Fury at Corbyn’s ‘fudged’ manifesto

JEREMY Corbyn is facing an angry backlash from Labour Remainers after ‘fudging’ the party’s manifesto commitment to a second Brexit referendum.

At a six-hour meeting of its ruling National Executive Committee yesterday, Mr Corbyn saw off a bid by Remainers to commit the party to a ‘confirmatory’ referendum on any Brexit deal.

Instead, the party’s manifesto for this month’s European Parliament elections will simply keep the referendum as ‘an option’. The decision was a major defeat for Mr Corbyn’s deputy Tom Watson and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, who have been pushing for Labour to fully commit to a second referendum to stitch up the Remain vote.

Before the meeting, Mr Watson said: ‘I have been inundated with thousands of emails from members who are saying Party voters recognise the parliamentary failure and think the only way to break the impasse is for a people’s vote on any deal parliament can agree.’

Labour MP Bridget Phillipson criticised the decision, saying: ‘The manifesto’s mealy-mouthed wording still maintains the fiction that there is a deal out there that can satisfy all the promises made three years ago.’ While Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA transport union, said: ‘Sadly, it doesn’t appear that there is anything straight talking about Labour’s latest Brexit fudge.’

But Unite boss Len McCluskey backed the decision, saying: ‘It confirmed Jeremy Corbyn’s approach is the one to unite the country.’