Britain's Labour Party will support second Brexit referendum if Tories don't adopt EU deal proposals

Britain's opposition Labour Party says it would back calls for a second referendum on Brexit if Parliament rejects its alternative plan for leaving the European Union.

With just over a month until Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29, Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking changes to her exit deal in order to break an impasse in Parliament.

Labour's decision could damage her hopes of winning support for a revised deal in a vote she has promised by March 12, by attracting those who would have backed her agreement to avoid a no-deal exit but who prefer a second referendum.

Parliament is due to debate and vote on Wednesday on the next steps in Britain's tortuous departure from the EU, and MPs are set to put down proposals, or amendments, which could include demanding the exit deal is put to a public vote.

On Monday (local time) Labour said it would put forward an amendment calling on the Government to adopt its Brexit proposals, which include a permanent customs union with the EU and close alignment with the bloc's single market.

"If Parliament rejects our plan, then Labour will deliver on the promise we made at our annual conference and support a public vote," Labour's Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said on Twitter.

Parliament is not expected to back Labour's Brexit plan.

Labour said it would support a bid by one of its MPs, Yvette Cooper, to give Parliament the legal power to force Mrs May to delay Brexit by seeking an extension to the Article 50 negotiating period.

"We are committed to also putting forward or supporting an amendment in favour of a public vote to prevent a damaging Tory (Conservative) Brexit being forced on the country," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was due to tell a meeting of his MPs on Monday, his office said.

"One way or another, we will do everything in our power to prevent no deal."

That amendment may not come at this week's vote in Parliament however.

A proposal by Labour MPs Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson that Mrs May's deal be put to the public in another referendum will not be put forward for a vote in Parliament until the Prime Minister brings her agreement back for approval.

"There's no turning back for Jeremy now," Mr Kyle said.

Mr Corbyn has been under pressure for some time to support a second referendum. Last week, eight referendum-supporting MPs quit the Labour Party, in part owing to frustration over his failure to back another vote.

The prospect of holding a second vote poses a dilemma for Mr Corbyn: while many of the party's members and supporters fervently back a so-called People's Vote, others simply want Britain to leave the EU as soon as possible.

Reaction from MPs in the meeting on Monday was split.

It remains unclear whether there is a majority in Parliament in favour of holding another public vote and Labour MP Stephen Kinnock said while he was pleased parliament would get a chance to express its view, he also had concerns.

"I still have deep reservations about the idea of having another referendum. I think it's going to be deeply divisive," he said.

Britons voted by 52-48 per cent in favour of leaving the EU in a referendum in 2016.

The Remain Labour campaign group, which wants to stop Brexit, said the announcement was "a significant step forward".

"A second referendum was only ever possible with the votes of Labour Members of Parliament and we are now on the verge of making this happen," founder Andrew Lewin said in a statement.

"We are not complacent, but we are closer tonight to a People's Vote than we have ever been." </s> Britain's main opposition Labour party has proposed MPs be allowed to vote on a second referendum as part of a series of options to stop a "no deal" Brexit.

A parliamentary amendment tabled late on Monday would require ministers to allow time in the House of Commons to discuss ways to prevent Britain leaving the EU in March with no deal.

These options include renegotiating Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement to include a new UK-EU customs union and a "strong relationship" with the EU's single market.

They also should include "legislating to hold a public vote on a deal or a proposition" that has the support of a majority of MPs.

MPs roundly rejected May's Brexit deal last week but she still believes it can be saved and has promised to return to Brussels to secure further concessions that might win over her critics.

She will return to the Commons next Tuesday when MPs will have a chance to debate her approach and vote on amendments offering a different way forward.

The Labour amendment has little chance of success as it would need the support of members of May's Conservative party, who are unlikely to back a plan proposed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

But the very fact that a second referendum is now being openly discussed was welcomed by campaigners who want to stop Brexit altogether.

"It is a big step forward that for the first time my party is acknowledging in a parliamentary amendment that a People's Vote may be the only way forward," Labour MP David Lammy said.

There are other amendments that do have the support of pro-European Conservative MPs, including ones that seek to stop a potentially hugely disruptive "no deal" Brexit by seeking to delay the process.

Not all amendments will go to a vote. This is a decision for the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, who will make his selection next week. </s> Jeremy Corbyn tonight backed a second referendum on Brexit warning it was better than the 'damaging' Tory deal.

