JEREMY Corbyn has said Labour could throw their weight behind a People’s Vote in the Commons later this week.
However, he insisted his party’s policy was still to have a better Brexit than the one Theresa May is offering.
Labour’s leadership were criticised by the other opposition parties last week when they abstained on a motion calling for a second EU referendum.
It was defeated by 333 votes to 84, although 41 Labour MPs ignored the leadership’s instructions and voted – 24 supporting a referendum and 17 voting to oppose one.
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Speaking on Sky News, Corbyn said Labour would back the Kyle-Wilson amendment to the Prime Minister’s meaningful vote, which –unless it’s delayed – is due to come back before MPs later this week.
The motion has been drawn up by two Labour MPs, Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson, with input from shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, and the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. It says that if May’s deal is passed in the Commons, then it cannot be ratified until it has been “approved by the people of the United Kingdom in a confirmation ballot”.
Supporting the deal would not mean supporting the Prime Minister, Corbyn said: “We’re not supporting Theresa May’s deal at all, because we think it’s a blindfold Brexit, which would do enormous damage to our economy,” he said.
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Asked how he would vote in a future Brexit referendum, Corbyn said: “It depends what the choice is in front of us.”
The SNP’s Pete Wishart was sceptical of the “confirmatory” referendum, saying it would have implications for indyref2.
“The dangers are obvious,” he tweeted.
“Unreconciled unionists would from the day after a successful independence referendum do their utmost to undermine the result and ensure we get the worst possible deal in the hope that a successful referendum would be overturned.”
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