Labour’s ruling body has recommended the party should avoid deciding whether to back Leave or Remain in a second referendum until it is in power.
The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) said on Sunday afternoon Labour should only pick sides “following the election of a Labour government”.
Labour members will vote on the plan at the party’s conference in Brighton on Monday.
Jeremy Corbyn is under increasing pressure from senior Labour figures and members to commit immediately to campaigning for the UK to stay in the EU.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, told a HuffPost UK event the conference in Brighton today the decision should be made “now”.
Tom Watson, the party’s deputy leader who survived an attempt to oust him this weekend, told a pro-EU rally this morning Labour must be “a Remain party”.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, demanded the party should whip its MPs to campaign for Remain. “We are at a vital crossroads, neutrality is not an option,” he told the conference.
But Len McCluskey, the general secretary of the Unite union and an ally of Corbyn, told Sky News that shadow cabinet ministers who disagree with the Labour leader’s neutral stance on Brexit should quit his top team.
A statement issued by the NEC on Sunday evening said the party should hold a second referendum which gave the public “a real choice between a sensible Leave deal or Remain”.
“The NEC believes it is right that the party shall only decide how to campaign in such a referendum – through a one-day special conference, following the election of a Labour government,” the statement said.
“Labour’s leave deal would include a new UK-EU customs union, a close relationship with the Single Market, protections of the Good Friday Agreement with no hard border, securing the permanent rights of 3 million EU nationals in the UK and 1 million UK nationals in Europe, guarantees of workers’ rights and environmental protections, and membership of key bodies to ensure joint co-operation in areas like climate change, counter-terrorism and medicines.
“If people vote to leave on those terms, Labour will deliver that and leave the EU with that negotiated deal. If people vote to remain, Labour would implement that and seek to reform the EU as members.
“A Labour government will deliver whichever decision is made by the people of the UK.”