On Monday, Jeremy Corbyn made it clear that Labour would campaign to remain against a no deal Brexit in a second referendum. However, when asked if the party would stay neutral given a choice between a Labour Brexit and remaining in the EU, Mr Corbyn did not answer. He said: “In a general election, we will put forward the opportunity for people in this country to have the final say.

“It is not a rerun of 2016. It is simply saying the people of this country should make the final decision.

“If it is no deal versus remain then obviously John McDonnell and others made it very clear we would support remain.

“If there is the opportunity for some other option to be put then that will be put. I want to bring people together.”

In response, this morning, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, attacked the Labour leader, writing on Twitter: “Jeremy Corbyn didn’t fight to remain in 2016, and he won’t fight for remain now.

“He wants to deliver a Labour Brexit, because he is a Brexiteer.”

It is not the first time Mr Corbyn has been accused of having anti-EU sentiments, as there is plenty of evidence of his euroscepticism up until recent years.

In his 2019 book “The Great Betrayal”, newspaper columnist Rod Liddle recalled how Mr Corbyn voted against the the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and then again in 2009, against the Lisbon Treaty.

He also noted how in 2009, the Labour leader attacked the EU as a “European Empire of the 21st Century” and a “military Frankenstein”.

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However, Mr Liddle explained the reason why the veteran left-winger made a swift volte face in the 2016 referendum.

He said: “The problem for Corbyn and his likeminded cabal at the top of the party was that Labour in Parliament was heavily pro-remain, especially among the vast numbers of dispossessed Blairites who had seen their part taken away from them.

“And while on some issues, such as nationalism and increased taxes, Corbyn could drive through a hard left agenda with the jubilant support of the party activists, the young Momentum hordes who now had control of the party apparatus, he found this much more difficult when it came to the EU, because his supporter base was hugely in favour of it.

“Thus Corbyn shifted his position a little; he made an accommodation.”

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Mr Liddle added: “There was an overwhelming case for staying in the EU, he announced, having given the EU a mark of seven and a half out of ten.

“And, without very much enthusiasm, he campaigned for remain in a singularly lukewarm manner, as far as his despairing backbench Blaire MPs were concerned.”

The newspaper columnist concluded: “So by mid-July 2016, we had something of a paradox on our hands.

“A Prime Minister who believed we should remain in the EU leading negotiations to take us out of it, facing a leader of the opposition who almost certainly believed we should get the hell out was constrained by the fervent objections to this position from his own party in Parliament and indeed his own supporters.”

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