Labour will order its MPs to vote in a favour of a “confirmatory” Brexit referendum on any deal reached with the European Union.

The significant move comes as MPs gear up to vote on a series of “indicative” proposals, aimed at breaking the deadlock in Westminster over Britain’s exit from the EU.

If selected by the Commons speaker, the motion tabled in the name of the former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett, would required a public vote before any deal with the bloc was ratified.

Jeremy Corbyn‘s decision to order his MPs to vote for the motion, however, risks resignations from Labour’s frontbench from critics of a second referendum.

The leader’s move also followed confusion over the party’s Brexit policy, after the shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner warned Labour would difficulty backing the plan as it was “not a Remain party”.

The frontbencher said that supporting the Beckett motion would imply Labour did not accept the result of the 2016 EU referendum.

He said its wording meant that voters could be faced with a choice between accepting Theresa May’s deal – which Labour opposes – or the UK staying in the EU.

Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Show all 12 1 /12 Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Leicester There’s a great suspicion about homelessness in Britain: those desperately in need of social help feel the need to justify exactly why they are in their situation and exactly what they would do with your money Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Loughborough A student dressed as a horse, drunk, headless, betting on the races: a human imitating for fun the animals that race for human entertainment Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Loughborough A rock’n’roll evening where couples lead and are led. Twentieth-century American pop culture reaches far, well into this Loughborough periphery Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Derby Beauty treatment centres appear both surgical and sacrificial from the inside. The woman’s horizontal body stretching across the three windows, sawn into thirds, and the beautician studies with her eyes the eyes she’s beautifying Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Derby Two pairs of hands marked by anti-vandal paint, revealing the crime and the attempt to wipe it away, as if it never happened: the traces of a cover-up Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Boston The search for a lost cat in a pub window, translated into Russian, extending the plea to the town’s Russian reading community in an effort to widen the net and increase the chances of a happy ending Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Boston A warning to keep distance on the back of a white van, to give room, to respect personal space. A crude depiction of the female body occupies the foreground, the British flag and a church tower occupy the distance Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Derby A circus decorated with British and English flags, probably to confer a sense of style and national pride that would attract more people. It’s a timely meeting of the circus and the nation, where performance, danger, trickery, and foolishness all come together to form the spectacle Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Boston Polish football and regional graffiti is everywhere in Boston, if you’re looking for it. This vow of loyalty to Lechia Gdansk I find behind a supermarket carpark, between two trees goalpost-like, framing the inscription Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Leicester A Catholic church on the New Walk, in which a man prays on his own, watched by Christ, solitary among empty chairs, committed, purified, sanctified Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Boston Following the Rover Witham to the Marina and derelict rowing club, this anti-establishment expression catches my eye. It seeks to dehumanise authority, to make the law dirty, and connect power, not the people, to social filth. Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: East Midlands Grantham The back of the Isaac Newton Shopping Centre, by the Bus Station, where a sign advertises a news-seller with images of Polish newspapers, and next, across the black dividing line, a racist scribble with little meaning at all. Richard Morgan/The Independent

“It would be saying we could accept what we have always said is a very bad deal. Therefore it looks as if the attempt to have a public vote on it is simply a way of trying to Remain because nobody likes this deal,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

The comments triggered an angry reaction from some Labour MPs, and Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, said he supported the amendment first devised by Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson.

On the order paper, the plan states: “This House will not allow in this parliament the implementation and ratification of any withdrawal agreement and any framework for the future relationship unless and until they have been approved by the people of the UK in a confirmatory public vote.”

Labour confirmed it would likely whip heavily for four of the options on offer including its own proposals, two supporting a customs union and the one calling for a public vote.

But Mr Corbyn’s spokesman later made clear that as far as the party is concerned, the motion could only really result in a referendum on a no-deal Brexit or on Ms May’s “damaging Tory” deal.

He indicated that a Brexit struck by a Labour government would not be bound by the party’s support for a second referendum now.

The party will also “encourage” support on Wednesday for Nick Boles MP’s Common Market 2.0 plan, involving a customs union and single market membership, meaning the MPs will be urged to vote but will not be under strict orders to do so.

During prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the Labour leader claimed the “country is on hold while the government is in complete paralysis”.