Labour would lose seats in Sunderland, Barnsley, Wolverhampton, Stoke and many other areas if Jeremy Corbyn shifted the party’s stance on Brexit, claimed Caroline Flint. The Brexiteer MP warned Labour and the Conservatives combined risk losing “40 plus seats” to the Brexit Party. BBC presenter Andrew Marr asked: “Are you not likely to lose more seats to the Lib Dems than anybody else if you don’t go in the other direction?” Ms Flint replied: “No not at all, I mean when you look at the polling based on present figures, it is clear that for example in David Miliband’s seat in South Shields that he used to represent, that would go.

“All the seats in Sunderland, all the seats in Barnsley, across Wolverhampton, across Stoke and many more. And those Labour leave voters are likely to go to the Brexit Party.

“So the danger for the party, and this isn’t just about an electoral calculation.“

The BBC presenter interjected: “How many seats would Labour lose to the Brexit Party if you go ahead in the second referendum direction?”

The Labour MP for Don Valley warned: “Well one of the polls suggest it’s something like 40 plus, and also to the Tories as well in that mix. But we would be losing in our heartland seats.

We would be losing in our heartland seats

Caroline Flint

“And this isn’t just about electoral advantage, this actually goes to the heart of what the Labour Party’s about.

“If we do not speak for the working class voices of Britain, then what’s the point of the Labour Party?”

Hilary Benn recently called on the Labour party to come out “loud and clear” in support of a second referendum, describing Brexit as a “complete and utter mess”.

Speaking at a People’s Vote rally in Leeds on Saturday, he said: “We know, to use the technical term, that Brexit is a complete and utter mess.

“I have never spoken on a People’s Vote platform before, but I too have come to the conclusion that the only way out of this mess is now to give the people a final say.

“So let’s say it clearly, let the party that I joined at 17 years of age say it loud and clear – we want a People’s Vote.”

Mary Creagh, the Labour MP for Wakefield, told the audience that she has called in private for her party to show “full-throated support” for a final vote being given to the people, adding: “We must campaign to remain.”

Meanwhile, Alastair Campbell, former spokesman for ex-prime minister Tony Blair, and who was recently expelled from the Labour party, told the crowd that there is “no mandate” for a no-deal Brexit.

Explaining how the event marked the launch of People’s Vote North, he said: “It is time to revoke the long-held media myth that the North is this mass of angry, decrepit Brexiteers.”

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