What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Labour is ready to seize power this Wednesday if Theresa May's Brexit deal falls, a key ally of Jeremy Corbyn declared today.

Jon Trickett, the Shadow Cabinet Office minister, said the party is rearing to fight a general election if MPs defeat the pact on Tuesday night.

But if it can't get one, Labour is prepared to thrust Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street as Prime Minister with the backing of other left-wing parties.

"Our preferred option, very, very strongly, is that we refresh the Parliament," he told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

"Though we are ready to form a minority government should that be necessary – and it could happen on Wednesday morning – and to begin to reset the negotiation and take the country forward in a much better direction."

Mr Trickett left all options on the table - but also dashed the hopes of many Labour MPs who want a second EU referendum.

(Image: Getty Images)

He said a public vote should be the last resort once other options are exhausted.

And he claimed it could take six or seven months to arrange, meaning it would only happen after Brexit Day on 29 March 2019.

Mr Trickett said: "I think if people feel that a privileged political elite has decided by subterfuge to find a way of reversing the previous referendum, that would cause us some difficulty - and rightly so.

"I think we need to show to the country that we’ve been through the various different options and if at some point a referendum becomes absolutely necessary, it’s at that point that it takes place.

"It can take months, six or seven months, to organise a referendum because there is no law which allows us to do it so we have to pass a law.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

"We have to decide what the question is, we have to renew the people on the voting lists and then there has to be a period of time for the referendum so we think the earliest it can take place is probably May or June.

"In the meantime, every day that passes is another day nearer to potential disaster.

"And we say we need to reset the negotiations straight away on a new basis and come forward with a different way of mending our country and its relationship with Europe."

It came as Theresa May warned Tory MPs she "genuinely fears" Jeremy Corbyn taking power in a desperate bid for them to back her Brexit deal.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

More than 100 Conservatives have threatened to vote against the deal - enough to inflict a devastating defeat.

Mrs May is agonising over whether to delay the vote, which Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay insisted was still scheduled for Tuesday night.

Reports today suggested she was preparing a last-ditch dash to Brussels to urge a compromise.

Mr Barclay denied the reports, insisting: "The vote is on Tuesday, that is what we're focused on."

Meanwhile her ministers are already rallying around options for a Plan B, including a second referendum.

But in a defiant Mail on Sunday interview the PM claimed she had received 3,000 messages of support for her deal from the public.

Embattled Mrs May posed with a "bloody difficult woman" mug and a hole-puncher with "PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE FROM OFFICE" stamped on it.

"When I say if this deal does not pass we would truly be in uncharted waters, I hope people understand this is what I genuinely believe and fear could happen," she said.

"It would mean grave uncertainty for the nation with a very real risk of no Brexit or leaving the European Union with no deal."