Labour has announced it will back a second Brexit referendum if its five demands for leaving the EU are rejected by MPs.
Leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would put forward or support an amendment in favour of a public vote to stop Theresa May’s deal being ‘forced on the country’.
But what exactly does that mean for Brexit – will it have any impact at all?
What has happened?
Jeremy Corbyn announced last night that his party would table an amendment that, if passed, would require Theresa May to adhere to its requirements for withdrawal.
He will first seek to enshrine the party’s five Brexit demands in law by tabling an amendment to the Government’s withdrawal motion today.
Labour is also supporting an amendment – to be debated on Wednesday – which aims to delay the UK’s exit date from the EU by extending Article 50 if a deal is not agreed by Parliament by March 13.
If those amendments are rejected by MPs, as is expected, Labour said it would back a second referendum.
The party said it would ‘put forward or support an amendment in favour of a public vote to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit’.
Is this a Labour U-turn?
Labour has not until this point definitively backed a second public vote on Brexit – preferring instead to push for another general election.
And in its 2017 election manifesto it promised to accept the result of the 2016 vote.
Former Labour frontbencher Owen Smith was sacked last year for his support for a second referendum.
But Corbyn has come under pressure from pro-EU MPs to throw the party’s weight behind a ‘People’s Vote’, and at the Labour Party conference in September, party delegates voted to keep the option of a second vote on the table.
Some say the Labour leader’s latest move is an attempt to stop further defections following last week’s split, where eight Labour MPs defected and created The Independent Group (TIG).
How has the news gone down?
Labour’s own MPs were split on the decision to support a second vote.
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told the BBC a second referendum would ‘break the logjam’
David Lammy, a supporter of the People’s Vote campaign for a second referendum, said a public vote would bring a ‘decisive mandate to move forward’.
But Caroline Flint, Labour MP for Don Valley, said the party was in danger of overturning its election promise to respect the 2016 result.
‘We can’t ignore millions of Labour Leave voters,’ she tweeted.
And Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell said she ‘remained to be convinced’ on supporting a second referendum, predicting around 25 of her colleagues would not vote for it.
Chuka Umunna, one of the eight MPs who quit the party to join TIG, said the announcement was ‘better late than never’.
Will there be an option to remain in the EU?
It’s not clear exactly what would be on Labour’s second referendum ballot paper but Emily Thornberry said voters would be given the option of remaining in the EU and cancelling Brexit.
The frontbencher said there would be a choice between remaining or rubberstamping Theresa May’s deal.
Thornberry said both she and Corbyn would be campaigning for the UK to remain in the EU under those circumstances.
A Labour source supported that last night, saying: ‘We’ve said in the past that if there were another referendum that remain would need to be on the ballot paper.’
A briefing paper reportedly given to Labour MPs said any referendum would need to have ‘a credible Leave option and Remain’.