British Labour Party politician Hilary Benn briefs the media after a meeting with officials to discuss Brexit at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, February 4, 2019. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

LONDON (Reuters) - Another referendum on European Union membership is more likely if talks between Prime Minister Theresa May’s government and the opposition Labour Party collapse, an influential Labour lawmaker said on Friday.

“If the talks are not going anywhere, from my point of view that leads to only one conclusion,” Hilary Benn, the chairman of parliament’s Brexit committee, told BBC radio.

“There are only two ways out of the Brexit crisis that we’ve got: either parliament agrees a deal or we go back to the British people and ask them to make the choice.

“And I think this brings the prospect of a confirmatory referendum closer although there’s not yet a majority for that in parliament,” he said.