Emily Thornberry has argued there would be no need for a second referendum on the UK rejoining the European Union if Labour included the pledge in their manifesto.
In recent weeks, there has been much discussion about the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU.
Andy Burnham has been highly critical of Brexit and has said he will consider all options as part of his 10-year plan for Britain.
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In a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, the prime minister called for “deeper cooperation” with the EU to help drive economic growth in the UK, and said it was an “immediate priority” for him to secure a successful outcome at the EU-UK summit next month.
One suggestion for how Brexit could ultimately be reversed is if Labour included a pledge for a second referendum in their next manifesto.
However, Labour MP Emily Thornberry has said there would be no need for another referendum, and instead her party should include a simple pledge to rejoin the EU in their manifesto.
Speaking to Sky News, Thornberry argued this would be enough of a mandate from the British public, providing a clear choice for voters at the next general election.
Acknowledging she was in a minority on this, Islington South and Finsbury MP said: “We need to have a democratic decision, so we ought to be putting it somehow. I don’t think we need to have another referendum but what we can do is have it in the manifesto and then people can have a choice.
“Do they want to have this current relationship with the European Union or do they want to be back in the EU, if that’s what our policy is.
“I would say, let’s not bother with another referendum, let’s just have it as a general election.”
The suggestion that a referendum wouldn’t be required to reverse Brexit sparked predictably anger from right-wingers and Brexiteers, but it wasn’t just the usual suspects who disagreed with Thornberry.
Despite having voted for Remain in 2016, journalist Lewis Goodall said that rejoining the EU without another referendum would be a “democratic outrage and would not endure.”
He wrote on X: “There is no way that re-accession would have legitimacy as a new settlement without a direct democratic reversal of the last referendum.
“Sure, Parliament is sovereign, it can do what it wants. But our membership of the EU has been assented to or rejected by direct referendum twice. The constitutional principle has been well established. Re-entry without direct endorsement isn’t going to work, especially if deal is worse than before.”
He added that this would also give a Tory government the opportunity to then take the UK back out of the EU without a referendum.