in a bid to heal his fractured party. The Labour leader said a second vote was still ‘very much part’ of his plans.

He has reportedly been warned he faces another exodus of mPs if he does not also back plans to put Theresa may’s Brexit deal to a second referendum.

The Labour leader’s office was told dozens of mPs, including shadow ministers, are prepared to join the Independent Group in Parliament or resign the whip, The Times reported.

The eight ex-Labour mPs who defected this week accused their leader of being ‘complicit in facilitating’ Brexit.

After meeting the eU’s chief negotiator michel Barnier in Brussels, mr Corbyn said he would table a motion in parliament which will include the option of another referendum.

The Labour leader said he and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer will again table a motion which includes the option of a fresh referendum after it was first defeated last month. He said: ‘It is very much part of the agenda put forward by the Labour Party.’

The next opportunity for a parliamentary vote will be on Wednesday next week.

Labour is also trying to secure a majority for its alternative Brexit plan. mr Corbyn said he will renew efforts to have No Deal taken off the table because ‘people throughout the eU’ fear talks could be heading in that direction. He claimed eU negotiators found his proposals a ‘credible’ way forward.

One of his closest allies deepened the split in the Labour Party last night after he accused defectors of backing the rich elite over the workers.

Party chairman Ian Lavery painted Luciana Berger and her colleagues as Tory stooges while another Left-wing mP described members of the newly-formed Independent Group as ‘ scabs’ for jumping ship.

mr Corbyn himself demanded the eight mPs resign their seats and fight by- elections under their new banner.

The angry rhetoric contrasted with John mcDonnell’s pledge to ‘ hold the family together’. The Shadow Chancellor acknowledged criticisms raised by Labour mPs such as Ian Austin were ‘valid’.

But mr Lavery wrote in The Guardian: ‘Now that three Tories have joined the new “independent grouping”, we should be under no illusions that this right- wing establishment tribute act’s sole aim is to prevent a transformative Labour government at any cost.

‘The era of big money corporate donors bankrolling politicians so they can preserve a system that rips off the many and works only for the super-rich is over.

‘That is why this breakaway of a handful of mPs from both parties must be fought and rejected for what it is – a well-funded and coordinated effort to defend the huge power and privilege that the one per cent enjoy.’ mr Lavery was referring to the richest one per cent of society.

Brighton Kemptown mP Lloyd russell-moyle said on Wednesday night: ‘I am almost certain, when the votes come, that we will be in a position of remaining in and reforming the eU – and those scabs that left will suddenly regret the day that they ever left the Labour Party.’

One Labour mP on the verge of quitting said mr Corbyn’s video showed ‘he doesn’t have the ability or the capacity to reach out’.

Henry Deedes: Page 20