Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay has confirmed a second referendum could be an outcome of Jeremy Corbyn’s talks with Theresa May.
Speaking to MPs on Wednesday morning, Barclay said there were “no preconditions” on the negotiations due to take place between the two party leaders this afternoon.
And he raised the prospect of a “confirmatory vote” on just “Leave options”.
Barclay told the Commons Brexit committee that it would take around a year to legislate for a second referendum.
May has previously ruled out holding another vote, but agreeing to put any deal agreed by MPs to the public could be one way of securing a majority in the Commons.
The call for another referendum was defeated by just 12 votes on Monday when the Commons held a series of “indicative votes” on alternative Brexit options.
Campaigners seized on the fact it had more MPs voting in favour than any other option.
Corbyn is under intense pressure from within Labour to extract a pledge to hold a referendum as the price for his support of any deal.
Dame Margaret Beckett, speaking at a press conference this morning held by the People’s Vote campaign, said the Labour leader must demand three things: that no-deal be ruled out, a second vote and a long extension to the Article 50 EU withdrawal process.
Asked if Corbyn should abandon talks if May refuses to discuss a second vote, she said: “If she says this is a condition that we don’t even discuss it then yes I think he should.”
It came after Corbyn’s shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey pushed away the prospect of a re-run, telling Sky News on Wednesday morning: “If we get exactly what we want, and we have a good strong deal, I would struggle to find a reason to put that to a public vote.”
Beckett told HuffPost UK: “Negotiations only succeed when absolutely nobody gets everything that they want, but everybody gets something that they want, so the chances of the frontbench getting exactly what the Labour Party would have started out wanting are not very high, which means that the second part of her [Long-Bailey’s] sentence falls away.”
Speaking to the Brexit committee, Barclay said: “I don’t think we should have a second referendum because it takes us back to square one, is my personal view, but the prime minister will have the discussions and we will see where they lead.
“The indication tends to be that legislation on a second referendum would take around 12 months.
“You have got to pass the primary legislation, you have got to resolve the issues with the Electoral Commission, you have got to have the purdah period in the run-up to any referendum.”
Meanwhile, the prime minister wrote to all Tory MPs to place the blame for having to turn to Labour for help squarely on the hardline pro-Brexit members of her own party.
“With some colleagues unwilling to support the government in the division lobbies, this is the only way to deliver the smooth, orderly Brexit that we promised and for which the British people voted,” she said.
In a sign of the anger at May’s decision, one Tory minister, Nigel Adams, has already resigned from the government in protest.