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The timing of the demand, a couple of hours before Jeremy Corbyn was due to open the no-confidence debate, irritated the party’s leadership, who said afterwards that another national poll was “not the default option” if the Commons vote was lost.
Debbie Abrahams and Lilian Greenwood, both former frontbenchers, were among 71 MPs who signed a statement saying the party must back a second referendum hours before Corbyn was due to move a vote of no confidence.
The statement said: “We must try and remove this government from office as soon as possible.” However, it added: “But the removal of the government and pushing for a general election may prove impossible.”
In that situation, the MPs called on Labour to “join trade unions, our members and a majority of our constituents by then unequivocally backing the only logical option to help our country move forward: putting the decision back to the people for a final say, in a public vote, with the option to stay and keep the deal that we have”.
But in response, Corbyn’s spokesman said in a briefing that a second referendum was “not the default option”. When asked if the MPs’ actions were a distraction, he added: “Right now the priority is to bring about a general election; we’ve got a no-confidence motion down today.” [...]