The Labour leader has bowed to months of pressure from activists and many of his MPs and promised to back a public vote in the Commons on Wednesday.

Mr Corbyn will order his MPs to first vote in favour of Labour's version of Brexit based on a permanent customs union with the EU.

But if that is lost - and it will be - Labour will then vote in favour of blocking a no deal Brexit and will either support an MPs' referendum plan or Mr Corbyn will table his own.

The Labour leader will hope the dramatic move will stop any more MPs quitting to join the new Independent Group of MPs.

Mr Corbyn's surprise shift makes a new referendum on Brexit much more likely - but far from certain as dozens of Labour MPs representing Leave areas oppose the idea.

He is due to speak to Labour MPs at 6pm and will say: 'The Prime Minister is recklessly running down the clock, in an attempt to force MPs to choose between her botched deal and a disastrous No Deal. We cannot and will not accept.

'Last week, after our visit to talk to EU officials and leaders in Brussels and Madrid, no one can be in any doubt Labour's alternative Brexit plan is serious and credible.'

He added: 'We will also be backing the Cooper-Letwin amendment to rule out a No Deal outcome.

'One way or another, we will do everything in our power to prevent No Deal and oppose a damaging Tory Brexit based on Theresa May's overwhelmingly rejected deal.

'That's why, in line with our conference policy, we are committed to also putting forward or supporting an amendment in favour of a public vote to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit being forced on the country.'

Labour's Brexit plan involves a permanent customs union with the EU, which would rule out the UK signing its own trade deals.

It also calls for close alignment with EU single market rules, matching standards on workers and the environment, and a security deal.

Theresa May has refused to accept the Labour plan - insisting it compromises the referendum result - but it has been backed in Brussels as a possible escape route.

Labour MP David Lammy, who backs a new referendum, said: 'It is welcome news that the Labour Party is now, at long last, signalling it will accept the principle of giving the public the final say on Brexit.

'Even if MPs can agree some sort of deal, it would be wrong to force it on the British people when we now know so many of the promises made in 2016 have been broken and any deal will be worse than the one we've already got inside the EU.

'These are dangerous times for the Labour Party and our country. Jeremy Corbyn is today taking the first step to reunite our party by showing he is listening to our voters and members on this, the biggest issue of our time.

'But it is also crucial when food prices are already rising and car manufacturers are scrapping investment that we provide the clarity needed to plan for the future.'

Labour MP Clive Lewis, who backs the Best for Britain campaign, said: 'With this announcement we're now offering real and unambiguous opposition to Tory Brexit and giving the public the final say on the issue.

'To my mind we would never have been forgiven for facilitating Tory Brexit.'

MP Rachael Maskell added: 'Labour voters and members across the country are clear that they didn't vote for the mess Brexit has got us into.

'Labour must fight to rebuild Britain, and do so by working with European partners across the continent to reject the isolationist, divisive path the Tories have taken our communities on over recent years.'

Pressure has been mounting on Mr Corbyn to back a new referendum on Brexit after he tried and failed to collapse the Government last month.

The defection of eight of his MPs to the new Independent Group last week made it even more unlikely he could win a new confidence vote to force an election.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson added to pressure yesterday by threatening to unilaterally back the People's Vote campaign yesterday.

Asked yesterday if he was about to join the clamour for a vote, Mr Watson told Marr: 'If Theresa May can't find it within herself to meet our red lines, closer economic union, then obviously our conference policy says that the next stage would be in favour of a people's vote.

'So if we get to that point, then yes, I will be on the march.' </s> LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Theresa May returned from a seemingly unproductive meeting with European Union leaders Monday to a growing attempt by British lawmakers to stop her from taking Britain out of the EU on March 29 without a divorce deal.

With May and the EU at odds over not just how, but when Brexit should happen, her political opponents were getting increasingly desperate to take control of Britain's muddled departure from the bloc.

At an EU-Arab League summit in Egypt, the EU warned Britain it faces the prospect of delaying its planned March 29 departure or the consequences of a chaotic exit. European Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs meetings of EU nation leaders, said Monday it would be "rational" to postpone Brexit day.

May insisted she intends for Britain to leave as planned in a little more than a month. But her often divided opponents may be coalescing around a plan to prevent Britain crashing out of the EU with no agreement in place.

The main opposition Labour Party took a big step Monday toward backing a new referendum on the country's EU membership.

