UK Labour and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to back a second referendum after his Brexit alternative was voted down in Commons on Wednesday. Mr. Corbyn will continue to advocate "other available options" such as a general election, among others.
Jeremy Corbyn said in a press release on Wednesday: "We will back a public vote in order to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or a disastrous no deal outcome."
"We will also continue to push for the other available options to prevent those outcomes, including a close economic relationship based on our credible alternative plan or a general election."
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) February 27, 2019
Labour frontbencher John McDonnell said that his party would table an amendment during the parliamentary "meaningful vote" following UK prime minister Theresa May's return to Westminster.
MPs voted on Wednesday evening to back Theresa May's Brexit plan following a series of concessions, with 20 Conservative MPs voting down government proposals to delay Article 50 under a no-deal Brexit.
He wrote: "Once we can secure a limit to the backstop, all the other imperfections in Mrs May's deal, such as continued meddling by the European Court of Justice and our continuing to pay huge sums into EU coffers, become much less problematic."
Reactions to Mr. Corbyn's Bid for a People's Vote
Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich Matthew Pennycook said that he was "disappointed" that Labour's amendment "did not secure a majority in the Commons", adding that it was time to "wholeheartedly get behind efforts to facilitate a new public vote that includes the option of staying in the EU".
— Matthew Pennycook MP (@mtpennycook) February 27, 2019
Labour shadow secretary of state for Brexit Keir Starmer said that he was also "disappointed" that the government had rejected Labours Brexit deal.
"We must do all we can to protect jobs and the economy," Mr. Starmer said, adding that Labour would back an amendment for a public vote to "prevent a damaging Tory Brexit."
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) February 27, 2019
UKIP leader Gerard Batten called Mr. Corbyn's second referendum bid a "cynical move", adding that the Labour leader had been a "Leaver for his entire political life, and now he bows to the Remainers in Labour to prevent his parliamentary party fragmenting and disintegrating."
"A second referendum is a betrayal of the original referendum," Mr. Batten said. "Every EU referendum that has gone against the EU's integrationist agenda has been either forced to a second vote and set aside or just ignored."
— Mike Hookem MEP (@mikehookemmep) February 28, 2019
The UKIP leader added that a second referendum would be a "betrayal of democracy unparalleled in our history" leading to a "cataclysmic rift in British society that will not heal".
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"The 2016 result must be honoured and adhered to. It will never be too late for Britain to leave the EU and UKIP will continue the fight for Brexit."
