Labour wants civil servants to start preparing for second referendum, says John McDonnell

Labour wants the civil service to start making preparations for a second referendum as the party plans to be in power later this year, according to John McDonnell.



The Shadow Chancellor said he has instructed Jeremy Corbyn to raise the issue with Sir Mark Sedwill, the head of the civil service, at their meeting today over leaks about the leader of the opposition’s health.

He said he wanted to be allowed to instruct Whitehall officials and the Treasury of his plans under a Corbyn administration, as a snap General Election was likely to be called by the new Prime Minister later this year.

Mr McDonnell said in a briefing to reporters that previous requests to have meetings with civil servants had been turned down by the departments’ permanent secretaries, as well as by Theresa May.

But he said now was the time to try again, explaining: “This morning I have asked Jeremy [Corbyn], as he’s meeting [Sir Mark] Sedwill about this issue, about the inquiry, so I’ve asked him to raise at that meeting we now should have access to the civil servants.

“Because of the likelihood of a change in Prime Minister happening and the likelihood therefore of a General Election in the autumn, and I think that’s just the pragmatic and practical thing to do.”

He said David Cameron had made the mistake of not allowing the preparation for various options post-referendum in 2016, adding that he told Sir Mark in a letter: “We're getting ourselves into that situation at the moment.”

Asked if those preparations would extend to laying the groundwork for another referendum, Mr McDonnell said: “At the moment were consulting on attitudes to a second referendum but Jeremy [Corbyn] made it clear it should go back to the people in a referendum.

“And we'd expect just as you'd expect the civil service to prepare for an incoming Government for them to prepare for all options, so that would have to be an option for them.”

'THERE'S A FEW PEOPLE THAT HAVEN'T BEHAVED TO THE STANDARDS WE EXPECT'

The Shadow Chancellor has been vocal in trying to push Labour towards backing a second referendum in all circumstances, and urging the party to campaign for Remain in any vote.

But Mr Corbyn has so far resisted going that far, and has repeatedly put off a decision on altering its Brexit policy, however he has come under increasing pressure to do so.

His meeting with Sir Mark today was in relation to a Times story quoting un-named senior officials saying they believe he is too "frail" to be Prime Minister.

Labour has demanded an independent inquiry into who made the remarks, which they said breached the rules on civil service neutrality.

But Downing Street rejected those calls and said an investigation would be carried out by the civil service into the leaked comments.

Asked if he trusted the outcome of an internal probe, Mr McDonnell said he would because he believes in their independence.

He added: “Unfortunately this incident over Jeremy has demonstrated there’s obviously a few people there that haven’t behaved to the standards that we would expect of the British civil service.

“And I'm hoping that will be resolved quickly and we can start having these meetings informing the civil service of the development of our policies so they can prepare for the incoming Labour government.”