McDonnell: People’s Vote is ‘inevitable’
PUBLISHED: 14:48 28 November 2018 | UPDATED: 15:21 28 November 2018
John McDonnell says People's Vote is "inevitable". Photograph: BBC
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Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said that a People’s Vote now appears to be “inevitable”.
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There had been speculation that senior Labour figures were preparing to back a People’s Vote if Theresa May’s deal was defeated - with Robert Peston claiming that Corbyn would make his party the “champion of another referendum or People’s Vote”.
This appeared to be supported in a new interview between John McDonnell and the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, where the shadow chancellor McDonnell said that he believed there could now be another Brexit referendum.
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He said: “We should have a general election but that’s very difficult. If that’s not possible we’ll be calling upon the government then to join us in the public vote... that’s the sequence I think that we’ll inevitably go through over this period.”
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McDonnell replied: “That’s right.”
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McDonnell has seperately told a Guardian Live event that a People’s Vote “might be an option we seize upon”. He said that the options would include Remain, but not a “no Deal” option.
He added: “We’ll have to go through that sequence to show we’re doing everything we can.”
At Prime Minister’s Questions Theresa May called a People’s Vote a “betrayal of the many by the few”.
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