Labour conference delegates have voted overwhelmingly to approve a Brexit motion that leaves open the party supporting a second referendum.
Members voted with a show of hands at the end of the conference in Liverpool on Tuesday to keep remain on a ballot paper should there ever be a so-called ‘People’s Vote’ on the terms of leaving the European Union. But the motion passed was a compromise — leaving the option of a second referendum open, but not calling for it directly.
The vote came hours after shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer declared in his speech that “Nobody is ruling out Remain as an option,” and that Labour MPs would vote against the final deal put forward by the Conservative government in Parliament if it did not meet criteria including retaining access to the European Union’s Single Market and protecting workers’ rights.
Starmer said earlier in the day that if Parliament rejects the deal, “we must have other options”.
“It is right for Parliament to have the first say but if we need to break the impasse, our options must include campaigning for a public vote — and nobody is ruling out remain as an option.”
There had been some confusion emanating from the higher echelons of the party, with shadow chancellor John McDonnell saying on Monday that a ‘People’s Vote’ should not have an option on the ballot paper to Remain, saying to do so would not respect the result of the June 2016 referendum.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, formerly an outspoken EU critic who voted against EEC membership in 1975, told Sky News earlier in the day that Starmer was right to say that that “nobody is ruling out remain”, saying: “If they don’t meet them then we will vote against it.
“The government would then have to go back to the European Union and continue negotiations, or they might choose to resign and have a general election so that the people of this country can decide who they want to conduct these negotiations.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.