On Monday the Labour Party announced its backing for another EU referendum to prevent a “damaging Tory Brexit”. Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Kevin Maguire, associate editor of the Daily Mirror, claimed another referendum would be between remaining in the EU or supporting Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The remark sparked a furious response from Andrew Pierce, who claimed the decision from Labour was a “betrayal”.
Mr Maguire said: “It will be the Brexit on offer. Do you want the Brexit on offer? Which is the real Brexit.
“Not the unicorn and the moon, the likes of him, sold you three years ago.
“With lies and illegality, because you know there’s no £350million a week for the NHS and so on. You know that now.
“It will be the truth. But, it’s still unlikely to be at this stage passed by Parliament.
“There are a lot of MPs, a sizeable minority of Labour MPs who will vote against it.”
Pierce replied: “And most Tory MPs will vote against it because it is a betrayal of what we voted for in 2016.
“We were told by David Cameron it was a once in a lifetime vote.
“The Government will support it, Labour said they would support it, and they are selling out millions of voters.”
Labour leader Mr Corbyn said he would put forward or support an amendment in favour of a public vote to stop Mrs May’s deal being “forced on the country” if his Brexit demands are not met.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that if Mrs May’s deal got through Parliament, Labour’s policy was for it to be put to a referendum – with remaining in the EU as the alternative option.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We specifically agreed yesterday, as the Labour Party, that if the Prime Minister’s deal gets through, that deal should be subject to the lock, if you like, of a public vote in the way that Jeremy Corbyn spelt out yesterday.”
But, Labour MP John Mann warned Mr Corbyn risked being ditched by voters over the party’s “absurd” shift to support a second referendum.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “Voters won’t have it. The last person to renege on their manifesto was Nick Clegg, it didn’t end very well for him on tuition fees.
“Our manifesto was unambiguous, we would accept the result of the referendum. A second referendum doesn’t do that and the voters – in very, very large numbers – will not accept that.”
