Jeremy Corbyn to back new plebiscite on Brexit

British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has endorsed a plan to force a second EU referendum as he bowed to party pressure.

British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last week. Picture: Getty Images

British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has endorsed a plan to force a second EU referendum as he bowed to pressure from rank-and-file party members and MPs.

The Telegraph reported yesterday Mr Corbyn wants the government to give MPs the final say next week on a second referendum. If a majority back a referendum, parliament could force Prime Minister Theresa May to hold a new in/out public vote that could lead to Brexit being reversed.

Supporters of the so-called People’s Vote were jubilant yesterday, describing Labour’s new policy as a “momentous” move that brought a referendum a “massive” step closer.

It came after Mrs May warned MPs that a fresh referendum would “damage social cohesion” because it would “undermine faith in democracy”.

The Prime Minister has been warned to expect up to 40 of her ministers to resign unless Tory MPs are permitted to vote for a plan to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

Welfare Secretary Amber Rudd has told Number 10 that it should allow a free vote on an amendment drafted by a cross-party group of senior MPs to extend Article 50 until the end of the year if there is no agreement on Brexit by a certain date.

Ms Rudd said 25 to 40 members of the government wanted to vote for the amendment and could resign if they were banned. One Tory MP said: “Amber is telling Downing Street to make it a free vote on behalf of lots of people.” Another Tory source added: “If they don’t do this there will be resignations. Two ministers have told No 10 they will resign.”

Mrs May refused to contemplate taking a no-deal Brexit off the table as she outlined her Plan B to the House of Commons early yesterday. She told MPs there was no approved alternative yet, and the EU would be unlikely to extend Article 50, the mechanism by which the UK will leave the EU, without an exit plan.

“No-deal will only be taken off the table by either revoking Article 50, which turns back the results of the referendum — the government will not do that — or by having a deal, and that is what we are trying to work out,” Mrs May said.

She said cancelling Article 50 was the only way of preventing a no-deal Brexit.

“The only other guaranteed way to avoid a no-deal Brexit is to revoke Article 50, which would mean staying in the EU,” she said.

Mrs May also made it clear she would not give in to calls for a Customs union or a second referendum, which would strengthen the hand of those seeking to break up the UK and could damage social cohesion by undermining faith in democracy. However, she would seek further concessions from the EU on the contentious Irish backstop, and would ease the way for EU citizens living in the UK to remain there, in particular by waiving the £65 ($117) fee.

“My focus continues to be on what is needed to secure the support of this house in favour of a Brexit deal with the EU,” she said.

Hardline Tory Brexiteers object above all to the fact that Britain cannot unilaterally end the backstop, which would keep it in a customs union with the EU until an alternative way of ensuring an open border was found.

Mrs May was forced to deny a report in The Telegraph that she was considering amending the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland, to break the deadlock over the backstop.

With no end in sight to the crisis, German Europe Minister Michael Roth said that even William Shakespeare would not have been able to think up a Brexit tragedy of such drama.

Mrs May chided Mr Corbyn for not taking part in cross-party talks, but he said the Prime Minister was in denial about the failure of her deal and her statement to the Commons felt like “Groundhog Day”. He said: “Her current deal is undeliverable.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of hardline Tory Brexiteers, said ­Britain was most likely to leave without a deal. However, he said, if the backstop were scrapped, most of the opposition from euro­sceptics in Mrs May’s party would be removed.

AAP, The Times