Any second referendum in the U.K. should be a straight choice between “a credible Leave deal or Remain [in the EU],” Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour Party’s shadow Brexit secretary said Tuesday.
Labour pledged late Monday to back a second referendum on Brexit to avoid Prime Minister Theresa May’s “damaging Tory Brexit” deal or a no-deal exit, but a party statement was ambiguous as to what options would be on a referendum ballot paper.
“Last night, [Labour leader] Jeremy Corbyn and I circulated a briefing to all Labour MPs setting out that a public vote ought to be between the option, on the one hand, of a credible Leave deal and, on the other hand, Remain,” Starmer told the BBC’s Today program.
“Now, precisely what wording that takes, what mechanism there is, will obviously have to be decided by parliament, but that’s the basic choice.” he added.
Starmer said any public vote ought to be on a deal or proposition that has parliament’s backing, adding that “if the prime minister’s deal gets through, that deal should be subject to the lock of a public vote.”
He declined to be drawn on whether Labour would go into a general election, if it were called, on the promise of holding another EU referendum. “We don’t know where we’re going to be when an election is called … As and when that [election] manifesto is drafted, there will be a process,” he said.