John McDonnell has said that a new Brexit referendum should only consider a departure deal and not about remaining in the EU.
The shadow chancellor said he would back a second referendum if it was only in terms of a deal did not result in a general election.
“If we are going to respect the last referendum, it will be about the deal, it will a negotiation on the deal,” he said.
“Parliament will determine the nature of the question that will be put, but the first stage of that is to see if we can get a deal that is acceptable and brings the country together again. And I’ve always thought we could.”
The Labour conference in Liverpool discussed the possibility of a Brexit referendum, which was pushed for by grassroots organiser and Momentum member, Michael Chessum.
“The Brexit motion set you be debated by conference, which is backed and negotiated by the leadership, clearly keeps remain on the table. That was a key element of what was agreed in negotiating the motion,’ said Chessum.
“This idea that any future referendum would not include a remain option is preposterous; if we’re committing to a public vote, it would be an insult to the public not to trust them with all options. All options are on the table and that includes staying in that EU,” he added.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about the Brexit referendum, McDonnell said: “If we don’t get a general election then yes, we’ll go for a people’s vote.”
“My view at the moment is that parliament will decide what will be on that ballot paper. We’ll be arguing that it should be a vote on the deal itself, and then enable us to go back and do the negotiations,” he added.
“We’re respecting the referendum. We want a general election, If we can’t get that we’ll have a people’s vote. The people’s vote will be on the deal itself and whether we can negotiate a better one,” he said.