Diane Abbott today gave Jeremy Corbyn a shove towards formally backing a second EU referendum calling it ‘the democratic thing to do’.
The Shadow Home Secretary said a new vote on any Brexit deal must become Labour policy and she also urged the party to campaign to remain in the EU.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Now at minutes to midnight on these negotiations, the Tories plunged into their leadership contest so we get no sense out of them for a few months, we think it’s important to foreground the People’s Vote.’
She added: ‘There is no inherent contradiction between respecting the result of the referendum and having a People’s Vote, not least because it’s still not sure how a People’s Vote would pan out.
Mr Corbyn is under huge pressure to back a new poll after Labour’s electoral humiliation triggered a mutiny at the top of his party. He signalled he could be ready to commit to a second Brexit vote after his closest colleagues said it was the only way to stop Labour haemorrhaging support.
Tony Blair predicted today that it is ‘more likely now that we will have another referendum and more likely that therefore we will vote to stay in the European Union’, and said the party needs to ‘stop equivocating’ on Brexit.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured leaving his London home yesterday) has told his MPs that the party is ‘ready to support a public vote’ on Brexit and Diane Abbott says she will campaign for remain
This diagram shows the Brexit Party’s dominance everywhere except London and Scotland
This chart shows the parties’ respective share of the vote, with Labour third and the Tories fifth
Tony Blair today predicted there would be a second referendum and Britain would vote to remain in the EU
Ms Abbott insisted Labour was ‘moving towards a clearer line’ on the issue.
Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell is EXPELLED from Labour
Alastair Campbell was today expelled from Labour after he admitted he had not voted for the party for first time in his life, in disgust at the party’s stance on Europe
Alastair Campbell was today expelled from Labour after he admitted he had not voted for the party for first time in his life, in disgust at the party’s stance on Europe.
Tony Blair’s former spin doctor said he had backed Liberal Democrats at the European elections last Thursday because he wants to stop Brexit.
Hitting back at Corbyn and his leadership he said: ‘To all the Labour staff, MPs, peers and councillors who told me they were not voting Labour fear not; as I believe in loyalty to the tribe, your secrets are safe with me’.
The Labour leadership threw him out of the party over his vote – but Mr Campbell will appeal saying Jeremy Corbyn was never expelled despite spending years voting against Labour in Parliament from the backbenches.
He tweeted: ‘Sad and disappointed to receive email expelling me from @UKLabour – particularly on a day leadership finally seems to be moving to the right place on Brexit, not least thanks to tactical voting by party members, including MPs, councillors and peers who back a people’s vote.
‘I was not intending to publicise this at this stage, but have had calls from friends in the Party telling me it is now widely known and likely to be leaked. I have been advised by lawyers with expertise in this field I have grounds for appeal against expulsion and shall do so’.
Bob Ainsworth, defence secretary under Gordon Brown, is also set to be expelled after admitting to voting Green last week.
He said: ‘When you see a guy being expelled from the party for doing exactly the same as you’ve done, you stick your hands up and say: “I am Spartacus”.’
‘I’ve always argued that it’s perfectly possible that Leave would win again but we’re supporting a People’s Vote strongly now because it’s the right thing to do and it’s the democratic thing to do.’
She went on: ‘Our position is that ideally we want a general election – if we can’t get a general election in time, we would support a People’s Vote.’
John McDonnell and Diane Abbott have both told their party leader that Labour must guarantee a new referendum under any circumstances in the wake of its European elections mauling.
Party policy has been to push first for a general election and then back a second referendum only to stop a ‘bad’ or No Deal Brexit.
Labour MP Lisa Nandy warned a second referendum ‘would most likely result in a no-deal outcome’, adding ‘this could be the final breach of trust with that working-class electorate’.
The MP for Wigan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Obviously in constituencies like Wigan you get very mixed views, you get different views like everywhere in the country, but to most people the idea of a second referendum just seems quite absurd.
‘People were asked what they think, you can see from the results that we had here, that very few people have changed their minds and if there is a shift in this area of the country I think it’s towards no-deal Brexit.’
She added: ‘I think we’ve got to wake up to the seriousness not just of what we’re about to do to the Labour Party, but what we’re about to do the country because I strongly suspect that if there is a second referendum people here would come out and vote in fairly large numbers and probably vote for no deal.’
She went on: ‘There is a huge frustration amongst Labour voters who voted Leave in towns like mine to see leading figures from the Labour Party out calling for a second referendum before there’s been any serious attempt to implement the result of the first.’
