A group of young pro-European Labour members have stepped up their attack on Labour MPs who support the party’s ambivalent Brexit stance by unveiling posters and advertising vans accusing them of betraying the young.

The ads are targeted at three shadow cabinet members, and at a shadow minister who had supported a further referendum but has since silenced herself after a warning by the Labour whips.

The ads are the most personalised attacks so far from the campaign for a further referendum.

The four ads were devised by young Labour members in a group called Our Future Our Choice and financed at a cost of £5,000 from crowdfunding. The ads are going up in the MPs’ constituencies from Monday. They challenge the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, and the shadow defence secretary, Nia Griffith, to support remain.

In one advertisement, McDonnell is pictured in the breast pocket of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, an arch-Eurosceptic, with the slogan: “Found in Jacob’s pocket: Phone. Wallet. John McDonnell.” A similar image is used for Griffith, but this time she is shown in the pocket of Nigel Farage, with the appeal: “Nia, Don’t let him get his way.” The ad being shown in Abbott’s Hackney constituency reads: “Brexit too big to ignore – back the People’s Vote.”

Preet Gill, the Labour MP for Edgbaston, is also targeted with the jibe: “Who silenced Preet Gill?” The ad also says: “Back the young, back the people’s vote on a final Brexit deal.”

The ad targeting Preet Gill, a shadow development minister. Photograph: Our Future Our Choice

Gill, a shadow development minister, deleted a tweet supporting a further referendum on the final deal after an intervention by the Labour frontbench.

Although the focus is on the ability of MPs to secure a meaningful vote on the final deal, remain campaigners recognise that they badly need to step up their interventions inside the Labour party to put pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to do more to reflect the strong support for remain among the majority of Labour voters.



The remain campaign is determined to show European politicians there is still a strong chance the Brexit vote could be overturned in a referendum. The campaign acknowledges it needs higher visibility campaigning to convince European politicians and diplomats that resistance to Brexit is growing. A large-scale march is being planned for Saturday.

Will Dry, a co-founder of Our Future Our Choice, said his organisation supported Corbyn’s leadership, but added: “The leadership is doing its best to duck this issue so we decided it was time to do something they couldn’t ignore – by demanding a People’s Vote with adverts on their own turf. It’s time Labour voters in Labour constituencies realised that their MPs are doing next to nothing to stop the devastating consequences of Brexit.

“In some cases, we believe Labour MPs would like to support a People’s Vote but are being prevented from following their convictions or standing up for their constituents. We want to encourage them to stick to their principles and do the right thing.”

The leading remain campaigner Lord Malloch-Brown has admitted the chances of securing a second referendum are “a long shot”, and that the issue of Brexit is a turn-off for voters. Speaking in Oxford, he said: “The only arguments that move opinion on Brexit don’t have Brexit in them because it is a complete turnoff.”

The advert targeting Nia Griffith. Photograph: Our Future Our Choice

He nevertheless insisted voters may be reluctantly coming to the conclusion that the only way out of more years of uncertainty is a vote on the terms of UK’s exit, but he put the chances of securing such a referendum at only 30%.

Malloch Brown, the chairman of Best for Britain, said: “It is simply unimaginable that we are going to have our own summer of 1968 with everyone wanting to go back to Brussels to join Mr Barnier or Brussels. These are not individuals or institutions that get young people’s heart rates up. There is a very large march being planned for 23 June, the anniversary of referendum. I really want it to succeed, but I would not be at all surprised if a few weeks later a spontaneous demonstration against Donald Trump’s big visit is not bigger.”

Conceding the hurdles ahead for his campaign, he admitted “people are exhausted and horrified by the prospect of rows at family dinner tables” about another referendum.

But he added polls showed “there has been so much confusion at this process, there has been such a loss of faith not just in parliament, but government, that there will be a reluctant appetite to take the deal back to the people”.