The party has previously said it would support a referendum as a last resort if it could not secure a new election or make changes to May's EU divorce deal. Britain's Parliament has so far rejected the deal struck between May's government and the bloc, and is due to hold a series of votes Wednesday on next steps in the Brexit process.

Labour has proposed its own withdrawal plan as an alternative to the government's deal with the EU. The party said Monday it would back a second public vote if the House of Commons rejects its plan this week, as is widely expected.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the party is committed to "putting forward or supporting an amendment in favor of a public vote to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit being forced on the country."

The party did not specify what voters might be asked to consider in any future vote, though it has previously said the option of Britain remaining an EU member would be included.

Labour has previously said it would only support a second referendum as a last resort if it could not secure a new general election or make changes to May's divorce deal.

The change in approach follows the resignations of nine Labour lawmakers last week, partly over the party's failure to back another Brexit referendum. It is likely to cheer many party members, who have backed calls for a so-called "people's vote."

While there is little chance of a second referendum taking place without the support of Labour, the path to another Brexit vote is far from clear. It would require the support of numerous lawmakers from the governing Conservative Party, for example.

Since lawmakers rejected May's deal with the EU last month, the prime minister has sought to get changes from Brussels on a provision for the border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

The mechanism, known as the backstop, is a safeguard that would keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU to remove the need for checks along the Irish border until a permanent new trading relationship is in place.

May wants to revise the deal to reassure opponents from her Conservative Party, as well as from a Northern Ireland party that props up her minority government, the backstop would only apply temporarily.

But EU leaders insist that the legally binding Brexit withdrawal agreement, which took a year and a half to negotiate, can't be reopened.

The impasse has raised concerns that Britain will leave the EU without a deal, a scenario that would likely mean new tariffs on British exports and serious disruption to trade between the two sides. The Bank of England has warned that the British economy could shrink by 8 percent in the months after a disorderly Brexit.

May has said a new vote on any revised Brexit deal won't be held this week and could come as late as March 12.

A number of British lawmakers are seeking to wrest control of the process from the government and are looking to get support for an amendment that would require May to seek an extension to the Brexit date if Parliament fails to back her deal.

"I don't see how businesses can plan. I don't see how public services can plan, and I think it's just deeply damaging," Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper, one of those behind the move, told the BBC.

On Monday, the EU's Tusk warned that the chances of a withdrawal agreement being concluded in time are receding, and that sticking by the planned Brexit date would be too risky.

"I believe that in the situation we are in, an extension would be a rational solution," Tusk told reporters at an EU-Arab League summit in Egypt after talks with May that he said included discussions over extending the Brexit process.

May insisted a deal in time was still possible.

"It is within our grasp to leave with a deal on 29th of March and I think that that is where all of our energies should be focused," May said.

She said that "any delay is a delay. It doesn't address the issue."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte warned her against "sleepwalking" into a chaotic Brexit next month.

"It's absolutely unacceptable. And I think your best friends have to warn you for that," Rutte told the BBC. "Wake up. This is real."

Raf Casert in Brussels and Pan Pylas in London contributed.

This story has been corrected to show nine Labour Party lawmakers, not eight, resigned last week. </s> Britain's main opposition party took a step at its annual conference toward backing a new referendum on Brexit — but stopped short of saying the vote should include an option not to leave the European Union at all.

Delegates at the conference in the northwestern English city of Liverpool will debate a motion Tuesday saying that if Parliament rejects the government's Brexit deal, "Labour must support all options remaining on the table, including campaigning for a public vote."

The motion, whose wording was hammered out at a five-hour meeting on Sunday, does not specify that a new referendum should include an option to remain in the EU, as many party members want.

Most of the party's half-million members voted in 2016 to remain in the EU. But many of its 257 lawmakers represent areas that supported leaving, so Brexit poses an electoral dilemma for the left-of-center party.

With the U.K. and the EU now at an impasse in divorce talks, and just six months to go until Britain officially leaves, many Labour members think the party should try to force a new referendum that could reverse Britain's decision to quit the 28-nation bloc.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and other party chiefs oppose that idea, saying Labour must honor voters' 2016 decision to leave. They say a better option would be a general election and a Labour government.

Labour finance spokesman John McDonnell said Monday that "we argued for 'remain' in the past but we lost that vote so we have to respect that."

But Labour lawmaker David Lammy, who backs a second vote, said a referendum offering the choice between "no deal or a bad deal" would be "farcical."

