Jeremy Corbyn has refused multiple times to say how he would vote in a second Brexit referendum called by a Labour government.

The Labour leader was asked by Sky News what his preference would be - scrapping Brexit or leaving with any new deal he could negotiate.

"The offer is either you continue within the EU when there are obviously many people very upset with the EU - look at the referendum result," he said.

"The bottom line is protecting jobs" - Labour leader @jeremycorbyn explains to Sky News what type of deal he wants to 'present to the British people' in a second #Brexit referendum but refuses to say if he would back Remain.



Get more on this story here: https://t.co/ogu0LJzRYu pic.twitter.com/nifKozjBaU — Sky News (@SkyNews) September 18, 2019

"Or we have the deal that we can achieve with the EU.

"I think that is a sensible position for a political party."


Pressed on which situation he wants, Mr Corbyn told Sky News: "The best for the British people and the best we can get.

"We have to bring people together and I think our offer can do that."

Mr Corbyn is trying to head off a bitter Brexit row at Labour's conference in Brighton this weekend by adopting a compromise policy which he hopes his party will support.

Under huge pressure from MPs and activists to endorse a strongly pro-Remain policy, he has pledged to carry out whatever voters decide in a second referendum if he wins the keys to Downing Street in an upcoming general election.

Image: The Labour leader is calling for another referendum on any Brexit deal

But his promise falls well short of demands from leading party figures including John McDonnell, Tom Watson and Emily Thornberry, who are calling for Labour to campaign for Remain in an EU poll.

Mr Corbyn's critics in his party are likely to accuse him of yet another Brexit fudge, while top Tories are already accusing him of wanting to ignore the vote in the 2016 EU referendum and cancel its result.

He plans to copy the strategy of Labour prime minister Harold Wilson in the 1975 referendum on common market membership and avoid the fate of David Cameron in 2016, when he resigned after a humiliating defeat for Remain.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Corbyn told Sky News: "I won't negative the referendum result in the way the Liberal Democrats do, and I won't take us over a cliff edge in the way Boris Johnson does."

MP Stephen Doughty, one of the leading Labour figures calling for another referendum, said Mr Corbyn's announcement was "welcome".

"He rightly told Sky News today that he could never stay neutral on this issue when jobs are at stake," Mr Doughty said.

"Tens of thousands of Labour members and voters agree and will be arguing at our conference that we should campaign to remain and reform in any vote on a Brexit deal."