Warning against a bid for new vote

ANY attempt by MEPs to try to force a second Brexit referendum on the UK would be counter-productive, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has warned.

Mr Farron, whose party is demanding a fresh poll on the terms of withdrawal, said suggestions the European Parliament could refuse to ratify a Brexit deal unless voters get a say on it would hurt the cause.

The Lib Dem leader said: “I don’t imagine that would actually help us get it in reality.

“A referendum on the deal is the only way to conclude this process. The only democratic way to conclude it. It’s the only emotionally healthy way to conclude it.”

Despite renewed Government warnings to peers not to try to ambush the Brexit Bill when it returns to the Lords next week, Mr Farron said he wanted the 102-strong Lib Dem bloc in the upper chamber to vote against it unless Prime Minister Theresa May conceded a second referendum.

“I take the view that if the vote is about whether the British people are given the democratic right to vote on the deal, or have to live with a stitch-up, then we should use our presence in both Houses to ensure that.”

When the Brexit Bill passed the Commons, two of the nine Lib Dem MPs defied Mr Farron’s stance and voted it through.

Fellow leading Remain campaigner, and former Labour shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, also said a referendum push by the European Parliament would backfire.

Mr Benn, who chairs the Commons Brexit Committee, said: “I don’t see any evidence at all that the British people, I’m sorry to say, have changed their mind.”