The campaign commissioned a YouGov study based on polling of 26,000 people in the hope of persuading Labour MPs to vote for a second referendum if May’s Brexit deal is rejected and the party cannot force a general election.
The effort is aimed in particular at Labour MPs in constituencies that supported leave, many of whom still say that the primary message they hear from constituents is they want the UK to get out of the European Union as fast as possible.
It has helped sign up one high-profile backbencher, Jess Phillips, whose Birmingham Yardley constituency voted 60% to leave the EU but, where, according to the YouGov analysis, 63% support a second referendum and 52% would vote remain.
“It’s no surprise to me that my constituents feel that they have been failed in the negotiations and are changing their mind on Brexit,” Phillips said. “If I had to pick who decided my fate between Theresa May or the people in my community I’d pick them every single time.”
The support of Labour’s 257 MPs will be critical if a second referendum is to pass the House of Commons, and even now strategists at the People’s Vote campaign concede “there is not currently a majority in support of a People’s Vote at Westminster”.
Their belief is that MPs would first have to vote down whatever deal May brought back from Brussels, before the idea of a second referendum to break the deadlock could gain traction. But the hope is that the research will give Labour MPs food for thought. [...]
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