Young Labour voters in the midlands and north of England overwhelming back Jeremy Corbyn’s decision support a second referendum.
Analysis of a YouGov survey for the People’s Vote campaign shared with HuffPost UK revealed 79% of 18-24 year olds in the north east, north west and east and west midlands want another public say on Brexit.
Only 13% support Theresa May’s deal and 84% would vote to stay in the EU if asked.
It comes as a £1.6billion regeneration package promised by Theresa May for towns, many in the region surveyed, was dismissed by Labour MPs as a “pathetic” attempt to win their support for her Brexit deal.
Gareth Snell, one of the Labour backbenchers seen as most likely to be persuaded to vote for the PM’s deal, said the offer was a “huge disappointment”
The analysis of the poll was conducted by For our Future’s Sake (FFS) and Our Future, Our Choice (OFOC) – the two youth movements who are part of the People’s Vote campaign.
Ellie Keiller, a FFS supporter from Manchester, said it “puts to bed” the idea that people in Labour’s heartlands wanted their MP to vote for Brexit.
OFOC co-founder Lara Spirit said: “It’s clear from this polling that yet more Brexit myths - that Labour voters in the North and the Midlands favour Brexit, or that it is in Labour’s interests to back Brexit – have been busted.”
“The entire allocation for the West Midlands over four years is LESS than the total value of cuts faced by Stoke-on-Trent City Council alone over the same period,” he said.
Labour is due to ask MPs to back a referendum when the prime minister puts her revised deal to the Commons next week.
While the move has delighted pro-EU Labour MPs, it has angered others who worry it will cost the party votes in pro-Leave areas of the country.
Don Valley MP Caroline Flint has estimated up to 70 Labour MPs are opposed to a second referendum.
The former minister, who campaigned for Remain in 2016, says the party had to “keep our promises to our electorate” when it said it would honour the first referendum result.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has signalled the Labour leadership will order its MPs to back a bid for a new referendum.
“I just say this – and I think it’ll be for MPs right the way across the House in all parties now – that they’ve got to look to the long-term interests of the country, they’ve got to protect people’s jobs, they’ve got to protect the economy, otherwise we’ll never be forgiven in the future,” he told Sky News on Sunday.