Pro-EU Labour MPs condemn John McDonnell’s plan to deny voters option to Remain in fresh Brexit referendum

Pro-EU Labour MPs have condemned John McDonnell’s plan to deny voters the option to remain in the EU in any fresh Brexit referendum as “farcical”.

Labour’s fragile truce over the terms of a “People’s Vote” threatened to blow apart at the party’s conference, after the shadow chancellor was accused of ripping up an agreement within hours.

Mr McDonnell said Labour would “go for a people's vote” if any deal struck by Theresa May was rejected by MPs – and it could not force a general election – but, crucially, without a choice to halt Brexit altogether.

David Lammy, a supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, said: “Labour members support a People's Vote by almost nine to one – 90 per cent of Labour members want to stay in the EU.

“They did not do this to be offered a farcical referendum on no deal or a bad deal. It absolutely must include the right to stay in the EU.”

Chris Leslie, another leading pro-EU Labour figure, told The Independent: “Denying the public the right to stay in the EU - if the face of recent evidence of Brexit job losses and falling living standards - would make a mockery of the wishes of 90 per cent of Labour supporters. This nonsense is unsustainable.”

A third, Mike Gapes, tweeted: “McDonnell does not speak for me” – insisting they had to be “a meaningful people’s vote with the choice between the deal, or no deal and to remain in the EU”.

And Andrew Lewin, the founder of the group Remain Labour, said Mr McDonnell’s comment contradicted the composite motion agreed by the party – during a five-and-a-half-hour meeting on Sunday night.

“There was a line in an earlier version of the motion which said we should consider a 'Public Vote on the terms of Brexit',” he said.

“That line was deleted from the final text. Supporting a referendum on two different types of Brexit has been ruled out.”

Under Mr McDonnell’s plan, voters would be asked to accept the prime minister’s deal, or back an attempt to renegotiate it – perhaps after an election.

He told BBC Radio 4: “My view at the moment is that parliament will decide what will be on that ballot paper.

“We will be arguing that it should be a vote on the deal itself. And then enable us to go back and do the negotiations.”

Challenged, Mr McDonnell did not dispute that Remain would not be an option, adding: “We’re respecting the referendum. We want a general election. If we can’t get that, we will have a people’s vote. The people’s vote will be on the deal itself, and whether we can negotiate a better deal.”

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman, said the comments showed “Labour’s leaders are aiding and abetting Theresa May on Brexit”.

“They’ve spent two years backing the Tories’ catastrophic Brexit and are even now trying to ignore their own members who want a People’s Vote with the option to remain in the EU,” he said.