Best for Britain has lined up a group of MPs to put down an amendment in parliament this autumn calling for a second referendum on the country’s membership of the EU once Theresa May has obtained a final exit deal.

The pro-remain campaign group, which has raised £2.3m and is partly backed by George Soros, unveiled a timetable at the launch of its manifesto, designed to avoid the risk that “the entire establishment sleepwalks the country over the Brexit finish line in March 2019”.

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It is understood that about 40 MPs have indicated they are willing to sign up to an appropriately worded amendment, which would be set against whatever legislation May introduces to give the go-ahead for the final deal the government brings back from its Brussels negotiations.

Best for Britain argues in its manifesto that both sides of the Brexit debate should welcome a second poll in less than three years to finally settle the question of the UK’s membership of the EU, and that the issue was diverting time and energy from other political concerns.

“We believe the Brexit process is distracting from the many reasons people voted to leave: a kick back against Westminster to wake up to the reality of life in modern Britain – an industrial wasteland in parts of our country and the loss of good jobs, a weakening health service, unaffordable housing and rising student debt,” the manifesto says.

A referendum could theoretically be held in early 2019, although it would require an act of parliament, and Best for Britain has said it believes the EU-27 may be willing to delay the 29 March 2019 exit date to ensure any final vote was held after the winter, when British elections are rarely held.

Best for Britain intends to campaign in around 70 key marginal seats, trying to persuade both Conservative and Labour MPs to support a second referendum. It will spend £500,000 on billboards and newspaper advertising in areas such as Stoke, Carlisle, and towns and cities in the east Midlands.

The group’s chief executive, Eloise Todd, said the group believed people were changing their minds, and that it and hoped in particular to persuade Jeremy Corbyn to back a second referendum. She said 60% to 70% of the Labour vote in the north and the Midlands were remain voters, and that the party had recruited new supporters in 2017 who were strongly pro-remain.

Soros was not present at the launch, but there were questions about the role of a foreign national in UK politics. Mark Malloch-Brown, the chair of Best for Britain, said money from Soros foundations only made up 20% of the funds raised this year. “We fought against dictatorship on the other side of the iron curtain; we fought against dictatorship in Chile. This is one of the mildest campaigns I’ve been involved in.”



The manifesto expresses the hope that any second referendum campaign would be subject to “stringent policing” and conducted in a different tone to the last, saying both sides should respect voters rather than adopt messages ranging from Project Fear to “false claims” that the NHS would be able to spend £350m a week extra once the UK had left.