Expect new Brexit deal and a second vote by June, Jeremy Corbyn claims

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn with Laura McAlpine, the party's candidate for Harlow, during an event at the Park Inn By Radisson Harlow hotel. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

Labour believes it’s ‘realistic’ to expect a new Brexit deal and to hold a second referendum within six months.

Jeremy Corbyn told supporters in Harlow, Essex, that a June deadline for a new deal from the EU and then putting it to a public vote would be “do-able” if Labour wins general election.

“The deadline we have set for ourselves is a realistic one,” said Corbyn.

“Keir (Starmer) and I have spent many, many hours in Brussels and other European capitals going through our process with governments, officials and other socialist parties across Europe.

“We wouldn’t be saying this if we didn’t think it was realistic and do-able.”

The tight timetable would see Labour required to negotiate a Withdrawal Agreement within three months – the same time it took Boris Johnson to win revisions to Theresa May’s terms – and then put it to a second referendum against Remain within another 90 days.

It took 12 months to legislate and arrange the 2016 referendum after David Cameron’s Conservatives won power.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir, addressing supporters and journalists before Corbyn took the stage, said he would negotiate a deal that included “a customs union, single market alignment and protection for rights and the environment”, and argued it could be “secured quickly”.

Corbyn said he wanted to “listen to the whole country” as a prospective prime minister.

He accused the Tories of siding only with Leave voters, and the Liberal Democrats, with their position of revoking Article 50 if leader Jo Swinson wins a majority, of looking to “turn one side of the Brexit debate against the other”.

“People sometimes accuse me of trying to talk to both sides at once in the Brexit debate, to people who voted Leave and Remain,” he said.

“You know what? They’re right. Why would I only want to talk to half the country?

“I don’t want to live in half a country. Anybody seeking to become prime minister must talk to and listen to the whole country.

“Vote for Boris Johnson and you get a trade deal with the US and everything that goes with it.”