Activists and allies concerned by plan to back EU exit even in event of a snap election

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Momentum activists and MPs from Labour’s left who have consistently backed Jeremy Corbyn have warned the leader’s decision to support Brexit even in the event of a snap election could demotivate campaigners and cost the party seats.

Their comments follow Corbyn’s interview with the Guardian on Saturday, in which he said he would recommend the party seek to implement its own form of Brexit if it won an election and criticised EU laws on state aid, which he said blocked investment.

While Corbyn has already faced criticism from the centrist wing of his party, which has long been sceptical of his approach to Brexit, the expressions of dismay from his base will raise concerns of broader disillusionment with his strategy.

Labour passed a motion at its party conference in September that it would seek a general election as its first choice, but left open the option of supporting a second referendum.

Responding to the interview, Clive Lewis, the shadow Treasury minister who nominated Corbyn in 2015, wrote on Twitter that he has become increasingly worried by the number of left-leaning party members saying they could not campaign for a party manifesto offering Brexit at a snap election.

Retweeting comments from one campaigner in his constituency in Norwich, he wrote: “Have known this member for a good while. Solid comrade and local community campaigner. She’s not the first member to say this to me and it’s becoming a genuine concern.”

Lewis’s posting resulted in a furious exchange with George Galloway, the Brexiter and a friend of Corbyn for 30 years.

The former Respect MP wrote to Lewis on Twitter: “I think you’re the slippery two-faced intruiging [sic] scheming plotting coup-enabling deeply deeply untrustworthy shit mate.”

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Kemptown and Peacehaven MP and Corbyn backer, warned Labour would lose his and other seats in southern England if it supported Brexit.

“I’ve had hundreds of emails of good left remain voters, lifelong Labour who will not vote for us now,” he wrote on Twitter.

“If we back Brexit I’m gone in Brighton, it really is that bad, and it’s worse for other southern seats, we have hundreds that are abandoning us already and I had Ukip councillors in my area, but even those areas are wanting us to fight for remain. We need all seats to form gov.”

With Theresa May’s Brexit deal due to come back to parliament for a vote in the week beginning 14 January, anti-Brexit campaigners have used Corbyn’s latest statement to call for a special conference to discuss the party’s next steps.

Alena Ivanova, a Momentum activist and organiser for the anti-Brexit pressure group Another Europe is Possible, said the party’s policy passed at conference was the result of an unprecedented wave of support for a fresh referendum at Labour’s grassroots.

“It was a compromise, but the spirit of the policy is absolutely not for Labour to implement Brexit if it comes into office – it is to reject anti-migrant narratives and fight for a socialist Europe,” she said.

“The policy clearly states that if the government is confident it has negotiated a good deal, it should put it to the people. Why would that principle not apply to a Labour government?”

In the Guardian, Corbyn insisted his party would not try to overturn the result of the 2016 referendum. “You’d have to go back and negotiate, and see what the timetable would be,” he said.

“I think we should vote down this deal; we should then go back to the EU with a discussion about a customs union.”

Reinforcing these comments, Corbyn told the Sunday Mirror he did not foresee support for a second referendum in parliament.

When asked how he would vote in one – he voted to remain in the EU referendum – he told the newspaper: “It would depend what the question was – but we’re quite far from that anyway and I’m not sure there’s the support for it in parliament.

“The issue is protecting jobs, manufacturing and the rights and conditions we’ve got – not making us the bargain basement of Europe.”

He also said he will make sure May’s Brexit blueprint is defeated in the Commons. “I’m determined to hold this government to account, vote the deal down and reopen those negotiations,” Corbyn said.

A poll last week appeared to show Labour’s young supporters would leave the party in droves if it votes to back a compromise Brexit deal.

According to a YouGov poll of more than 5,000 people commissioned by the People’s Vote, Labour’s support among 18 to 29-year-olds is currently at 60%. However, if Labour backed a form of Brexit, support for Corbyn’s party among the young would halve to 33%.

• This article was amended on 24 December 2018. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to support Brexit even in the case of a second referendum. This has been corrected.