Brexit: Confusion over Labour stance as Keir Starmer says party will back Remain in 'any outcome'

Shadow Brexit secretary apparently at odds with Labour leader over opposition to Brexit in all circumstances

Fresh confusion has been raised over Labour‘s Brexit policy after Keir Starmer said the party would campaign to remain in the EU in “any outcome”.

The shadow Brexit secretary claimed that Jeremy Corbyn had said “very clearly” for “several months” that this was now the party’s position.

But Mr Corbyn and his team have repeatedly said only that Labour would support Remain if the alternatives were a Conservative Brexit deal or no deal.

They have consistently refused to endorse backing Remain in all circumstances, as Sir Keir suggested.

The shadow Brexit secretary told Radio 4’s Today programme: “What we’ve said is that any outcome now must be subject to a referendum and in that referendum we would campaign for Remain.

“Jeremy Corbyn has very clearly said that any outcome now must be subject to a referendum and we would campaign for Remain.”

Pushed on whether Mr Corbyn had indeed said this, Sir Keir said: “Yes he has, several months ago. It’s been our position ever since he set it out and been repeated ever since.”

Amid confusion over the party’s policy, a spokesperson for Mr Corbyn pointed to an article by the Labour leader in The Independent, in which he did not mention backing Remain.

Mr Corbyn said only that Labour would give voters a choice between a “credible Leave option” and Remain. He did not say which option, if any, the party would endorse.

He wrote: “The Labour Party will do everything necessary to stop a no-deal bankers’ Brexit. We want an injection of democracy so the people can decide our country’s future.

“That could come either by Johnson having the courage of his convictions to test his no-deal plans in a Final Say referendum or through a general election. In that election, Labour would offer a referendum, with a credible Leave option as well as the option to Remain.”

Explaining Labour’s Brexit policy in an email to party members last month, Mr Corbyn said: “Whoever becomes the new prime minister should have the confidence to put their deal, or no deal, back to the people in a public vote.

“In those circumstances, I want to make it clear that Labour would campaign for remain against either no deal or a Tory deal that does not protect the economy and jobs.”

Sir Keir also appeared to distance himself from Mr Corbyn’s insistence that installing himself as interim prime minister was the best way to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

The shadow Brexit secretary was speaking ahead of a meeting of opposition party leaders to try to thrash out a plan for blocking no-deal.

Mr Corbyn has proposed holding a vote of no confidence and then stepping in as a short-term prime minister to delay Brexit and call a general election but the plan has been dismissed by Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader.

Mr Starmer said the discussions must not focus on “fantasy politics”.

He said: “A vote of no confidence is something which the leader of the opposition has got to decide on when to call that.

“But what I have been saying to colleagues over the summer, and this is the spirit of Jeremy Corbyn pulling people today is, look let’s put aside the kind of fantasy politics of who wants this and that.

“We have got one week to make sure that, so far as possible, we have a plan that will be effective that we can put into action.”