Majority of voters in every Labour seat back a second Brexit referendum, poll shows
2 min read
A majority of voters in every Labour seat back a second referendum on Brexit, according to a new study.
The analysis - commissioned by the People's Vote campaign and carried out by pollster YouGov - finds that support for a second vote is highest in Jeremy Corbyn's Remain-backing Islington North seat, where 80% of voters want a fresh poll.
But the findings could also heap pressure on MPs in seats that voted for Leave in 2016, with the least supportive seat, Ashfield, still registering 53% backing for a fresh vote, according to the study.
Birmingham Yardley MP Jess Phillips, whose constituency voted 60% in favour of Brexit in 2016, said the finding that 63% of voters in her seat would now back a second vote had helped persuade her to support the campaign.
"It’s no surprise to me that my constituents feel that they have been failed in the negotiations and are changing their mind on Brexit," she said.
"If I had to pick who decided my fate between Theresa May or the people in my community I’d pick them every single time."
The support of Labour MPs will be crucial if the People's Vote campaign is to have any hope of getting a second referendum through the House of Commons.
Labour thrashed out a fresh position on a second referendum at its annual conference, with the party committed to "all options remaining on the table, including campaigning for a public vote" - but only if there is no general election should Theresa May fail to get her Brexit deal through the Commons.
The YouGov study was carried out using the pollster's multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) technique, which calculated the views of people in specific seats by using data gleaned from 26,000 voters and used that to build a model for each constituency.
Former YouGov chief Peter Kellner, who is now backing the People's Vote campaign, said the technique could help highlight those voters "who do not necessarily speak to MPs on the doorstep", where many Labour parliamentarians say they hear strong support for leaving the EU.
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