Brexit will go ahead if Labour wins snap election, Jeremy Corbyn says

'You’d have to go back and negotiate, and see what the timetable would be', Labour leader says - defying pressure to back fresh referendum

Brexit will go ahead if Labour wins a snap general election, Jeremy Corbyn has insisted, defying growing pressure in his party to back a fresh referendum.

The Labour leader said he would, as prime minister, head to Brussels to try to strike softer exit terms – while acknowledging departure day might have to be delayed beyond 29 March next year.

“You’d have to go back and negotiate, and see what the timetable would be,” Mr Corbyn said, in an interview with The Guardian.

Asked if he believed the paralysis in parliament was making a further, Final Say referendum more likely, he replied: “I think we should vote down this deal. We should then go back to the EU with a discussion about a customs union.”

Mr Corbyn also urged Labour supporters demanding he stop Brexit to “recognise a number of things”, saying: “About 60 per cent of Labour voters voted remain, about 40 per cent voted leave. We have to recognise why people voted in those directions.

“Labour is unique as a party, because it’s got to bring all sides together – hence my view on a customs union, on access to the market.”

However, some estimates have put Labour voters’ backing remain at more than 60 per cent – while one recent poll found their support for a further referendum to be 80 per cent.

The interview triggered a backlash from some Labour MPs, Chris Leslie, the Nottingham East MP, tweeting: “If Jeremy Corbyn facilitates Brexit he’ll share responsibility for the job losses, trade barriers and decade of austerity to come.

Angela Smith, the Penistone and Stocksbridge MP, said: “We need to get the message over to Jeremy Corbyn that Labour members and supporters want a People’s Vote.”

And Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “There you have it, Jeremy Corbyn refuses once again to take the blinkers off. He is ignoring the concerns of his own supporters and the economic damage experts warn Brexit will do to the UK economy.”

In reality, the chances of a snap election in the new year are slim, with Theresa May having ruled it out – and many Tories opposed to her deal happy to run down the clock to a no-deal Brexit.

Instead, Mr Corbyn is under pressure to swing behind a fresh referendum if – as seems certain – the prime minister loses the “meaningful vote”, in the second week of January and his vote of no confidence in her government fails.

Some Labour insiders believe Labour backing for a referendum is all-but certain in those circumstances, given the party's inability to set out what the other “options on the table” it could pursue might be.

Asked what stance Labour would take if a referendum were held, Mr Corbyn said: “It would be a matter for the party to decide what the policy would be.”

But he struck a distinctly Eurosceptic note by again highlighting Labour’s concerns about the state aid rules that come with single market membership.

“I think the state aid rules do need to be looked at again, because quite clearly, if you want to regenerate an economy, as we would want to do in government, then I don’t want to be told by somebody else that we can’t use state aid in order to be able to develop industry in this country,” Mr Corbyn said.