Gordon Brown predicts second Brexit referendum

Former prime minister says the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP will back another vote

There will be a future referendum on Brexit, former prime minister Gordon Brown has predicted.

The former prime minister said the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP) would all back a new vote on the issue at general elections and he was adamant that the transition period would have to be extended due to no deal being reached by March.

"I believe there will be a referendum on Brexit. What I'm not sure about is when it will be," he said during a speech at the inaugural memorial lecture in Edinburgh in memory of late motor neurone disease campaigner Gordon Aikman.

The Independent has launched its own Final Say campaign calling for a referendum on the final Brexit deal. The petition has been signed by more than 850,000 people so far.

Mr Brown said he believed there would be another vote because if Britain leaves the European Union (EU) without a deal in March 2019 but with, as he expects, an extended transition period retaining some aspects of membership, the next general election would be fought on Europe.

In this situation, he predicted, the UK would not be "wholly out" of the EU by up to 2022.

"I'm pretty convinced there will be a referendum some time, " he said. "It will in the end be the only way to sort out the problem."

He added: "The people, even though they don't like the idea of a divisive referendum, will eventually demand a final say."

He said he expected the general election manifestos of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP all to back a public vote on this issue in these circumstances.

Mr Brown also warned of poll tax riots-style "chaos" will result if the Government pushes on with the national Universal Credit roll out.

He said Downing Street would have to go back to the drawing board on the welfare scheme to avoid public disorder.

"Just like the poll tax, and we will have chaos like the poll tax after next summer as a result of this, you cannot reform this with simply transitional payments," he said. "You've got to go back to the drawing board as they had to do with poll tax and see if it works."

His intervention came after charities warned the nationwide introduction of Universal Credit would trigger a surge in the number of people using food banks.

Agencies contributed to this report