The likelihood of a second Brexit vote is "higher than it ever has been", high-profile backers of another referendum claimed on Tuesday, but admitted that daunting obstacles remain.
With chances slim of British Prime Minister Theresa May's draft divorce agreement with the European Union passing through parliament, leaders of the so-called "People's Vote" campaign said another referendum is the only way out of political gridlock.
"Support for a People's Vote has never been stronger", pro-EU Labour MP Chuka Umunna told reporters.
"We only started this campaign six months ago and we've had 700,000 people on the streets on a march" in London last month.
"The momentum is with us, our chance of a People's Vote is higher than it ever has been," he added.
Umunna highlighted his party's leadership and its MPs in leave-voting areas as two of the main problems standing in the way of another vote.
- 'Everything and anything is possible' -
Veteran leftist Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been a decades-long critic of the EU, and has yet to throw his support behind another vote that would include the option of remaining in the bloc.
"In legislative terms, we are not going to be able to secure a People's Vote without the Labour leadership and the front bench whipping Labour MPs to vote for the concept," Umunna told AFP.
"In that sense, this is in the hands of the Labour Party as much as it is in the hands of the prime minister."
Other Labour MPs are reluctant to support the calls for a fresh referendum as many constituencies in its working-class heartland voted for Brexit, he explained.
Prime Minister May has also said she is opposed to another vote, but Conservative MP Anna Soubry, a vocal supporter of a second referendum, suggested her boss could change her mind.
"The prime minister accepts that there are three options and one of those is no Brexit, and the only way you can achieve that is by going back to the British people," she told AFP.
"I don't know the workings of the prime minister's mind, all I know is that she said there wasn't going to be a general election I don't know how many times and she changed her mind.
"Everything and anything is possible," she added. "Events change so much, they change the public mood as well."
- No deal 'no option' -
May's draft Brexit agreement has little chance of getting through parliament given the opposition from pro- and anti-EU MPs alike, according to Soubry.
"Then what's going to happen? I genuinely do not know, " she added, but said leaving the EU with no deal "is no option".
Umunna insisted that parliament "will, in some way, shape or form, legally or politically, intervene to stop such an outcome."
If May's agreement fails and with no-deal off the table, responsibility should then fall on the public, said Soubry, with the question being whether to accept May's deal or remain in the EU.
Such a scenario would likely spark uproar among Brexit supporters, many of whom are opposed to May's deal.
"Whatever happens we are going to have a lot of angry people, we are divided," said Soubry.
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, giving supporters of a second vote little time to make their case.
At least six months would be needed to organise and hold the vote, said Umunna, who suggested that an extension to the Article 50 process, which put the leave date into law, remained a possibility.
"There is unanimity among the EU 27, I believe, that should we need an extension of the Article 50 process, we will be granted it."
May will travel to Brussels on Wednesday to discuss an outline agreement on post-Brexit trade ties with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
The likelihood of a second Brexit vote is “higher than it ever has been”, high-profile backers of another referendum claimed on Tuesday, but admitted that daunting obstacles remain.
With chances slim of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s draft divorce agreement with the European Union passing through parliament, leaders of the so-called “People’s Vote” campaign said another referendum is the only way out of political gridlock.
“Support for a People’s Vote has never been stronger”, pro-EU Labour MP Chuka Umunna told reporters.
“We only started this campaign six months ago and we’ve had 700,000 people on the streets on a march” in London last month.
“The momentum is with us, our chance of a People’s Vote is higher than it ever has been,” he added.
Umunna highlighted his party’s leadership and its MPs in leave-voting areas as two of the main problems standing in the way of another vote.
– ‘Everything and anything is possible’ –
Veteran leftist Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been a decades-long critic of the EU, and has yet to throw his support behind another vote that would include the option of remaining in the bloc.
“In legislative terms, we are not going to be able to secure a People’s Vote without the Labour leadership and the front bench whipping Labour MPs to vote for the concept,” Umunna told AFP.
“In that sense, this is in the hands of the Labour Party as much as it is in the hands of the prime minister.”
Other Labour MPs are reluctant to support the calls for a fresh referendum as many constituencies in its working-class heartland voted for Brexit, he explained.
Prime Minister May has also said she is opposed to another vote, but Conservative MP Anna Soubry, a vocal supporter of a second referendum, suggested her boss could change her mind.
“The prime minister accepts that there are three options and one of those is no Brexit, and the only way you can achieve that is by going back to the British people,” she told AFP.
“I don’t know the workings of the prime minister’s mind, all I know is that she said there wasn’t going to be a general election I don’t know how many times and she changed her mind.
“Everything and anything is possible,” she added. “Events change so much, they change the public mood as well.”
– No deal ‘no option’ –
May’s draft Brexit agreement has little chance of getting through parliament given the opposition from pro- and anti-EU MPs alike, according to Soubry.
“Then what’s going to happen? I genuinely do not know, ” she added, but said leaving the EU with no deal “is no option”.
Umunna insisted that parliament “will, in some way, shape or form, legally or politically, intervene to stop such an outcome.”
If May’s agreement fails and with no-deal off the table, responsibility should then fall on the public, said Soubry, with the question being whether to accept May’s deal or remain in the EU.
Such a scenario would likely spark uproar among Brexit supporters, many of whom are opposed to May’s deal.
“Whatever happens we are going to have a lot of angry people, we are divided,” said Soubry.
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, giving supporters of a second vote little time to make their case.
At least six months would be needed to organise and hold the vote, said Umunna, who suggested that an extension to the Article 50 process, which put the leave date into law, remained a possibility.
“There is unanimity among the EU 27, I believe, that should we need an extension of the Article 50 process, we will be granted it.”
May will travel to Brussels on Wednesday to discuss an outline agreement on post-Brexit trade ties with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
