Labour Cannot Decide Brexit Stance After Election, Says Emily Thornberry

Emily Thornberry has told Jeremy Corbyn Labour must decide “now” whether to back Leave or Remain.

Speaking to HuffPost UK’s Paul Waugh at a fringe event at the party’s conference in Brighton, the shadow foreign secretary said members should “thrash it out” this week and not wait until after the election

Stressing Corbyn was a “servant of the members”, Thornberry said: “We’re all here [at conference]. I don’t see why we can’t make the decision now.”

The frontbencher said she feared Labour risked losing 30% of its core vote to Lib Dems and the Greens “unless we are clear about where we stand on Europe”. 

It comes as Corbyn attempts to get Labour members to back a Brexit “compromise” which would see the party only declaring a position when a second referendum was called or in a post-general election special conference on Brexit. 

Thornberry added: “I think that this conference should thrash it out.” 

Likening the squeeze on the Labour vote to a Star Wars scene in which the characters are almost crushed between two walls, she said: “We can’t just stand there and say ‘I’m right’.”

Corbyn risks being repeatedly asked about Brexit by journalists and the public during the campaign if he failed to back one side, she added. 

She said: “My concern, obviously, is that the next general election could be a Brexit election and just be about one issue.