Brexit latest: Government ‘to ignore’ second referendum vote when Parliament sits on Saturday Boris Johnson ready to refuse to implement any call for a fresh referendum

The Government is threatening to ignore any vote to trigger a second referendum on Brexit when Parliament sits on Saturday, i can disclose.

If Boris Johnson manages to bring a new Withdrawal Agreement to the Commons at the end of this week, pro-EU MPs will attempt to attach a “confirmatory referendum” to the deal. However, a senior minister said: “It would not have any legal standing if it went through.”

Downing Street also refused to confirm that it would honour a Commons vote backing a second referendum.

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A source said: “Zealots who are pushing for a second referendum are not interested in defending democracy. They are seeking to overturn it.”

Peter Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove who has spearheaded efforts to secure a second referendum, told i that backbenchers would table an amendment to any new deal approving it on the condition it is put to the public.

He said: “We’ll attach it to anything the PM brings back, whenever he brings it back. We’ve been ready for a long time.”

Ex-Tories back vote

The last attempt to win backing for a second referendum was defeated by 12 votes, but several of the Tory MPs who lost the party whip are understood now to support the plan for a so-called People’s Vote in preference to a no-deal Brexit.

Supporters of the move insist that a Commons vote in favour of a referendum would be binding on Mr Johnson. However, one possibility is that the Government could effectively veto it by refusing to sign off the money for it to be held.

Mr Johnson told MPs on Monday: “If there could be one thing more divisive, more toxic than the first referendum, it would be a second referendum. Let’s get Brexit done.”

Jeremy Corbyn has insisted there should be a general election before any second referendum on Brexit. But he is coming under increasing pressure from within Labour to reverse his position.

Jenny Chapman, the shadow Brexit minister, told the BBC: “If there is an opportunity to have another referendum it may be that the most pragmatic thing to do is to take that opportunity.

Major march

“We haven’t seen the deal, we don’t know what we’re going to be presented with on Saturday, but I would be very surprised if there wasn’t an amendment for a confirmatory ballot.”

Referendum supporters are planning a major demonstration in London on Saturday to coincide with Saturday’s emergency sitting of the Commons to debate Brexit.

The Labour MP, Ian Murray, said Mr Johnson’s plans are “a million miles away from anything promised in 2016”.

But Andrew Mitchell, a former Tory minister, described another referendum as a “ghastly prospect” setting back the “necessary act of healing these divisions which disfigure our country”.