Brexit: Lib Dems blame Labour for bid to force a People’s Vote failing

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson in the House of Commons. Photograph: PA. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

The speaker has failed to select an amendment to the Queen’s Speech which called for a People’s Vote – with the Liberal Democrats blaming a lack of support from Labour.

Earlier in the day Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson wrote to Jeremy Corbyn urging Labour to support her party’s amendment to the Queen’s Speech which would ensure a second Brexit referendum.

She tweeted a copy of the letter, which said: “We now find ourselves with a prime minister with no majority, a Brexit plan that he cannot get through parliament and a Downing Street straining at the leash for a General Election. This situation is incredibly fluid, and the prime minister has already proved he is willing to do anything and everything in order to get the outcome that he wants.

“I believe we cannot afford to wait any longer if we are going to get a People’s Vote in this parliament. There is an amendment down in my name, and the names of all Liberal Democrat MPs, to the Queen’s speech today that seeks to require the government to take the latest Withdrawal Act back to the British public. I would urge you to support that amendment so that we can try and deliver the People’s Vote that we need.”

She added: “This week may present our last meaningful chance to get a People’s Vote in this parliament, and I would ask that you support the calls of the hundreds of thousands of people who marched this weekend to demand a final say and back a People’s Vote in parliament today.”

But speaker John Bercow did not select the amendment, with the Lib Dems blaming a lack of support from Labour.

Jane Dodds MP wrote: “First 19 Labour MPs vote for the deal (against the whip) and face no repercussion, now they won’t back an amendment calling for a People’s Vote.”

Chuka Umunna tweeted: “Big shame Labour failed to back this. Had Jeremy Corbyn done so, we may have been able to have a People’s Vote. If not now, when? Understand the challenge, though, when at least 19 Labour MPs won’t back it.”