Brexit: Labour's Tom Watson calls for second referendum, saying 'our hearts are Remain'
Mr Watson's speech prompts Labour's chairman Ian Lavery to warn that "ignoring the 17.4m leave voters isn't politically smart".
Monday 17 June 2019 12:06, UK
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has turned up the heat on Jeremy Corbyn by reiterating his call for the party to back a second EU referendum.
Mr Watson told an audience at the Centre for European Reform that "our hearts are Remain" and that another referendum is the only way to "break the political deadlock" at Westminster.
Mr Corbyn has refused to explicitly back a re-run of the 2016 EU referendum, saying that he wants a general election to break the impasse.
Failing that, the Labour leader has called for a "public vote on any deal agreed by parliament".
Mr Corbyn's ambiguity on the issue was blamed for the party's poor performance in May's EU elections.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Watson said Labour "must argue strongly to remain", adding: "Our future doesn't need to be Brexit. We can change our future.
"We can put Britain back at the heart of Europe again.
"We can be proud of leading the fight for a fairer and stronger future, together.
"But we can only achieve this future if Labour fights for it and champions it. It's time we do that."
:: Listen to Any Other Business on , , and
Mr Watson said the prospect of Tory leadership frontrunner Boris Johnson becoming prime minister meant there was an urgent need to act.
"I love Europe because I'm a democratic socialist," he said.
"Socialism is achieving common causes by the strength of collective endeavour.
"That's what Europe is. We've shied away from saying these things for too long.
"But now, as we stare down the barrel of a Boris Johnson premiership, we really must."
As Mr Watson gave his speech, Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery warned that ignoring the EU referendum result "isn't politically smart nor indeed particularly democratic".
"Brexit has turned this country into a toxic nation," Mr Lavery tweeted.
"However ignoring the 17.4m leave voters isn't politically smart nor indeed particularly democratic. Is it? #simplysaying."
But Labour MP Wes Streeting responded by claiming that four in 10 of the party's members "didn't vote Labour".
"We just got the worst national election result since 1910," he wrote on Twitter.
"We just lost council seats that Miliband won on the same day that the Tories won a majority for first time since 1992.
"I'm missing the political genius here #simplysaying."
Mr Corbyn is likely to resist any change of policy, with Mr Lavery previously describing Remainers as "left wing intellectuals" who were "sneering at ordinary people" who had voted for the UK to leave the EU.
Mr Watson said: "We cannot go on dismissing one another's right to speak and questioning one another's motives and intentions.
"Some people have begun to equate support for Europe with class identity, I don't think that's right or helpful.
"The majority of Labour people are supportive of Europe - and that support is not dictated by social class."