Labour’s backing of second Brexit poll will lose it northern seats, Farage says

Nigel Farage says his Brexit Party will take Labour’s traditional northern seats due to Jeremy Corbyn’s support for a second Brexit referendum.

Mr Farage said the Labour leader’s decision to back another poll had given the Brexit Party a “golden opportunity” to claim the opposition’s heartland electorates.

“Now the Brexit Party is the true party of the people,” Mr Farage told the Sunday Express.

“We are the only party committed to giving 17.4 million Leave voters what they voted for more than three years ago – a clean-break Brexit.”

Labour last week said it would press the next Tory leader to hold a second referendum before taking Britain out of the EU – and committed to campaigning for Remain.

The decision by the shadow cabinet was broadly welcomed by pro-Remain MPs, who have been pressing the party to fully embrace a second referendum.

The move follows weeks of wrangling within the party over its position on Brexit – backing a second referendum only in certain specific circumstances – which was widely blamed for its dismal showing in the European elections.

Announcing the move in a letter to party members, Jeremy Corbyn said: “Whoever becomes the new prime minister should have the confidence to put their deal, or no-deal, back to the people in a public vote.

“In those circumstances, I want to make it clear that Labour would campaign for Remain against either no-deal or a Tory deal that does not protect the economy and jobs.”

But Mr Farage said that Labour’s position meant its supporters would abandon the party for an alternative.

“Labour has turned its back on millions of working-class Leave voters for good. Those Labour MP ‘donkeys’ are about to become an endangered species,” the Brexit Party leader said.