Backbench rebels say they expect bigger backlash when MPs vote again next week, particularly if amendments not accepted

Jeremy Corbyn’s team is braced for a fresh rebellion next week when MPs vote again on article 50, as tensions within Labour intensify over the leadership’s handling of Brexit.

Backbench rebels, 47 of whom defied the party whip to vote against the government on Wednesday, said they expected a bigger backlash next week, especially if none of the party’s amendments are accepted.

In Westminster, three members of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet have already stepped down, rather than vote in favour of triggering article 50, and further resignations could follow. But the angst of MPs about the risks of Brexit is also being reflected in constituency parties.

More than 1,800 Labour members have resigned in the past three weeks, with many citing the party’s Brexit stance, according to data seen by the Guardian.



Rachael Maskell, the York Central MP who stepped down from the shadow cabinet on Wednesday before voting against the bill, said she had held a series of public meetings to discuss Brexit, and members had been very emotional, some even in tears, about Britain leaving the EU.

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Maskell said she feared the tone of debate in British politics was coarsening, and felt she had to take a stand. “We know from history that when people have frustrations and they’re being squeezed, you can end up in a dark place,” she told the Guardian. “I’m very anxious about where we are at the moment.”

“A lot of people are feeling scared. Politics has failed, and that’s why I felt I had to represent my constituents in this.”

Labour is by far the largest political party in Britain, with more than 530,000 members, but the Brexit debate has exposed deep divisions, broadly between its metropolitan, liberal strongholds and post-industrial areas that voted heavily for leave. In total, more than 3,000 members have fallen away since the start of the year.

The leadership is yet to decide how to deal with other frontbenchers who voted against the party line on Wednesday, including three of Labour’s own whips – the MPs who are meant to be responsible for imposing discipline on others. “We just want next week to be over; it’s a disaster for us. People are just trying not to fall out about it,” said one senior Labour source.

With just one Conservative MP, Kenneth Clarke, voting against the government on Wednesday night, Labour could not have stopped the legislation proceeding even if it had wanted to.

Corbyn and the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, have felt throughout that it would be wrong to stand in the way of the public’s decision, expressed in the result of last June’s referendum, to leave the EU.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Keir Starmer: ‘It would be to walk off the pitch just when we need effective challenge to government.’ Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

But Starmer, whose Holborn and St Pancras seat voted three to one for remain, has also faced calls to resign. In a letter to constituents seen by the Guardian, he said: “I know that many people have urged me to reflect the 75% remain vote in Holborn and St Pancras by voting against article 50 and resigning my post in the shadow cabinet.

“I see the argument, but that would prevent me pressing Labour’s amendments, it would prevent me questioning the government relentlessly from the frontbench over the coming years and it would prevent me fighting as hard as I can for a Brexit on the right terms. It would be to walk off the pitch just when we need effective challenge to government.”

Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, was widely regarded as a potential future leadership contender when he unexpectedly accepted the role on Corbyn’s frontbench last autumn. But his forensic approach, and focus on parliamentary process, has frustrated some backbenchers. One rebel said: “He’s a great lawyer. He’s not a politician.”

But Starmer has given a robust defence of the party’s stance in an interview in Progress, the magazine of Labour’s centrist pressure group, saying he wants to speak for both leavers and remainers.

“It will be wrong for the Labour party to rip up its history and tradition of representing a broad group of people, as a broad church, and have no greater ambition than to represent half the country. We need to be a party that aspires to govern, and a party that aspires to govern has to be able to represent and speak to all of the country,” he said.

Labour has tabled a series of amendments to the bill, which are due to be debated next week – but they will not pass without the backing of at least some Conservative rebels, most of whom are reluctant to be seen to cooperate with Labour.

If the legislation remains unchanged, Corbyn is expected to impose a three-line whip on his MPs again, and backbench rebels say even more of them are likely to vote against.

Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary, has suggested he could not vote for the bill if none of Labour’s amendments are accepted – and if necessary, will resign from his post.