This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Jeremy Corbyn told colleagues at a fractious and inconclusive shadow cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he had been reading Harold Wilson’s autobiography to gather inspiration about Labour’s Brexit position.

The Labour leader was repeatedly urged during the meeting, including by his longstanding political friend John McDonnell, to win back disillusioned party members by moving towards a more wholehearted remain stance, according to two people present.

But Corbyn’s reference to the former Labour prime minister was regarded as a fresh signal that he is not ready to become a cheerleader for remain.

Wilson called the 1975 referendum on common market membership partly when he was presiding over a deeply divided Labour cabinet – but while the government’s official position was to recommend staying in, he allowed ministers to campaign on both sides.

After the meeting, Corbyn’s office released a lengthy statement reiterating Labour’s existing position.

According to the released remarks, Corbyn told his colleagues: “I have already made the case, on the media and in Dublin, that it is now right to demand that any deal is put to a public vote. That is in line with our conference policy, which agreed a public vote would be an option.”

But he added that, “a ballot paper would need to contain real choices for both leave and remain voters. This will of course depend on parliament. I want to hear your views, I will be hearing trade union views next week, and then I want to set out our views to the public.”

Corbyn shifted in the aftermath of the European elections – with little fanfare – to supporting a referendum on any deal.

But even close allies believe the message is still not clear enough, and the party risks losing voters to the ardently anti-Brexit Lib Dems.

One shadow minister loyal to Corbyn said: “He’s on the move – just not fast enough”.

Shadow ministers were told they would be returning to the issue of Brexit at next Tuesday’s meeting; and keen supporters of a people’s vote said they hoped the statement was just the first step in what one called a “managed climbdown”.

However, others said they remained concerned that any shift would be too little, too late to win back disgruntled voters.

McDonnell has told friends that while he is sympathetic to Corbyn’s desire to continue trying to respect the referendum, and represent both remain and leave, he is concerned about morale among party members.

Trying to unite the country over Brexit won’t win Labour a general election | Peter Kellner Read more

The initial shift to supporting a referendum on any deal – or on a no-deal – was made in the wake of Labour’s disastrous showing in the European parliament elections, in which the party polled just 14%.

But Corbyn’s deputy, Tom Watson, as well as McDonnell, and the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, have pressed for Labour to take a more full-throated anti-Brexit position.

Watson gave a provocative speech on Monday, saying “our members are remain, our hearts are remain, our values are remain”.

Rachael Maskell, of Labour campaign group Love Socialism Hate Brexit, said: “By late July, we will have an extreme rightwing Tory prime minister, pursuing a hard Brexit that will wreck our communities and undermine our rights. As a party, we need to present a clear alternative to transform Britain and Europe, and we need to be energetic and enthusiastic about promoting it.”

Several shadow ministers, including Jon Trickett and Ian Lavery, remain sceptical about the necessity for Labour’s position to shift further, however.

Earlier, Lavery claimed his Twitter account had been interfered with, after he replied to a tweet from a journalist, suggesting the “real position” of supporters of another Brexit referendum was to revoke article 50.

Lavery said the message “was not authorised by myself or anyone on my team”, and “appropriate security updates have been made”.

As the shadow cabinet gathered on Wednesday, 26 Labour MPs wrote to Corbyn, warning him that embracing a second Brexit referendum would be “toxic to our bedrock voters”.

MPs including Stephen Kinnock, Gloria De Piero, Sarah Champion, Jon Cruddas, Caroline Flint, Gareth Snell and Lisa Nandy sent the letter.

Trying to unite the country over Brexit won’t win Labour a general election | Peter Kellner Read more

In the meeting on Wednesday, the Guardian understands MPs received a voting analysis written by party strategists.

The document said that it was “not obvious, from the evidence of local elections and Peterborough, that a more ‘pro-remain’ position from Labour would in itself win back voters currently lost to the Liberal Democrats, or in a numerical enough way that would offset leave voters in many of the key marginals, that [we] have lost both recently and over the last few general elections”.

Though the document said there were target remain seats in and around London, such as Cities of London and Westminster, Putney, Watford and Wimbledon which Labour needed to win, the majority of target and defensive seats were in the Midlands and the north of England and voted leave.

“The recent elections don’t suggest any change to this basic arithmetic, given the geographical distribution of leave and remain voters,” the analysis said.

“There is an evident risk that shifting to a more explicitly pro-remain position would leave us vulnerable in seats we need to hold or win without enough potential seat gains in winnable remain majority areas.”

In their letter to Corbyn, the MPs said that Labour was “devastated in local elections in longstanding Labour-held councils” and that the “strength of the Brexit party in Labour heartland areas in the European elections revealed a much more potent threat than either the Liberals or the Greens present”.

The MPs also pointed to the result of the Peterborough byelection, a seat Labour held with a small majority over Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.