"It absolutely must include the right to stay in the EU," he said.

Labour is meeting after a rocky week for divorce negotiations between Britain and the EU.

The Conservative government's blueprint for future trade ties with the bloc was rejected last week by EU leaders at a summit in Salzburg, Austria. That left Prime Minister Theresa May's leadership under siege and Britain at growing risk of crashing out of the EU on March 29 with no deal in place.

May insists her plan is still on the table. It seeks to keep the U.K. in the EU single market for goods but not for services, in order to ensure free trade with the bloc and an open border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

But EU officials say that amounts to unacceptable "cherry-picking" of elements of membership in the bloc without accepting all the costs and responsibilities.

May is holding a meeting Monday of her divided Cabinet, where some Brexit-supporting ministers will urge her to seek a looser relationship based on a bare-bones free trade agreement that would leave Britain free to strike new deals around the world. </s> With apologies to the revered Séamus Mallon, we are finally looking at "Brexit for slow learners".

With apologies to the revered Séamus Mallon, we are finally looking at "Brexit for slow learners".

John Downing: 'Brexit for slow learners' may finally be about to kick in - but there are many obstacles ahead'

The fearless SDLP stalwart's comments, on the cusp of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, reflected wistfully on the squandered opportunities of the December 1973 Sunningdale Agreement, and the scandalous loss of life which followed through two decades of murder and mayhem after its failure.

Now, four weeks and three days from "B-day" on March 29, the political elite in the UK are finally having a real debate about leaving their biggest and nearest trading partner after 46 years. It's a national discussion, offering some real economic and political information, which should have been engaged more than two years ago.

Now Labour's notoriously anti-EU leader Jeremy Corbyn has signalled his party would back a second Brexit referendum if parliament rejects its alternative plan for leaving the European Union. Prime Minister Theresa May at least nominally continues to seek changes to her exit deal to help get necessary support from the London parliament.

Labour's decision changes the dynamic. It could damage her hopes of winning support for a revised deal in a vote she has promised by March 12. It might attract MPs set to have backed her agreement to avoid a no-deal Brexit, but who now prefer a second referendum.

Tomorrow is another B-day in Westminster with a complex series of cross-cutting votes being tabled. Labour will push a permanent customs union with the EU and close alignment with the bloc's single market.

But if that fails it will push for another referendum.

Labour has also said it would support a bid by its MP Yvette Cooper empowering parliament to force Mrs May to delay Brexit by seeking an extension to the Article 50 negotiating period.

The timing of all this remains uncertain and it may take a few more weeks to play out.

Mr Corbyn has been under serious pressure for some time to support a second referendum. Last week, eight referendum-supporting MPs quit the Labour Party in large part because of his failure to back another vote.

But UK Labour remains riven on the issue - almost as much as the governing Conservatives. So, we are looking at movement here, but things are far from being resolved.

We may, however, be on the cusp of important and welcome change.

For this writer, reporting Brexit brings as much job satisfaction as trying to lift a broken fried egg from a frying pan as part of the Saturday fry-up. It involves a round-up of what veteran politicians always term "definite maybes".

Today, finally, we get to dial down a few of those "maybes".

We can now say that a crash-out Brexit will not happen on March 29 next. We can also say we have taken a move closer to a second Brexit referendum.

Many Irish people understandably cling to the idea of a second Brexit vote, which would undo the nightmare outcome of that referendum on June 23, 2016.

But let's keep things real here, remembering that such a vote is not guaranteed just yet, nor is its outcome in any way assured.

Face the facts: UK voters, even if they get to vote, could well again say "Leave".

But, on the plus side, a second Brexit vote cannot happen without a longer delay on the EU-UK divorce process. Smart money is on a two-year extension - that of itself would be a big help to Ireland's situation.

It implies that the draft Withdrawal Agreement, agreed by Mrs May and her EU counterparts at a special leaders' summit on November 25, could be put on ice. Negotiations could then proceed on the future EU-UK trading relationship, a process which more optimistic Brussels diplomats suggest could be completed in two more years.

That would defuse the row over the Irish Border backstop, that device which obviates the need for the return of visible controls along that often benighted stretch between Dundalk and Derry. Elements in Brussels suggest the ultimate outcome could amount to allowing "the UK to pretend they are leaving the EU".

But such terms are unhelpful to Ireland's interests because they can in practice cost jobs and livelihoods. Let's just stay with the concept of a "soft Brexit", which would be a very good outcome for Ireland, the UK and the rest of the EU.

