Labour Brexit row explodes as northern MPs break ranks with Corbyn and demand new referendum

Exclusive: Five MPs from the Northeast say a ‘people's vote’ on the final Brexit deal is critical

The row over Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to Brexit has exploded after five MPs from the party’s northern heartlands broke ranks and openly demanded a new referendum on the UK’s withdrawal deal.

The MPs from the Northeast – which heavily backed Leave in the 2016 referendum – said a new vote is essential because the true nature of Brexit is only just emerging.

Writing exclusively for The Independent, they warn plans to leave the single market will devastate family living standards as the future of major manufacturers and employers in their region is thrown into doubt.

Their intervention comes amid rising anger over Mr Corbyn’s failure to seize a chance to force Theresa May into keeping Britain in the single market – despite it also potentially collapsing her government and creating an opportunity to win power.

Labour’s current position is that it “respects” the 2016 referendum, that Britain’s EU membership must end and that the country should leave the single market and customs union to negotiate new relationships to replace them.

But with most projections showing the UK worse off outside the EU’s existing structures, the five northeast MPs have decided to publicly contradict their leader’s position and call for a “people’s vote” on the eventual deal.

In their article for The Independent, Phil Wilson, Paul Williams, Bridget Phillipson, Anna Turley and Catherine McKinnell write how new facts are emerging every day that were not known to voters before the 2016 referendum.

They add: “The outcome of the negotiations will affect the northeast of England and the United Kingdom for decades to come.

There is so much at stake here. Even the government’s own research says the northeast economy will lose growth once we leave the EU regardless of the deal

Five Labour MPs from the North East

“Because this is so important, we believe the British people should have their say on the final Brexit deal.

“Just as the people had their say in the referendum in 2016, we believe the final decision on this country’s destiny should lie with the British people in a people’s vote.”

The MPs in particular highlight how firms like Nissan in Sunderland, Hitachi in County Durham and in the chemicals industry on Teesside, providing thousands of jobs, see their future within the EU customs union and single market – which both Conservative and Labour leaderships are committed to quitting.

They also raise concerns over damage to the NHS and concessions that will have to be made to other countries to secure trade deals.

They write: “There is so much at stake here. Even the government’s own research says the northeast economy will lose growth once we leave the EU regardless of the deal.

“This will hit living standards of families throughout the region. A smaller economy will mean less money to invest in our hard pressed public services.

“Already the British economy has fallen from the top to the bottom of the European growth league.”

Ex-shadow cabinet minister Owen Smith was sacked from the Labour front bench earlier this year for backing another referendum, while shadow business secretary Barry Gardiner managed to keep his job despite saying a key element of Labour’s approach was “bollocks”.

MPs Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell have both called for a new referendum and, along with Dawn Butler and Tulip Siddiq, quit jobs on the front bench last year over the party’s insistence that they vote to trigger Article 50 and leave the EU.

Welsh MP Geraint Davies has previously called for a new referendum, while London MP Gareth Thomas also demanded a “people’s vote” in the Commons on Wednesday.

A Labour spokesman said: “Labour respects the result of the referendum and is working for a jobs first Brexit that protects jobs and living standards.”

It comes after 83 Labour peers defied Mr Corbyn’s will on Tuesday and voted for an amendment to Ms May’s EU Withdrawal Bill that would effectively keep Britain in the EU’s single market.

The amendment will now come to the Commons, with The Independent having been told Conservative rebels have enough MPs to make it law as long as Labour also backs it.

Such a move could well spark a Tory Brexiteer backlash in the form of a vote of no confidence in Ms May, that would likely bring the government down, sparking an election and an opening for Labour to win power.

But in comments that have infuriated some of his MPs, Mr Corbyn’s office failed to back the amendment, claiming the single market was “problematic” for his plans to intervene in British industry if he wins power.

Chris Leslie MP told The Independent the Labour leader would be confronted over the issue if he attends the next gathering of MPs.

He said: “I doubt his opposition will be sustained for long – there will need to be clarity directly from Jeremy Corbyn upfront at the Parliamentary Labour Party meeting on Monday. It’s utterly astonishing.”

When asked if Mr Corbyn would back the amendment, that commits the UK to staying in the European Economic Area, his spokesman said it was “not what we are proposing”.

He went on: “We will be pressing the case in the Commons, as the leadership has done in the House of Lords, for a new relationship with the EU, a close relationship with the EU, that is based on a close relationship with the single market ... we will try and unite people around that position, which we think is the right one to promote a Brexit which puts jobs and the economy first.”

Mr Corbyn’s spokesman explained that staying in the EEA could undermine a future Labour government’s ability “to intervene” in UK industries with particular issues around state aid and reversing privatisation.

Ms May’s cabinet is also deeply divided on Brexit, with the issue of what kind of customs relations to adopt set to be discussed again at a meeting of senior minister on Tuesday.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has denied being disloyal, despite calling the option of a “customs partnership”, said to be preferred by Ms May, a “crazy” idea. Business secretary Greg Clark has said thousands of jobs could be put at risk if the UK does not implement the idea.