Brexit: Change UK urges pro-EU Labour members to ‘lend’ support for referendum push

‘Don’t endorse that prevarication,’ said the group’s spokesman and ex-Labour MP Chuka Umunna

Change UK MP Chuka Umunna addresses delegates at rally in central London (AFP/Getty)

Change UK has urged disillusioned pro-EU Labour members to “lend” the party their votes in the looming European elections to build support for a Final Say referendum.

At the first of several planned rallies for their elections effort, the Change UK spokesman Chuka Umunna said his former party had nothing to offer but “prevarication” when it came to a second EU vote.

The remarks from the Streatham MP came as Jeremy Corbyn defeated an effort to get Labour to commit to a public vote in all circumstances during a marathon meeting of Labour’s governing body.

Instead, the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) agreed a manifesto for the European elections “fully in line with Labour’s existing policy”, which is to keep the option of a fresh vote on the table.

“Don’t endorse that prevarication. Vote for Change UK,” Mr Umunna said during his party’s rally in central London on Tuesday. “Or at the very least, if you haven’t made up your mind what you will do at the next general election, lend us your vote in these European elections.

“The better we do, the more likely you are to see the Labour leadership adopt a people’s vote and Remain position.”

But the former Labour MP Mike Gapes claimed that Labour would never come out against leaving the EU, adding: “Corbyn whipped Labour MPs to for Article 50, he whipped Labour MPs not to support a people’s vote.

“Whatever contortions and forms of words they come up with today, it is clear that large, influential parts of the Labour leadership will not oppose Brexit.”

The group’s interim leader and ex-Tory MP also told attendees at the rally in central London: “We might not have the big machinery nor the deep pockets of the established political parties – but we have the passion and experience to match them every inch of the way.

“The silver lining of the Brexit mess is the small window of opportunity that has opened before us. A small team, now a growing team – this group of like-minded souls are coming together, determined to give the British people the option of something better, a new choice: Change UK.

Former BBC Newsnight presenter Gavin Esler – now a candidate for Change UK at the European elections – also attacked the Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.

He said Mr Farage offered a vision of a country that was “racially divided, wants to turn us away from real cooperation with Europe, and who, like his friend Donald Trump, has stirred up a meanness in our society”.

Mr Esler added that he had even nicknamed his own dog “Farage” due to its tendency to leave a great deal of mess behind and expect others to clean up after it.