British people do not want a second EU referendum or a delay to Brexit, senior Labour frontbencher Angela Rayner has said.
The shadow education secretary said politicians will have “failed the public” if they ask voters to give their views on EU membership again.
Her comments will concern campaigners for a so-called People’s Vote who say they need Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s backing to make it a reality.
Corbyn has so far been reluctant to support a second referendum but is facing pressure from some of his own MPs and party members to do so.
Rayner also revealed she would vote to stay in the EU if there was a second poll but described a narrow victory for Remain as the “the worst case scenario”, adding: “what are we going to have then, a best of three?”
Appearing on Ridge on Sunday on Sky News, she went on: “I think if we end up with a second referendum then us as politicians have failed the public. We have failed to be able to do our job.
“I would see that as a really difficult situation for us all to be in.
“I don’t think people want to see a delay to Article 50, I don’t think people want to see us in a second referendum.
“They want to see parliamentarians working together to carry out what happened in the result of the referendum to get the best possible deal we can for Britain moving forward and the only way we can do that next week is by Theresa May actually genuinely working across Parliament and looking at her red lines and seeing how she can build that consensus.
“I still think that can happen.”
Labour has yet to reveal if it will support Yvette Cooper’s Brexit amendment, which would empower MPs to extend Article 50 and delay EU withdrawal if Theresa May cannot get a deal approved in the Commons by the end of next month.
Rayner’s comments on Article 50 may concern those supporting the move, but she suggested the party was still open to backing it in a vote on Tuesday.
“Labour will do whatever it takes to avoid a no-deal Brexit, so if that’s the only option we have it’s something we will seriously consider,” the shadow education secretary said.
“We will do whatever it takes, through parliament, to stop that no-deal scenario from happening. If that means backing an amendment, then we will do that.”
Cooper meanwhile made clear it would be up to MPs to decide how long any delay to Article 50 should be, in what appeared to be an attempt to win backing from the Labour leadership which is concerned over a lengthy prolongation of the withdrawal process.
She told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “It’s deliberately amenable when the motion comes forward at the end of February if the government hasn’t sorted it out by then then it would be up for parliament to decide how long’s needed.”