After Labour was pushed into third place nationally by the pro-Remain Liberal Democrats on Sunday night, former prime minister Tony Blair said he understood why.
He said: ‘I voted Labour. I said I was going to and I did although without any great enthusiasm frankly. But I did.’
Asked what he would say to Alastair Campbell after he admitted voting Lib Dem he said: ‘I understand why you did what you did. You wouldn’t be the only person I know who voted Labour all their lives who didn’t vote Labour in this election.’
Asked what Labour should do: ‘It should stop equivocating basically and come out to a clear position, basically. At that position should be in favour of going back to the people. But it should do so after we go through a proper process in parliament.’
Mr Corbyn’s colleagues have demanded an end to the ambiguity.
In a dramatic intervention, Shadow Chancellor Mr McDonnell said: ‘Our only option now is to go back to the people in a referendum.’
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell (pictured) said Labour could unite the party and country by ‘taking the issue back to people in a public vote’
Last night, Mr Corbyn made what his aides described as a ‘tonal shift’ to his position.
In a letter to his MPs, the Labour leader said: ‘It is clear that the deadlock in Parliament can now only be broken by the issue going back to the people through a general election or a public vote. We are ready to support a public vote on any deal.’
The statement moved the party closer to fully committing to a second referendum, but Mr Corbyn will still face intense Labour pressure to back a so-called ‘people’s vote’ without delay, in any circumstances – and to campaign on the Remain side. The major obstacle to this remains his hard-Left allies such as powerful union boss Len McCluskey, who is vehemently against a second Brexit vote for fear of Labour being wiped out in the North.
The party endured an appalling night on Sunday, finishing with just 14 per cent of the vote, losing control of London to the resurgent Lib Dems and seats to Nigel Farage’s newly created Brexit Party in its pro-Leave heartlands.
The Tory party was also humiliated by Mr Farage, finishing fifth in vote share and suffering one of the worst electoral nights in its history.
Leadership candidates warned yesterday that the party must deliver Brexit by October or face oblivion.
As both main parties were engulfed by the fallout from Sunday night’s political earthquake:
- Mr Farage said he was ready to reshape politics at a general election, and would contest every seat, as his party demanded a seat at the Brexit negotiating table;
- Tory leadership contenders scrambled to promise to deliver Brexit ahead of the October deadline, with Dominic Raab making clear he was ready for No Deal;
- Environment Secretary Michael Gove said the party ‘absolutely needs to deliver Brexit’ and it would be his first priority if elected, while Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said there was an ‘existential risk to our party’ of not getting ‘Brexit done’;
- The Liberal Democrats said they would use their second-place showing in the European elections to ‘stop Brexit’;
- Change UK’s future was thrown into serious doubt after the newly created party failed to gain a single MEP;
- SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon signalled she would push for a second independence referendum after winning in Scotland;
- A row broke out over whether pro-Remain or pro-Leave parties had collectively won more votes in the elections.
Both main parties have hit the panic button after Sunday night’s mauling, but Mr Farage said: ‘In some ways, the Labour Party today are in more trouble than the Conservative Party.’
The Conservative vote share slumped to around 9 per cent – thought to be its lowest in a national election since 1834 when the party took on its current name
Until yesterday, Labour demands for a second referendum had been led by pro-Remain frontbenchers such as Sir Keir Starmer, Tom Watson and Emily Thornberry. But yesterday the calls came from two of Mr Corbyn’s closest hard-Left colleagues, Mr McDonnell and Miss Abbott.
Mr McDonnell acknowledged that Mr Corbyn wanted a general election rather than a referendum – but said the reality was that this was unlikely.
He said the country was facing the prospect of a ‘Brexit extremist’ becoming the next prime minister, meaning the UK faced the prospect of No Deal. ‘Of course we want a general election,’ he said. ‘But realistically, after last night, there aren’t many Tory MPs who will vote for an election – it will be like turkeys voting for Christmas.
‘Our best way of doing that [stopping a No Deal Brexit] is going back to the people in a referendum – I think that’s what our members want.
Trade union boss Len McCluskey (pictured), an opponent of a second vote, demanded that Mr Corbyn stick to his existing position of trying to keep Leave and Remain supporters together
‘We’re saying quite clearly, if there can be a deal, great, but it needs to go back to the people.
‘If it’s a No Deal, we’ve got to block it and the one way of doing that is going back to the people and arguing the case against it because it could be catastrophic for our economy.’
