Labour MPS demand leadership backs ‘People’s Vote’ after Commons failure
JEREMY CORBYN’S attempt to bring down the Government backfired last night as the failure of his no-confidence motion was used by scores of Labour MPS to demand he support a second referendum.
The Labour leader is under mounting pressure to change course on Brexit, with senior figures now prepared to defy party policy and join with Tory rebels attempting to force through a draft referendum bill.
The Daily Telegraph has been told that a number of Labour MPS are preparing to back an amendment due to be laid on Monday, which would pave the way for a new referendum.
Dominic Grieve, the Tory MP and former attorney general, is behind the alleged “coup”, with plans also afoot to lay draft legislation calling for an extension of Article 50.
As a Eurosceptic, Mr Corbyn has repeatedly played down calls for a second vote, which he fears could reverse the 2016 result and alienate voters in Labour’s northern heartlands.
However, his Brexit policy is increasingly at odds with party members, who in September unanimously backed a motion that pledged to campaign for a second referendum if they are unable to force a snap election.
Yesterday, in a bid to bounce him into changing course, 71 Labour MPS signed a joint statement declaring a refforce erendum the “only logical option”. They wrote: “A general election may prove impossible, so we must join trade unions, our members and a majority of constituents by unequivocally backing the only logical option to help our country move forward: putting the decision back to the people for a final say.”
Two shadow ministers were among the signatories, along with Liz Kendall and Owen Smith, Mr Corbyn’s former leadership rivals and more than a dozen ex-members of the front bench.
In a bid to ratchet up pressure on the Labour leader, the Lib Dems, SNP, Green Party and Plaid Cymru last night wrote to Mr Corbyn demanding that he now “move to back a public vote”.
In their letter, the four parties claimed that Labour delegates had “voted overwhelming” to back a second referendum should attempts to a general election fail and that it was now the only “real chance of breaking the Brexit deadlock”.
The Telegraph understands the move is designed to limit Mr Corbyn’s options and prevent him from repeatedly tabling censure motions in order to avoid backing a second vote.
A Lib Dem source said it would consider working with opposition parties if things “dramatically changed”, but it would not allow Labour to turn it into an “exercise of prevarication”.
Separately, David Lammy, the Labour MP, claimed Mr Corbyn would get “splinters in places he doesn’t want” if he “vacillates and sits on the fence”.
Mr Lammy said Mr Corbyn should “follow the overwhelming feeling of the party, which is to arrive in a place where we put this back to the British people in a People’s Vote”.
‘If we don’t get that final say, then that is a broken promise from Jeremy Corbyn and Labour. That would be a monumental mistake’
Chris Leslie, the former shadow chancellor, who said Mr Corbyn would be in “parallel” with Nick Clegg and the backlash over his U-turn on tuition fees. “If we don’t get that final say, then that is a broken promise from Jeremy Corbyn and Labour. That would be a monumental mistake,” he said.
However, tensions appeared to flare last night when a member of Mr Corbyn’s staff claimed in a tweet that “not a single one” of the MPS agitating for a second referendum “cares about removing the Tory Government”.
A source close to Mr Corbyn declined to comment on the remarks, but warned he would not be bounced into accepting demands and that Labour’s Brexit policy remained “exactly” the same.
Should Mr Corbyn fail to cave, senior Labour figures told this newspaper that they will seek to take matters into their own hands by backing an attempt to amend two standing orders – the rules that govern the Commons – which would effectively allow backbench MPS to seize power and put forward alternatives to Mrs May’s deal.
Mr Grieve, leading the Tory rebellion, last night laid two draft Bills to enable preparations for a referendum and enable a public poll to take place.
Meanwhile, John Mcdonnell, the shadow chancellor, told Peston: “I think Labour, along with other opposition parties, will take the lead because Government has failed to come up with anything it can get past its own party.”
Trying to bring clarity to Labour’s Brexit policy, he hinted that a permanent customs union could secure a majority in the Commons.