Labour leader says party would not necessarily campaign for remain in a second referendum

Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour is ready to fight an election campaign against Boris Johnson but refused to express a preference between leaving with a Labour-negotiated deal or staying in the EU.

The Labour leader said he was “absolutely” gearing up for an election, with a summer campaign plan, new policies on a green industrial revolution and candidates already selected in almost all marginal seats.

In his first major broadcast interview since Boris Johnson became prime minister, he told Sky News he was “not in the slightest” bit worried about going up in an election against Johnson, adding: “I’m fit, I’m raring to go.”

He said Labour’s programme for government would be “about reducing inequality in Britain and about investing in good-quality, sustainable jobs for the future through the green energy revolution”.

Allies of Corbyn say he is very prepared for an election after facing his third Tory prime minister in Johnson and having moved Labour’s Brexit position to a clear commitment to a second referendum.

However, some Labour MPs are increasingly worried about the threat of the Liberal Democrats being more unequivocally committed to remaining in the EU if there is a quick election called by Johnson to win a mandate for taking the UK out by 31 October.

Neil Coyle, a Labour MP in Bermondsey and Old Southwark, a former Lib Dem seat, highlighted a Mail on Sunday/Deltapoll survey suggesting Labour would do better against Johnson without Corbyn as leader.

“Labour member? Want the end of austerity? Want to transform lives from within government? Want to end food bank use, homelessness, poverty? Then we need to change one key thing... People do not need to suffer Johnson’s rightwing regime,” he tweeted.

Corbyn said Labour would campaign for a second referendum and to remain in the EU if Johnson was proposing a no-deal Brexit. But he said the party would “reopen talks with the EU” about a Brexit deal if it won an election in comments that suggest the party would not necessarily campaign in favour of remain in a second referendum.

Asked personally whether he would prefer to remain in the EU or to leave with a Labour-backed deal, Corbyn declined to make a choice.

“Investment, jobs, trade and equality, both in or out of the EU. I want those things,” he said. “What we proposed was actually a very credible deal. A bespoke customs union with the EU and the trade arrangements would have achieved those things. It didn’t go through parliament, that was the problem.

“My issue is also uniting people around the country. My party is the only one that had significant numbers of people who voted both remain and leave. We want to bring people together which is why I spent an awful lot of time listening to people with divergent views and we came up with the proposals which I put to the national executive and our party. Leadership comes from listening.”

He said the public “deserve an election” but would not specify when Labour would call a no-confidence vote in Johnson’s government. If Johnson were to lose a no-confidence vote, the parties would have 14 days to come up with a potential government that could command the confidence of the House of Commons before a general election would be triggered.

Labour shied away from calling a vote on Johnson just before parliament broke up for the summer, because Conservative rebels wanted to give the new prime minister a chance to come up with a plan to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

But with Johnson ramping up no-deal preparations, speculation about the likelihood of an election is increasing.

Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, branded Labour’s position “hopeless” and said she would provide the “real opposition” to Johnson by opposing leaving the EU in all circumstances.

In an interview over the weekend, the former Labour strategist Peter Mandelson, a long-term critic of Corbyn, called for a new party leader.

“We are now in a situation where many people will react with horror against what Johnson plans to do – defying parliament to take Britain out of the EU without a deal to safeguard our trade and jobs – but have no faith in Corbyn’s desire or ability to block this,” he told Alain Elkann for La Stampa and other European newspapers.

“Corbyn is not the leader that Labour needs at this time. He cannot deliver. Even his supporters are realising this. We need an alternative who can stand up to Johnson and lead the country against the disaster which is in the making.”