WATCH: Sir Keir Starmer pushes for second referendum

PUBLISHED: 10:03 02 December 2018

Richard Porritt

Sir Keir Starmer has said a second referendum would be better than the current Brexit deal Photo: PA

PA Wire/PA Images

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Sir Keir Starmer echoed the words of shadow chancellor John McDonnell who said Theresa May’s Brexit deal had made a People’s Vote “inevitable” if there was not a general election.

Speaking on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday show Sir Keir said: “If the deal falls then the next question is are we going to call for a general election ... If that doesn’t happen we need to press on to other options such as a public vote.

“I would like to have something far better than what we have at the moment. This deal is a bad deal.”

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He added: “The prime minister has run the clock down. So if we get to a question of a public vote and get into a question of a referendum it will be because the option of a deal – which I think could have been negotiated – has been taken off the table by the prime minister.”

Sir Keir also warned Labour would seek to call a motion of no confidence in the government if May loses a Commons vote on her Brexit deal.

He added: “It seems to me that if the prime minister has lost a vote of that sort of significance then there has to be a question of confidence in the government...

“I think it’s inevitable that we will seek to move that – obviously it will depend on what actually happens in nine days, it will depend on what the response is – but if she’s lost a vote of this significance after two years of negotiation, then it is right that there should be a general election.

“Because, but for the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, the convention was always if a government loses what’s called a confidence vote – something of such significance – then that government has to go.”

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