Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday said his party would guide him on how to campaign in a second Brexit referendum, pledging to offer voters a choice between staying in the European Union and a “credible” deal.
At the start of Labour’s annual conference in the English seaside resort of Brighton, Corbyn was again under pressure by party members and even some of his top team to unequivocally back remaining in the EU in any new vote.
But so far the Labour leader, a leftist who is an instinctive critic of the EU, has struck a neutral stance, saying it was more important to hold the party together by embracing its “Remainers” and those who want to leave the bloc.
Just weeks before Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to leave the EU “do or die”, Labour, like the governing Conservatives, is deeply divided over Brexit, deepening uncertainty over Britain’s departure, the country’s biggest trade and foreign policy decision for more than 40 years.
On the eve of a conference when party officials hoped to present Labour as a government in waiting, a new row broke out when an ally of Corbyn tried to oust deputy leader Tom Watson over Brexit.
Corbyn stepped in to defuse the stand-off.
He again appealed to his party to understand that while many of them wanted to remain in the EU, there was a “significant majority” that backed leaving, and so both needed to have an option if it came to a second referendum.
Asked whether Labour would campaign to remain in the EU or to leave with a deal, Corbyn told the BBC he would stage a special conference or meeting to determine his party’s stance.
“I am leading the party, I am proud to lead the party, I am proud of the democracy of the party and of course I will go along with whatever decision the party comes to,” Corbyn said.
“We will put both views to the British people and say look this is the best deal we could get, (and) this is the Remain and hopefully the reform option.”
Johnson, a figurehead for the 2016 Leave campaign, has said there will be no second referendum, refusing to even countenance a further delay to Brexit and pledging to take Britain out of the bloc on October 31, with or without a deal.
Corbyn said his priority was making sure a no-deal Brexit would not happen after opposition lawmakers forced through legislation saying the prime minister must ask for a new extension from the EU if no deal is in place by October 19.
Johnson is increasingly boxed in over Brexit.
This week he will face a ruling from the Supreme Court over whether he misled the Queen over suspending parliament — possibly raising the spectre of lawmakers returning to work to try to further challenge his plans to leave the EU.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives for an interview with the BBC during the Labour party conference in Brighton, on the south coast of England, yesterday.
