Jeremy Corbyn has yet to confirm that Labour will support Yvette Cooper’s push to take a no-deal Brexit off the table on Tuesday, amid significant doubts among some allies.

Several Labour MPs have said they have been reassured that the leadership will whip to support the amendment that Cooper devised with the Tory MP Nick Boles. A spokesman said no final decision had been made and the leadership was studying the proposal closely.

Doubts were raised on Monday when Jon Trickett, the shadow Cabinet Office minister,said voters in his constituency would regard support for the measure on Tuesday as a failure to respect the result of the 2016 referendum.

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“Over the weekend, I was speaking to some people in my constituency. They weren’t actually people who voted for leave, though the majority of people in my constituency had voted for leave. What they said was: people have struggled for the vote, people have died pursuing the vote. Other people have been sent to Australia or put in prison – and the vote actually is a precious thing,” Trickett said.



“What they said is: look, we voted remain, but we’ve had a vote; get on with it. And I think that probably does capture a large swath of opinion in the country. That’s how I feel about this amendment. I feel that it may look to people as if we’re trying to somehow remove the earlier decision, which was to Brexit.”



He suggested he might consider backing the measure if the time period for extending article 50 was shortened – something Cooper and colleagues have suggested MPs could achieve by amending their bill when it comes forward, at a later date.

“I think people might say, if it’s before the summer, it might be a reasonable kind of period of time. Nine months sounds like the British establishment doing what it always does, which is ignoring the views of millions of ordinary folk, and that I am not prepared to tolerate,” Trickett said.

But he suggested Labour must continue to respect the result of the 2016 referendum, underlining the tensions in the party, with activists overwhelmingly supportive of a “people’s vote”.

“It’s not how I see things: we are servants of the people, and it’s our job to implement, give effect to, what they want – and they clearly voted for Brexit,” he said.

The shadow cabinet is expected to discuss Brexit at its weekly meeting on Tuesday, but another shadow minister who is sympathetic to the Cooper-Boles amendment said the leadership could yet decide not to whip MPs. “Free vote territory, I suspect,” he said.

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Without the explicit support of the Labour leadership, the amendment may struggle to win a majority. A Labour spokesman said the party was looking closely at mechanisms to avoid a no-deal Brexit, but no final decision had been taken on specific amendments.

Cooper was due to meet Labour MPs from leave-supporting areas on Monday to try to win their support for the measure – and convince them it is not an attempt to thwart Brexit but to avoid the UK leaving without a deal on 29 March, which remains the default position if an agreement is not reached and ratified before then.

Trickett is one of Corbyn’s inner circle, alongside Diane Abbott and John McDonnell as well as key advisers including Labour’s head of strategy, Seumas Milne.

Together with the party chair, Ian Lavery, he is one of the shadow cabinet figures who is most sceptical about the idea of Labour swinging its weight behind a second Brexit referendum.

McDonnell had previously signalled that Labour could back the Cooper-Boles amendment, calling it “sensible”. The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, has also spoken warmly about the proposal.

Labour has tabled its own amendment, calling for MPs to be allowed to vote on options, including the party’s own Brexit policy and a second referendum. There are also alternative amendments in play, including one from Rachel Reeves calling for an extension to article 50.

Another, from the Labour MP Jack Dromey and the Conservative Caroline Spelman, simply rejects the idea of no deal.