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Overturning Brexit would be the kiss of death for Labour in the polls

PRO-EUROPEAN Union media outlets are excited about the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn’s rejection of another EU referendum being overturned at Labour Party conference.

Corbyn supporters whose backing for the Remain side in June 2016 tempts them to jump on board the People’s Vote (PV) bandwagon should realise that this outfit is a Trojan horse for the Dump Corbyn brigade.

Headed by Chuka Umunna, PV Labour front-runners are precisely those who have waged a guerilla war against Corbyn since his second, more decisive, leadership victory against Owen Smith.

The full guest list at last month’s barbecue thrown by Peter Mandelson for “centrist” MPs, including deputy leader Tom Watson, hasn’t been revealed, but unidentified participants have told Tory media that they discussed Brexit, “saving Labour” and possibly setting up a new party.

Mandelson told Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard last year that he worked ceaselessly against Corbyn, disclosing that “every day I try to do something to save the Labour Party from his leadership.”

With this inveterate plotter involved alongside the Parliamentary Labour Party fifth column, Corbyn supporters should be wary of this initiative.

Labour’s position in the 2016 referendum was to remain in the EU — a position shared with all Britain’s parliamentary parties, the TUC, bosses’ organisation the CBI, the City of London, the banks, the BBC, universities and almost all the wealthy and privileged.

It was defeated essentially by the men and women of no property who revolted against being taken for granted.

That’s why, despite Labour’s recommendation, two-thirds of constituencies represented by a Labour MP, voted to leave the EU.

The liberal capitalist media, echoed by Blairite true believers and their Liberal Democrat friends, sought to demean the vote as a squalid exercise informed by racism and xenophobia engineered by Ukip and the Tory far-right.

They highlight instances of racism, anti-semitism and Islamophobia in Britain as consequences of the June 2016 vote, although such hate crimes are rampant throughout the EU, with far-right parties sitting in several member-state governments.

Pinning the racism calumny on the Leave decision overlooks how Labour constituencies voted and also post-election polling showing that the main voter motivation for backing Leave was “the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK.”

Labour’s EU zealots preferred to slur Labour voters who put their working-class and democratic instincts first as racist and narrowly nationalist to justify their own undemocratic refusal to accept the referendum verdict.

Sections of the electronic and print media have bombarded us since June 2016 with claims that voters have changed their minds, that they didn’t know what they were voting on, that campaign promises were unachievable, that the situation is different two years on.

These tendentious claims simply reflect the arrogance of a ruling elite who assume with their habitual air of entitlement that, if they lost, something must be wrong — and it’s just not fair.

In last year’s general election, the two main parties made clear in their manifestos that they would respect the referendum vote and took 80 per cent of the electorate with them.

Corbyn understands the power of democracy, appreciating that it would be the kiss of death for Labour in the next election if he were to back a PV campaign that has one aim only — to overturn the EU referendum result.

Those who proclaim their backing for the leader should forgo self-indulgent exercises to box him into a political corner and give PV a wide berth.

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