If some reports are to be believed, large numbers of Labour members are leaving the party because of its position on Brexit. The suggested figure of 150,000 people walking away is difficult to corroborate and has been strenuously rebutted by the party. But Labour’s resistance to backing a fresh referendum, despite the overwhelming view of its members, has undeniably prompted some to leave.

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Labour cannot afford to be blase about the size and morale of its membership. The maths is simple: to win a general election, Labour will have to pull off a ground campaign bigger than it did in 2017. Around three quarters of its members want a fresh referendum. If there is a chasm between the views of members and the strategy of the leadership on such a defining issue, Labour’s ground troops will be demoralised, and it will lose. This process will rot away at the Corbyn project, pushing thousands of new members into inactivity or into the arms of Labour’s old establishment.

If you want to stop Brexit, leaving the Labour party is just about the worst thing you can do. Many other organisations – most notably the Greens – have been principled and shifted the debate. But in the end, the only party capable of delivering another referendum is Labour. If a general election is called, the fight over what is in Labour’s manifesto on Brexit will be a defining moment. We need to shape Labour’s policy – and you can’t say that Labour should be the party of remain if you yourself are deserting it.

For internationalists in Labour, the past year has undeniably been a grinding experience. Even after the huge grassroots surge that resulted in an unprecedented number of motions being submitted to conference in September, members were still strong-armed into a fudge by means of complex process and union bloc votes. It is abundantly clear that some at the heart of the party’s strategy are simply in favour of Brexit. And the leadership’s passive acceptance of the end of free movement has, for some, crossed a basic moral red line.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Labour has now tabled an amendment which explicitly positions a public vote as one of two remaining options, echoing Keir Starmer’s speech last weekend.’ Photograph: Richard Gardner/REX/Shutterstock

But things are visibly moving our way. Labour has now tabled an amendment which explicitly positions a public vote as one of two remaining options, echoing Keir Starmer’s speech last weekend. These moves, however tentative they may be, are a direct result of grassroots pressure and the logic of the policy established at party conference. Now, the leadership is considering the idea of a manifesto pledge to negotiate a Labour Brexit deal and put it to a public vote with an option to remain.

There are deeper reasons, beyond influencing its policy, why remainers should not leave Labour. On one level, Brexit is the result of the left pandering to the right’s narratives on immigration. On another, it is the result of decades of neoliberal economic policy, which has ripped communities apart and made us meaner and more precarious. Without a radical political movement that can solve the problems at its root, stopping Brexit will amount to little more than curing the symptoms while the disease rages on.

There is an inexorable logic weighing on Labour’s Brexit position. Lexit is not on the table, and never has been. If Labour tries to deliver Brexit – either by taking power or by parliament taking control of the process now – it will achieve no more than a standard soft Brexit, keeping all of the EU’s rules with no say in how they are made. There is now an opportunity for the left to stake out a clear internationalist position, situating Brexit in the context of the rise of the global far right, and creating a continent-wide plan to challenge the Brussels elite and transform Europe. To do that, we need Labour’s internationalists to stay.

Those of us on the left cannot shrug our shoulders as members grow demoralised and leave the party. All routes through Brexit involve pain for Labour. But the Corbyn project will really die only when Corbyn becomes widely perceived as a politician just like all the others. At the moment, Brexit is providing a shortcut to that scenario with a leadership that, through its triangulation, sounds like an echo of the centrism of the past.

For all the frustration and wrangling, the fates of Corbyn and remainers are bound up with one another. Without a Labour government, it is unlikely that we will ever get a fresh referendum; without the enthusiastic support of anti-Brexit voters, and a renewal of the Labour left based on internationalism, Corbyn will fail. Only a radical government can solve the issues at the root of the Brexit crisis. For these reasons, the left and the anti-Brexit movement must converge, not abandon each other.

• Michael Chessum is a freelance writer and socialist activist