Pro-Remain MPs plot fresh vote on second referendum during Commons 'Super Saturday' sitting
3 min read
A group of pro-Remain MPs are plotting to use the Commons 'Super Saturday' sitting as a fresh opportunity to force a vote on a second referendum.
MPs have vowed to use "novel moves" to test support for a fresh poll during the 19 October, which will take place the day after a crunch EU summit where a new Brexit deal could be signed off.
Downing street called the weekend sitting - the first since the outbreak of the Falklands War - in a bid to force a decision on the way forward, either by presenting any new deal he strikes with the EU, or attempting to force a general election.
But pro-Remain MPs said they will attempt to hijack the emergency debate, either by amending any deal brought back by the PM, or by seizing control of the order paper.
Speaking to the BBC's Newsnight programme, Brexit Select Committe chair MP Hilary Benn, said: "If Parliament is going to be meeting we have shown our capacity as parliamentarians to take control of the order paper, so we won't be meeting just to sit and see what the Prime Minister has in store for us.
"This is an opportunity - if we can get a majority, and that is a big if - for Parliament to say we can find a way forward, a confirmatory referendum is the way to do it, let's go and ask the British people finally to take the decision."
Meanwhile, Labour MP and People's Vote supporter Peter Kyle said it was "blinding obvious" that MPs must use the sitting to find a "workable proposition".
"We are very clearly in the end game. We are prepared for any eventuality - a motion, an amendment or a more novel move," he said.
"Saturday 19 October will be a key moment because it is after the EU summit. In the absence of Boris Johnson being capable of delivering the deal he promised, it's blindingly obvious that the next best option is the one that already exists or a similar version of it."
He added: "Parliament might well want to re-examine that. If Boris Johnson comes back empty-handed, then parliament will be forced to be the grown-up in the room and find a workable proposition."
But their plans were dealt a blow on Thursday after Jeremy Corbyn triggered a fresh Brexit row in his party by batting away suggestions that a second referendum should come before a general election.
The Labour leader told supporters in Northampton: "A second referendum is what we propose under a Labour government, which would be, as I have said, not a choice between a no-deal cliff edge but between an intelligent arrangement with the European Union and remain."
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