Jon Trickett has become the first member of the shadow cabinet to state that he would like to campaign for a “Labour Brexit” in a potential future referendum.

“I’m a Labour politician, I have been all my life. If there’s a Labour Brexit, for me, I would then want to advocate that Labour deal,” Trickett said, speaking in his Yorkshire constituency of Hemsworth.

A close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, Trickett said Labour leave voters must be given a credible option to support in any referendum – which would appear to rule out backing a public vote on a Boris Johnson deal.

“There are a large number of people in my constituency who remain attached to the idea that we ought to leave. I think if Labour is to attach ourselves to the idea of a second referendum, we have to offer them an opportunity of voting for a Labour Brexit.”

Quick guide What Vote Leave leaders really said about no-deal Brexit Show Hide Boris Johnson, prime minister Johnson told the Treasury select committee in March 2016: “Our relationship with the EU is already very well developed. It doesn’t seem to me to be very hard … to do a free trade deal very rapidly indeed.” Speaking at a Vote Leave event in March 2016, Johnson said: “I put it to you, all those who say that there would be barriers to trade with Europe if we were to do a Brexit, do you seriously believe that they would put up tariffs against UK produce of any kind, when they know how much they want to sell us their cake, their champagne, their cheese from France? It is totally and utterly absurd.” Johnson, then foreign secretary, told the House of Commons in July 2017:“There is no plan for no deal because we are going to get a great deal.” Dominic Raab, foreign secretary Two months before the June 2016 referendum vote, Raab told Andrew Neil on BBC Sunday Politics: “We’re very well placed, and mutual self-interest suggests we’d cut a very good deal and it’s certainly not in the European’s interests to erect trade barriers.” During an appearance on the BBC’s Daily Politics in April 2016, Raab added: “The idea that Britain would be apocalyptically off the cliff edge if we left the EU is silly.” Michael Gove, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster In April 2016, Michael Gove said the UK would have the best of both worlds. “Outside the EU, we would still benefit from the free trade zone which stretches from Iceland to the Russian border,” he said. “But we wouldn’t have all the EU regulations which cost our economy £600m every week.” Liam Fox, former international trade secretary After the referendum, in July 2017, the then-international trade secretary Liam Fox said: “The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history. We are already beginning with zero tariffs, and we are already beginning at the point of maximal regulatory equivalence, as it is called. In other words, our rules and our laws are exactly the same.” Simon Murphy and Frances Perraudin

His intervention comes amid mounting pressure on Labour to support efforts to tag a referendum on to any Brexit deal Johnson brings to parliament at a special sitting that is expected to be held next Saturday.

That could then result in a “people’s vote” being held before a general election. But Corbyn signalled his caution on Sunday about the idea of backing a Brexit deal in exchange for a referendum, a view echoed by Trickett.

“I support the conference decision, and Jeremy’s view, which is to vote down any Tory deal in the house, and then immediately press on to trying to remove the government,” Trickett said. “I think that is the order in which things should be done.”

He added: “A referendum before the election would imply a Tory Brexit against remain. I believe that the majority in the country voted for leave – and I feel that a Labour Brexit can only be delivered by a Labour government. So whichever way you look at it, you are back to the proposition that you have an election, you do the negotiation – and then you have the referendum.”

Labour’s policy has evolved in a series of steps since the 2017 general election, which the party fought on a platform of honouring the referendum result.

At the party’s conference in Brighton last month, it was agreed that if Labour won a general election – which could come within weeks – Corbyn would aim to negotiate a revised Brexit deal, including a customs union, within three months, and put it to a public vote within six.

Several shadow cabinet members, including Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry, have already said they would campaign for remain in that vote. But the Labour leader has declined to say which side he would take.

Trickett suggested Corbyn could take a neutral role. “If he wants to unify the country, I could see an argument for him saying, ‘I will implement whatever decision is taken,’” he said. And he urged pro-remain party members not to try to push Corbyn any further, saying: “Do not tie our leader to a position which he thinks is not quite the right one to try to get us into an election victory.”

While Starmer has warned that failing to back remain is hurting the party in north London constituencies like his, Trickett said that in Hemsworth, the EU was the least of his constituents’ worries.

“When I go round my patch, it’s no exaggeration to say this, actually Brexit isn’t mentioned that much. People who are very, very impassioned by Brexit will talk about nothing else. But the vast majority of people are talking about bus services, cuts to the health service, the cost of living,” he said.

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Certainly, as the “women of Wakefield”, as Trickett jokingly calls them – a group of local campaigners and community volunteers – meet to chat over tea and biscuits in his constituency office, Brexit barely comes up.

Instead, they raise the depredations of universal credit, which has led to burgeoning use of food bank in the area; the lack of opportunities for young people; and the long shadow cast by the miners’ strikes of the 1970s and 80s.

“Food banks have been around since 2005, when I founded the first one up at the other end of the district. There’s now 22 food banks, and they are all working flat out. We’ve not seen anything like we’re seeing now,” said Gwen Page.

“We can all tell you some horror stories: it’s getting worse. Holiday hunger has been something we’ve all seen.”

“People come in, and they’re in tears, and they’re crying,” said Leda Prest. “People walk in – and they couldn’t bring the child, because they’ve got no shoes to put on the child’s feet. I was there yesterday, and we handed out 40 packs of food. We do that five days a week.” She added: “Just two words: universal credit is the issue.”

Johnson hopes his “get Brexit done” campaign will help win over voters in constituencies like Hemsworth, where the Tories have never had a foothold (it has been Labour-held since 1918, and Trickett’s majority in 2017 was more than 10,000).

While these women are staunch Labour supporters, they admit friends and family members are intrigued by Johnson, seeing him as fresh and different to other politicians. “People are falling out over it: badly,” said Melanie Burnell.

And they say political debate has become increasingly fraught – particularly over Brexit.

Trickett, who was closely involved in planning the 2017 campaign, and sits on Labour’s national executive committee, said the party was ready to challenge Johnson at a general election, despite its uninspiring opinion poll scores.

He believes Labour will still be able to squeeze the Conservatives when voters ask themselves who they want to run the country for the next five years.

“At a general election, people are going to have to decide. Because he is a Tory: he’s not standing above party,” he said, adding: “I think it will focus back on the old divisions between a centre-left route for the country or a centre-right route for the party. That’s what it’s going to boil down to in the end.”