What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Jeremy Corbyn faced new pressure tonight as four senior MPs demanded a second referendum on Brexit.

The Merseyside Labour MPs broke ranks with their party leader’s policy as they called for a ‘People’s Vote’ on the UK’s final deal.

Labour has said it is not calling for a second referendum after 52% of voters backed Leave in 2016.

But ex-frontbenchers Alison McGovern, Luciana Berger and Maria Eagle argued a bad Brexit deal would be “catastrophic” for Labour’s northern heartlands and the NHS.

They, MP Louise Ellman and Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson signed a joint open letter calling for Theresa May’s final deal with Brussels to be put to the public.

It comes a week after a similar letter by five MPs in the North East.

The MPs, who have more than 50 years’ Commons experience between them, said Tory ministers do not have “a mandate to force a bad Brexit deal on the people of Merseyside”.

(Image: PA)

Even with a free trade deal GDP growth could be 8% lower in the North West, they said, which “would be catastrophic for already-stretched public services including our NHS”.

The House of Commons is set to get a vote on Mrs May’s deal later this year.

But the Merseyside MPs said 'Whatever you think of Brexit, there’s no denying that it’s a big deal, and it is only now that the full implications of any Brexit deal are becoming apparent.

'People are therefore entitled to have their say on the deal before irrevocable steps are taken.'

They added: “We need look no further than the wise words of the Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, who said ‘let’s sit together again. Let’s think about it again and let’s vote again with the right information – not with the information you’ve got around the Brexit campaign.’

“We agree with Jurgen, and we believe there should be a People’s Vote on the Brexit deal.”

(Image: Liverpool Echo) (Image: PA)

Ms McGovern is an outspoken pro-EU MP and is co-chair of the Labour Campaign for the Single Market.

It is said to be the first time the other three MPs - also heavily pro-EU - have explicitly backed a ‘People’s Vote’ on the final Brexit deal.

The letter comes a week after a similar call by five Labour MPs in the North East.

Catherine McKinnell, Bridget Phillipson, Phil Wilson, Paul Williams and Anna Turley all signed the previous letter.

Today ex-England footballer Gary Lineker also backed a second Brexit vote saying the idea was “common sense”.

The letter in full

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Liverpool and the whole Merseyside region has a proud, outward-looking history. Partly that’s because Liverpool is famously a port city, always looking outwards to the rest of the world rather than inwards. But it’s also a result of the experiences the city and the region has been through, going from a place of great wealth and renown, to being abandoned to decline to now enjoying a cultural renaissance.

Liverpool is a fiercely pro-European place. The whole region received a boost in 2008 as European Capital of Culture, not only in terms of financial investment, but also the fantastic experience of seeing tourists from around the world flock to Merseyside to experience everything we have to offer. We are celebrating the tenth anniversary of that great time this year. The significant level of European investment into Merseyside has also been critical to the rejuvenation of our region. The EU supported us when our own Tory Government left us to “managed decline”, something which has not been forgotten or forgiven on Merseyside.

The majority of Liverpool and other parts of Merseyside voted to Remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum. We knew that the problems faced by our country, our city and our region, including the ever-increasing wealth disparity between North and South, would not be solved by leaving the EU. On the contrary, the vast majority of those problems would be made much worse by Brexit. However, we do accept that a narrow majority of the country as a whole voted to Leave, so the Government does have a mandate to try and negotiate a Brexit deal.

What Ministers absolutely do not have is a mandate to force a bad Brexit deal on the people of Merseyside. We’ve already seen the Government’s own analysis showing that, even if the Prime Minister can negotiate a free-trade deal with the EU, the North West would suffer an 8% hit to GDP growth. That would be catastrophic for already-stretched public services, including our NHS.

That’s why we’re joining our Labour colleagues in the North East in calling for a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal. Whatever you think of Brexit, there’s no denying that it’s a big deal, and it is only now that the full implications of any Brexit deal are becoming apparent. People are therefore entitled to have their say on the deal before irrevocable steps are taken.

For further evidence – and no matter if you’re a Red, a Blue or a Tranmere fan – we need look no further than the wise words of the Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who said “let’s sit together again. Let’s think about it again and let’s vote again with the right information – not with the information you’ve got around the Brexit campaign.” We agree with Jurgen, and we believe there should be a People’s Vote.

Alison McGovern MP, Luciana Berger MP, Louise Ellman MP, Maria Eagle MP and Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson.