Labour’s Brexit spokesperson, who has been a long-standing opponent of a People’s Vote, has said Jeremy Corbyn must commit to a second referendum ‘now’.
Jenny Chapman said there was now no other way to “resolve” the Brexit crisis, and said that Jeremy Corbyn had to make a clear announcement imminently.
“I think it should be now,” she told the BBC’s Politics Live.
“We need to take the bull by the horns, we need to explain to people why that is the right position to take.
“It is very difficult and I don’t pretend that this is popular with everybody, and I’m not kidding myself about this, but I do think that now is the moment.
“Because if not now we have to just say how we intend to move through this, because the country is stuck.
“We are all being diverted by this leadership contest in the Tory party at the moment, and it’s all very entertaining, but the underlying thing remains we have got to resolve this issue by the end of October.”
She admits that there are “still people who believe there is another way through this – I don’t see it” and that includes the Labour leadership.
Chapman’s position on a second referendum has been evolving as she reluctantly came around to the thinking earlier this year.
In November she claimed on Twitter the growing support for a People’s Vote was “still a minority”.
She added: “I’d say majority at the moment is for getting on with it and a sensible deal. Not finding leave voters for 2nd vote.”
In February she said a second referendum would be “a corrosive, deeply divisive, hate-filled process which would damage our politics. I hope we don’t need to do it, but if it is a referendum or no deal, I reluctantly back a referendum.”
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