LABOUR secured its election defeat by shifting to a “Stop Brexit” stance, Britain’s Communist Party says.

Addressing an extended meeting of the CP political committee last night, Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths said that other factors in Labour’s general election defeat should not be seized upon to obscure this “undeniable and overriding” fact.

Pointing out that 52 of the 54 seats lost by Labour to the Tories had voted in 2016 to leave the EU, he cited a Financial Times analysis showing that in many constituencies across Britain “the bigger the majority for Leave in the EU referendum, the bigger the abstention rate and the swing against Labour in last week’s general election.”