POOL, England — While Westminster ties itself in knots over how Britain will extricate itself from the European Union, over 200 miles away Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is betting on Brexit fatigue.

Britain's opposition leader, who exceeded expectations in Theresa May's snap election in June with a campaign focused on public spending rather than Europe, shows no sign of changing tack despite pressure from his own MPs to row back on his support for leaving the single market.

Corbyn returned to the campaign trail in Cornwall last Thursday after a cycling holiday in Croatia, with the first rally of a three-week summer tour designed to keep the party faithful energized should May's government fall and Britain find itself thrown into another election campaign.

If Brexit was on his mind, he showed very little sign of it as he addressed 1,000 enthusiastic supporters in the remote village of Pool, with a lengthy stump speech focused on the National Health Service.

"The next time Tory MPs tell you how wonderful the health service is ... forgive me the crocodile tears. Pay them properly as well," he cried, speaking in an open area of grassland surrounded by sculptures and a children's play area.

Success at the ballot box vindicated Corbyn's decision not to campaign on Brexit in the lead-up to June 8, and quietened many within his party who did not support his leadership and attempted to overthrow him after the European Union referendum result.

A growing number of Labour MPs fear Brexit will be the issue that ends up alienating the party's newfound supporters.

But with the party gearing up for its annual September conference and Brexit negotiations heating up, many Labour MPs believe internal disputes over membership of the single market and whether or not to promise a second referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal will reach boiling point.

One former shadow cabinet minister, who wanted to remain anonymous, said Corbyn was under a lot of pressure from trade unions and the "vast majority" of the parliamentary Labour Party to "move on membership of the single market."

Labour backbencher Mike Gapes, who voted against the triggering of Article 50, and in favor of an amendment to the government's legislative program calling for Britain to remain in the single market and the customs union, said there were a "substantial number of Labour MPs, many more than actually voted, who agree with that position."

Corbyn's team, however, rejects suggestions that the Labour leader is "avoiding" Brexit.

"[Brexit] is not the only subject that is important," an aide close to the Labour leader said. "Of course we are talking about the NHS, talking about pensions tomorrow and whatever else it is. All these things are vital."

He said Corbyn's approach to Brexit has always been to look at the "outcomes" rather than "fetishizing the institutional forms" which will lead to them.

Brexit rifts

A growing number of Labour MPs fear Brexit will be the issue that ends up alienating the party's newfound supporters.

"Many of those voters, particularly the young voters, who helped us deprive the Tories of a majority in June don't want Brexit and they certainly don't want Labour to support a hard Brexit," said Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for nearby Exeter. "They are looking for us to show leadership on this and will be hoping that Jeremy and his frontbench colleagues provide it."

Many in his party are unsure Corbyn will be able to sustain the adoration from huge crowds, like those seen at the summer music festival Glastonbury, if he is seen to be too close to the Conservatives on Brexit, and if the British economy suffers from leaving the single market.

“The problem with that kind of hysteria or fandom is that it is not always based on a rational analysis of the political position," said another former shadow minister, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“A bit like your favorite band’s songs, if you analyze the lyrics too closely, you are probably going to think they are pretty shit. But if you like the overall melody and the kind of words seem to sound okay and you love the band and they look great, you shout and scream with the rest of them."

"They were shouting about a manifesto of hope [that] had won out. That the anti-establishment figure had beaten Theresa May and that their vote mattered," the MP added.

It is not just Britain's future membership of the single market where Corbyn is facing a battle.

The leadership is also bracing for a push by pro-EU backbenchers to reverse the party's stance on a second EU referendum, a senior shadow Cabinet member said. Unlike the more ardently pro-EU Liberal Democrats, Labour has ruled out a referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal. But, the shadow Cabinet member said, some MPs believe the party should be prepared to back such a plan and are expected to push for it ahead of the September conference.

Three Labour MPs have also backed a campaign for the party to support continued freedom of movement after Brexit, arguing that an end to free movement would be "counterproductive."

Remain crowd

But if a Brexit storm is brewing, there wasn't much sign of it at the rally in Cornwall.

On the contrary, there was little concern about Corbyn's approach among the apparently overwhelmingly pro-Remain crowd. Just one of the two dozen people POLITICO spoke to voted Leave — and she said she regretted her decision.

"Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party for as long as he wishes to be the leader" — Labour backbencher Mike Gapes

"I would love to have a second referendum, but my head says if it had gone the other way around, and the outers said we don't agree with what the answer was, I wouldn't agree with them asking for one," said Emma Latus, a 48-year-old teaching assistant who was ardently pro-EU. "Although the heart wants one. The head is saying, 'No that is not really right.'"

Lisette Brooks, a 32-year-old from Plymouth, who had only joined the party two weeks before the rally, said she had been inspired to engage with politics following the Brexit referendum because she felt Corbyn was speaking for the young.

"[Corbyn] is a decent human being," she said. "He is the voice of a generation that has not been heard for a while now, I don’t think."

For others, the U.K.'s departure from the EU was simply a reality the country had to face, rather than a subject for debate.

"The reality is that if we leave Europe, we leave certain organizations, we have to accept that. If he can negotiate something better, that is fine," said Tom Murray, 72, a retired nursing lecturer.

Corbyn here to stay

Privately, some in Labour still despair over their leader. One MP described his slow condemnation of government violence in Venezuela as symptomatic of his leadership.

"His trademark is to wait for it to be dragged out of him ... I'm sure he will move eventually on this but not before those who completely reasonably want him to move have been vilified by his shock troops," the MP said.

But even those who disagree with his position on Brexit concede that the internal debate over his leadership is over.

"Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party for as long as he wishes to be the leader," said Gapes.

With the party still basking in the glow of its surprise electoral surge, the first signs of a more cohesive relationship between the leader’s office and other leading party figures are beginning to show. The shadow Cabinet minister, who is not a member of Corbyn’s inner circle, admitted the leader’s office was “not the closed shop it is often portrayed as.”

MPs also noted signs Corbyn's leadership team is attempting to enforce party discipline on Brexit. When Shadow Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner broke ranks to call for Labour to back Britain leaving the European customs union in an article in the Guardian, he was quickly slapped down by an alliance of Corbyn, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer.

The man himself remains focused on the bigger prize. Asked if he would be prime minister by the end of the year — as suggested by deputy leader Tom Watson after the June election — he replied: “As soon as it comes I will be ready for it."