Labour divisions over Brexit continued as Deputy Leader Tom Watson said he was “disappointed” with Labour Chair Ian Lavery for refusing to back a second Brexit referendum.
Mr Lavery, MP for Wansbeck, reportedly offered to resign from his front bench role after abstaining for a second time in a Commons vote about a referendum.
Labour MPs had been told to back calls for a “confirmatory referendum” on any proposed Brexit deal. One of the options in any such referendum would be to cancel Brexit entirely.
Speaking on ITV’s Peston show, Mr Watson said: “Ian is pretty much on record - I mean he has failed to vote for a people’s vote this week, which was obviously disappointing but understandable because there are strong views in all of this complex series of negotiations.”
He added: “I am the deputy leader of the party and I am bound by collective responsibility. I think that’s why I was personally disappointed that some of my colleagues couldn’t understand that’s what is expected of them when they are in the shadow cabinet, but these are extraordinary times and we are a very forgiving bunch in the Labour Party.”
Mr Lavery has declined to confirm or deny reports that he offered to resign but was told by party leader Jeremy Corbyn to remain in his post.
He told ChronicleLive: “I never comment on private issues between myself and the leader of the party.”
It has also been reported that Mr Lavery told a private meeting of Labour’s Shadow Cabinet that the party could split if it backs a second referendum.
The first time My Lavery abstained on a referendum vote, he told ChronicleLive he was willing to accept any disciplinary measures the party leadership took.
Mr Lavery said the voters who backed leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum must be respected, saying: “Any attempt to try to cast their vote aside, as if they didn’t mean it or didn’t understand the consequences, whereas everybody else did, is a bit of a slur on the individuals who took the time to vote, many of them for the first time.”
While Mr Watson insists that Labour’s policy is to back a new referendum, Mr Corbyn’s official spokesman struck a different tone when he spoke to journalists about the talks talking place between the Labour leader and Prime Minister Theresa May.
The spokesman said Labour supported a referendum “to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or a no-deal outcome”. It seems to imply that a referendum would not be needed if a different type of Brexit, such as a deal backed by Labour, could be agreed.
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However, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said a referendum would be required for any Brexit deal, following a policy agreed at last year’s Labour conference.
In a letter to Labour MPs she said that “any proposed compromise deal” should be subject to a confirmatory vote.
The Conservative Party is even more divided over Brexit.
Mrs May’s decision to ask Mr Corbyn to help her draw up a Brexit deal that Parliament can support has provoked fury from some Tory MPs.
Wales minister and whip Nigel Adams resigned from his Government post and said the Prime Minister had made a “grave error” by reaching out to the Labour leader.
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In his resignation letter, Mr Adams said: “Legitimising and turning to Jeremy Corbyn to assist you at this crucial stage, rather than being bold, is a grave error.”
And he said a deal backed by Labour would mean the UK remaining in a Customs Union with the EU, a policy Labour supports but Theresa May’s government has so far opposed.
Brexit Minister Chris Heaton-Harris also quit his post, complaining that Mrs May’s decision would lead to Brexit being delayed again.
The UK was originally due to leave the EU on March 29. This has now been put back until April 12, but could be delayed further.
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