A bloc of 26 Labour MPs in Brexit-supporting areas could vote for a withdrawal deal brought forward by the next Tory prime minister, one of the group has said.
Caroline Flint urged the next Tory prime minister, whether it is Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt, to reach out to Labour MPs as they will have to rally parliamentary support around an exit deal to make Brexit happen.
That could prove risky for Johnson who is being urged by hard Brexit backers in the Tory European Research Group (ERG) to completely ditch the deal Theresa May negotiated with the EU.
And it came with Jeremy Corbyn under pressure to this week throw his full backing behind staying in the EU.
Corbyn has not committed to campaign for Remain and said he would be consulting with trade unions before announcing any shift in position.
Flint warned it was “pretty clear” that the 26 MPs who wrote to the leader last week calling for Brexit to be delivered would oppose a second referendum, pointing to polling which suggests Labour could lose more than 40 heartland seats if Corbyn backed another vote.
And she also suggested the group of MPs could be wooed to back a Brexit deal by the incoming Tory prime minister.
“I think those people who signed the letter would like to still have the opportunity to vote on a deal,” Flint told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show.
“And don’t forget that when Theresa May was finally forced to stand down we were in discussions about what the withdrawal agreement would be like and changes to the political declaration.”
Only a handful of Labour MPs have previously backed the deal May negotiated with the EU but Flint said: “I think it will go up but I’ve been through this situation many times before.
“I believe that the only way to stop no deal is to support a deal.”
She added: “Despite everything that’s going on I am still optimistic and hopeful that parliament will do the job.”
The Don Valley MP also made clear she would back a no-deal Brexit over staying in the EU.
“I won’t be voting to revoke Article 50,” she said.
Labour former foreign secretary David Miliband meanwhile put fresh pressure on Corbyn to back another vote and staying in the EU, dubbing his plan for a “jobs-first Brexit” a “unicorn”.
Miliband said the drubbing Labour took in last month’s European elections, when Remain parties like the Liberal Democrats and Greens made large gains alongside the Brexit Party, showed Corbyn must now back staying in the EU.
He told Marr: “Not just for electoral reasons, actually to appeal to Remainers and Leavers, the politicians are honour-bound to stop playing with the unicorns, there isn’t a jobs-first Brexit, just as there isn’t a GATT 24 option for the Tories.”
He went on: “The arguments that you’re making against a second referendum that it will prolong the agony, that it will fuel the far right, that it will divide the country, those are precisely the arguments against the deals that are on offer now.”
Shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne meanwhile made clear there had not yet been a change in Corbyn’s position.
He told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “Jeremy’s said that and that is because we face the risk of no deal, so that any Brexit deal that is brought to parliament, including a no-deal scenario, we will say, as the Labour party, that there should be a second referendum on those prospects, because it’s looking increasingly likely that we’re heading to no deal, that was not on the ballot paper in 2016.”