Mr McDonnell added: ‘It’s not just me saying that, it’s Philip Hammond the Chancellor, it’s others across the parties, and independent economists – and I’m not willing to stand by and let my constituents lose their jobs and have their livelihoods undermined by this.’
Asked if Labour now supported a referendum under any circumstances, he said: ‘I think it is, yeah.’
Miss Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, also weighed in, saying: ‘When we come in third after the Brexit Party, that is a clue something is wrong with our strategy. We need to listen to our members and take a clearer line on a public vote.’
But other hard-Left allies – including Mr McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union – last night demanded that Mr Corbyn stick to his existing position of trying to keep Leave and Remain supporters together.
Labour’s bigwigs turn on each other after election wipeout
Labour was in meltdown last night as the party tore itself apart over its Brexit policy after its European electoral humiliation.
Jeremy Corbyn’s party endured a night of disaster at the polls – losing hundreds of thousands of votes in the Leave-supporting north and the Remain-backing south.
They lost major northern strongholds such as Leeds, Sheffield and Bolsover – and were pushed into second place to the Brexit Party even in the North East.
In Remain-backing London, they ended up second behind the Liberal Democrats and lost Mr Corbyn’s stronghold of Islington.
The results sparked open warfare at the top of the party, with critics saying Labour did so poorly because it tried to appeal to both sides of the Brexit debate – while pleasing neither.
Labour lost control of its stronghold of Wales, coming third in its worst ever result there. And in Scotland, a resurgent SNP pushed the party into fifth place, sparking warnings that Labour will ‘never recover’ north of the border.
The Conservatives suffered a humiliating 14.9 per cent loss in their 2014 vote share in last night’s European election results
Labour ended up third on the night with just 14 per cent of the vote, behind the Liberal Democrats on 20 per cent. Only ten Labour MEPs were returned, compared to the Lib Dems’ 16.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said Labour’s election results were in many ways worse than the Conservatives’ because the party was being squeezed from both sides.
He said: ‘For the first time in over 100 years, the Labour Party has not won an election in Wales.
‘In fact, they’ve been mightily trounced by the Brexit Party – we won Wales quite handsomely by digging deep into the Labour vote.
‘Our highest-scoring region – 39 per cent of the vote – was in the North East. And where did the vote come from? It came from the Labour Party. The same happened in Yorkshire.
‘You’ve got these three big areas – South Wales, the Midlands and the North – where the majority of the 5 million Labour voters voted Brexit. In some ways, the Labour Party today are in more trouble than the Conservative Party.’
Labour’s poor results led to a debate over a second referendum and whether the party should promise one.
The Scottish and Welsh Labour parties, and two major unions, demanded that Mr Corbyn backed a referendum in all circumstances. Unison’s Dave Prentis said: ‘If Labour is going to win the next election, it needs to understand that ambiguity and division aren’t appealing. The country needs a radical Labour government, with properly-funded public services at its heart – but it won’t get that unless Labour has a clearer line on Brexit.’
This map shows by council that the Brexit Party have topped polls in almost everywhere in England and Wales. The Tories have not topped in any council areas
As the results flooded in on Sunday night, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry and Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer came out in support of a second vote.
And deputy leader Tom Watson said: ‘Following the disastrous EU election results, Labour urgently needs to rethink its Brexit position and realign with members and voters.’
On the other side of the argument stood figures such as Ian Lavery, the party chairman and another close ally of Mr Corbyn.
He tweeted: ‘The country is now more polarised than ever. Very toxic, very unpleasant!
‘UK Labour will never turn our backs on the 48 per cent or the 52 per cent.
‘We will seek the real solutions that will heal society and bring together the 100 per cent.’
The leader of the Unite union, Len McCluskey, said Labour’s attempt to ‘unite the nation’ over Brexit was ‘an honourable objective that must not be abandoned’. He added: ‘This is the time to hold our nerve because the true prize is the very real possibility of a looming general election.’
In a dig at Mr Watson, he said: ‘Faced now with the serious prospect of a No Deal Tory prime minister, Labour must stay united and show the country that it is ready to lead.
‘There are some rushing to advance other agendas but are doing so to undermine Jeremy Corbyn. They will be seen for what they are and never forgiven by the members.’
Labour MPs also expressed their anger at the European election campaign. Peter Kyle, MP for Hove, said: ‘Party staff did their level best, they are amazing.
‘But their bosses who devised and led this campaign can never again be allowed near a campaign. Never.
‘Our messaging was appalling, our promotional material lamentable. I feel the need to apologise to staff, activists and voters.’