Sir Keir: ‘I’d campaign for Remain in a second referendum’

Sir Keir Starmer has said he would vote Remain in a 'People's Vote'. Photo: PA PA Wire/PA Images

Sir Keir Starmer said he would campaign for remaining in the United Kingdom in any potential second referendum and that the extension of Article 50 was inevitable.

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The shadow Brexit secretary said he was in favour of leaving with a deal that meets Labour’s six tests but added to his statement earlier in the week that Labour should honour their conference motion to pushing for a second referendum by stating he would campaign for remain.

He said: “We are in a position where we are facing a possible no deal. The whole reason we moved our motion on a public vote was to deal with that situation.

“The next week or two is when other options are going to be tested one way or another. If the prime minister will not move her red lines she can see what is going to happen and that is parliament taking control of the process.

“I will campaign for in and I will vote for in [if there is a second referendum].”

He added that Article 50 being extended was inevitable due to the deadlock in parliament.

Sir Keir said: “I think it is inevitable, I don’t think we can get what needs to be done in the next 68 days and the blame for that lies with the prime minister.

“By delaying that vote she lost five and a half weeks and didn’t even come back with any changes.”

He said: “I voted remain, I campaigned to remain, my constituency is strongly remain. I like many Labour MPs voted for Article 50, it was a very difficult thing to do but I voted for it in good faith to allow the Article 50 window to open and for negotiations to take place to see what deal would come back.

“The prime minister has ignored parliament throughout all of this. She didn’t want parliament to have a vote on the triggering of Article 50, the supreme court got us that.

“What happened last Tuesday would not have happened if the prime minister had not been forced into through a meaningful vote.

“There is a roadblock and that block is the prime minister.”