The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry, told the BBC’s “Today” programme this morning: “I want a people’s vote, but I want it to be a big and proper people’s vote, which is a general election.”

This deliberate legal obfuscation was necessary because her leader, Jeremy Corbyn, does not support a second referendum on whether Britain should remain in, or leave, the European Union. Thornberry is acutely aware of the anger and frustration felt by many ordinary members of her party – and, presumably, by many Remain-supporting Labour voters – at the Labour leadership’s refusal to oppose Brexit tooth and nail. And so we end up in this rather odd situation where front benchers use all sorts of combinations of words and phrases – “ruling nothing out”, “our preference is for a general election”, etc – to avoid telling the truth.

The truth, for those of you have not been paying attention thus far, is this: both the Conservatives and the Labour Party want Britain to leave the EU. And both the Conservatives and the Labour Party oppose having another referendum on the matter.

This seems a very obvious point to make, so why must it be made at all?

Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, received an impromptu standing ovation from relieved delegates at Labour’s annual conference last month when he departed from his officially approved script to claim that, in the event of yet another referendum, “nobody is ruling out Remain as an option”.