Second Brexit vote '˜hypothetical', say Labour frontbenchers

Senior shadow cabinet members have distanced Labour from a second Brexit referendum the day after party delegates voted to keep the option on the table.

Rebecca Long Bailey, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy delivers her speech on day three of the Labour Party.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, said the party would not include a new referendum in its manifesto if a general election was called before March.

Her justice colleague Richard Burgon said if Jeremy Corbyn’s party was in power now it would be negotiating a Brexit deal.

It came after shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday won a standing ovation from Labour conference delegates when he said “nobody is ruling out Remain as an option” in a fresh vote.

The event in Liverpool voted overwhelmingly to keep the option of a new vote “on the table”, after he explicitly said it could include the option of staying in the EU.

Mrs Long-Bailey told BBC Radio 5 Live that Sir Keir’s motion, hammered out after a late-night meeting, respected the 2016 referendum result.

Asked if a new vote would be among a list of manifesto pledges if Theresa May sent the country to the polls before Brexit day in March, she said “no”.

She added that a second referendum was “hypothetical”, adding: “What we have said is that, in a very extreme set of circumstances, nothing should be ruled out, and that includes a People’s Vote.”

She said it was not impossible Labour would vote to support a deal made by the Prime Minister, but added “we are a long way away” from anything the party could back being produced.

Mr Burgon said Labour’s policy remained that “we accept and respect the outcome of the referendum”.

Asked on LBC radio about Sir Keir leaving open the door to a second poll, he said: “Who knows where history is going to go?

“The Labour Party isn’t calling for a second referendum.