JEREMY Corbyn is ready to order Labour MPs to back a plan for any Brexit deal to be put to a "confirmatory" referendum, one of the MPs behind the move has said.

MPs will consider the motion, tabled in the name of former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett, requiring a public vote before ratification of any deal, in a series of indicative votes on Wednesday.

Labour backbencher Peter Kyle, one of the architect's of the plan, said he believed Corbyn - previously seen as reluctant to back a second referendum - would now support it.

Brexit Vote Live: MPs prepare for 'indicative votes' on Brexit alternatives

"He will order MPs to vote for this. We had a really constructive process of engaging with him. At no point was he instinctively against this," Kyle told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Kyle said that a number of Conservative MPs were also ready to vote for the motion.

"We do have Tory support. A lot of people will be looking at how the debate unfolds today. We will be putting forward our proposals in an open-hearted way," he said.

Sir Oliver Letwin, the architect of the plan for the Commons to stage a series of indicative votes on the way forward on Brexit, warned that if Theresa May tried to ignore the outcome, MPs could seek to force her to act.

"If on Monday one or more propositions get a majority backing in the House of Commons, then we will have to work with the Government to implement them," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"The way I would hope it would happen under those circumstances is that we would have sensible, workmanlike discussions across the House of Commons and the Government would move forward in an orderly fashion.

"If the Government didn't agree to that, then those who I am working with across the parties will move to legislate to mandate the Government - if we can obtain majorities in the House of Commons and House of Lords for that - to carry that forward."

Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner has warned that Labour could have difficulty supporting a plan for a confirmatory referendum on any Brexit deal.

MPs will consider the motion, tabled in the name of former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett, requiring a public vote before ratification of any deal, in a series of indicative votes on Wednesday.

However Gardiner said that if Labour voted for it, it could suggest that they were a "Remain party" - which was not the case.

He said that under the terms of the motion, any referendum could be a choice between Theresa May's deal or staying in the EU.

"It would be saying we could accept what we have always said is a very bad deal. Therefore it looks as if the attempt to have a public vote on it is simply a way of trying to remain because nobody likes this deal," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"To put that up as the only alternative in a public vote and say we will let it go through looks as though you believe that at the end of it Remain would be the result.

"It is not where our policy has been. Our policy is clearly that we would support a public vote to stop no-deal or to stop a bad deal, but not that we would allow a bad deal as long as the public had the opportunity to reject Brexit altogether.

"That implies that you are a Remain party. The Labour Party is not a Remain party now. We have accepted the result of the referendum."

European Council president Donald Tusk has urged the European Parliament to "be open to a long extension, if the UK wishes to rethink its strategy".

He tweeted: "6 million people signed the petition, 1 marched. They may not feel sufficiently represented by UK Parliament but they must feel represented by you. Because they are Europeans."

In a speech to the European Parliament, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said: "If I were to compare Great Britain to a sphinx, the sphinx would be an open book by comparison.

"And let's see how that book speaks over the next week, or so."

Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said the Government hopes to be able to bring Theresa May's Brexit deal back to the Commons this week for a third "meaningful vote".

Leadsom told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think that there is a real possibility that it does. We are completely determined to make sure that we can get enough support to bring it back."

She added: "The Prime Minister said she is working hard, as many colleagues are, to persuade colleagues to support it."

Leadsom refused to be drawn on whether the Prime Minister should commit to standing down once the Withdrawal Agreement is passed in order to win over wavering MPs.

"I am fully supporting the Prime Minister to get us out of the European Union," she said.

Asked if May should stand down after that, she said: "I think that is a matter for her. I am not expressing a view."

Tusk criticised MEPs who told him that possible UK participation in forthcoming elections to the European Parliament if Britain sought a longer extension to Article 50 would be "harmful or inconvenient".

Brexit Vote Live: MPs prepare for 'indicative votes' on Brexit alternatives

The European Council president told the European Parliament: "Let me be clear, such thinking is unacceptable.

"You cannot betray the six million people who signed the petition to revoke Article 50, the one million people who marched for a people's vote, or the increasing majority of people who want to remain in the European Union.

"They may feel that they are not sufficiently represented by their UK Parliament, but they must feel that they are represented by you in this chamber because they are Europeans."