Labour’s Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner has described Labour’s own plan of forcing a general election over Brexit as “Looney Tunes territory.”

Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and other senior figures in the party have used countless opportunities throughout the party’s annual conference to call on Theresa May to call a general election.

But, speaking to a conference fringe event in Liverpool, Mr Gardiner said he wanted to “inject some realism” into the debate, and said the idea Theresa May was going to call a general election as “Looney Tunes territory.”

After hours of discussion on Sunday night, party officials finally came to an agreed position on Brexit, which was to campaign first for a general election, and failing that a second referendum.

At the eve of conference rally on Saturday night, Jeremy Corbyn had told crowds “we’re ready” for an election. The Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell used his speech to conference to directly challenge Theresa May to call an election on Brexit and to “get out of the way” and let Labour negotiate Britain’s future relationship with the European Union.

That Mr Gardiner has called the position “Looney Tunes territory” is unfortunate. Mr Gardiner is a very senior member of Jeremy Corbyn’s team, and to make such a radical departure from the party line, badly undermining a key part of the party’s media strategy.



In April, Mr Gardner was recorded describing his party’s position on Brexit as “bollocks.” One of the party’s “six tests” on any Brexit deal Theresa May manages to strike with Brussels is that it must replicate the “exact same benefits” of membership of the single market and customs union, the phrase David Davis himself once used.