Dozens of Labour MPs are reportedly ready to back the Brexit withdrawal agreement


Some members of the U.K.'s Labour party are nixing the idea of a second referendum and instead turning back to a familiar face to avoid a no-deal Brexit as the Oct. 31 deadline approaches, The Guardian reports.
Stephen Kinnock, a Labour MP who heads a group of around 30 of fellow party members called Respect the Results, which, as its name implies, is opposed to a second referendum, said that he and his political allies are considering a "radical and dramatic intervention" in Parliament to prevent both no-deal and a second referendum, which has support from Labour.
Kinnock reportedly estimates that dozens of his colleagues are ready to back the withdrawal agreement, originally negotiated between former Prime Minister Theresa May and the leaders of the 27 remaining European Union leaders in 2018 before it was defeated several times in Parliament.
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"It means a large number of us going to see [Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn] and trying as hard as we can possibly can telling him to make that big, bold offer, to face down the second referendum campaign and say there's no time for that," Kinnock said. "We've got get this deal over the line."
Other Labour MPs have said they are at a point where they "will take whatever is on the table" because "a second referendum is so divisive and no deal is damaging." That means they would, presumably, be willing to support a backstop-less deal as orchestrated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as well. However, Kinnock maintains that "once it's clear there is no parliamentary or legislative route to preventing no deal" then the withdrawal agreement will prove to be the "only game in town." Read more at The Guardian.
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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