Politics
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- Labour party rejects calls to explicitly back a second referendum in all circumstances, in defeat for party's pro-Europeans.
- Jeremy Corbyn's party is heavily split over the question of a second referendum.
- The ruling NEC agreed to maintain Labour's existing policy of maintaining the "option" of a second referendum.
LONDON - The Labour Party has agreed to resist growing calls from pro-European members to explicitly back a second referendum on Brexit in all curcumstances.
Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) on Tuesday decided to maintain the party's existing policy of maintaining the "option" of a second referendum.
However, the committee, which includes Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, decided against backing calls from those, including the party's deputy leader Tom Watson, to back a "confirmatory" vote on any deal, even one agreed by the party.
A Labour Source, said: "The NEC agreed the manifesto which will be fully in line with Labour's existing policy; to support Labour's alternative plan, and if we can't get the necessary changes to the government's deal, or a General Election, to back the option of a public vote."
The decision came after hours of intense discussions of what the party's policy on Brexit should be for the European Parliament elections later this month.
The NEC - which is comprised of Corbyn, numerous Shadow Cabinet ministers, trade union heads, and others - effectively voted to reinstate the party's long-standing policy of supporting a referendum as a means of stopping either a no-deal Brexit or a "damaging" Brexit deal.
However, the NEC had been under intense pressure from a significant number of MPs and the Labour Party's overwhelmingly pro-European Union membership to explicitly back a referendum on any Brexit outcome.
Over 30 Labour Members of European Parliament and European election candidates had made a public pledge to campaign explicitly for a new referendum, regardless of what the party's NEC agreed on Tuesday.
Senior members of Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet like Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Leader Tom Watson have also been trying to persuade party bosses into adopting a more pro-referendum position.
Corbyn, his aides, and figures like Labour Party Chairman Ian Lavery fear that becoming an unambiguous pro-referendum party could cost Labour support in upcoming elections, particularly in Leave-voting areas.
The United Kingdom wasn't originally supposed to participate in this year's European Parliament elections.
However, Prime Minister May's decision to delay Brexit until October 31 meant that the UK would have to take part, barring for the unlikely event of MPs supporting for a Brexit deal by the of May.
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