Silly-boy triumphalism will not save wage packets. Our nearest neighbour, and a very important trading partner, has long been up in heap about its relationship with the EU. There is only loss - no gain - from any kind of gloating here on the Irish side of the equation. </s> Dramatic scenes in the Commons on Wednesday saw MPs challenge the Speaker in angry points of order for more than an hour, and the House divide into almost equal factions.

For John Bercow’s critics on the government benches, he had undermined the authority of his office and established a dangerous precedent by allowing MPs to amend a motion hitherto regarded as unamendable.

To his admirers, who included Conservatives as well as opposition MPs, he was a fearless champion of the right of parliament to assert itself against the executive.

Leaving the argument over procedure aside, however, the House’s approval of Dominic Grieve’s amendment to the motion on Theresa May’s Brexit deal could prove to be a hinge moment in the story of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.

It represents parliament’s long-anticipated move to take control of a process that the minority Conservative government has shown itself incapable of managing successfully.

If the prime minister’s deal is rejected, as expected, next Tuesday, she will have just three sitting days to come back to parliament with a motion outlining what she proposes to do next.

That motion will be amendable, allowing MPs to test support for alternatives, including a Norway-plus model that would see Britain remaining in the single market and the customs union, and a second referendum that could stop Brexit.

MPs demonstrated in a vote on Tuesday night that a majority opposes leaving the EU without a deal. But if the prime minister is unable to pass her deal, what chance do the alternatives have of winning a majority?

Before the Christmas recess, support for Norway-plus appeared to be seeping away as Remainers, particularly on the Labour benches, started to believe that a second referendum was achievable. Labour seemed poised to take the steps agreed at its party conference last year that would lead it to support a second referendum, favoured by most of its members.

Since parliament returned this week, however, the Labour leadership’s lack of enthusiasm for a second vote has remained undiminished and some wavering MPs have become anxious about the potential toxicity of another referendum.

In the chamber yesterday, Conservatives Oliver Letwin and Ken Clarke were negotiating in public with shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, about the kind of compromise Labour could accept.

A cross-party majority has revealed itself at Westminster this week to oppose a no-deal Brexit and assert parliamentary control over the withdrawal process. But it has yet to marshal itself behind a single plan for Brexit, without which Britain will crash out of the EU on March 29th. </s> Newcastle MP Catherine McKinnell has insisted Labour must offer voters a real choice in a “People’s Vote” on Brexit - including the option of staying in the EU.

She spoke out after Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell rejected activists’ pleas for the party to support a referendum that included stopping Brexit as an option.

Labour’s policy was thrown into confusion when Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer contradicted Mr McDonnell, and insisted Labour had not in fact ruled out a second referendum which could halt Brexit.

Ms McKinnell, Labour MP for Newcastle North, said: “The public are now understandably demanding the right to have a meaningful say on whether we should leave the EU at all.“

Labour delegates at the party conference in Liverpool are to vote on the party’s Brexit policy, after members in 86 constituencies, including some in the North East, submitted motions which specifically call for a referendum on whether to continue with Brexit - or to stay in the EU.

Most of the motions say that Labour should hold a referendum if it forms a government, as well as calling on the Conservative government to back a second poll.

But Mr McDonnell, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s second-in-command, said that Labour would only support a second referendum on Brexit to decide whether the country accepted the Government’s proposed deal with EU countries, or rejected it.

The option of simply cancelling Brexit and staying in the EU would not be included.

Mr McDonnell said: “We will be arguing that it should be a vote on the deal itself.”

He was later overruled by Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir, who insisted the option of holding a referendum about remaining in the EU was still on the table.

He said: “We weren’t ruling out options and nobody was ruling out remain.”

Ms McKinnell said it wasn’t good enough to offer a choice between rejecting or accepting the Government’s Brexit deal if it didn’t include the option of cancelling Brexit.

She said: “Over a hundred motions were submitted to Labour Conference, thousands have marched on the streets, and millions more have called for a Peoples Vote.

“Labour members support a People’s Vote by almost nine to one. 90% of Labour members want to stay in the EU. The leadership of the Labour Party must continue to listen to them.

“But what we cannot have is a Hobson’s choice referendum, with only Jacob Rees-Mogg’s no deal or Theresa May’s botched up bad deal on the ballot paper.”

A motion calling on Labour to make “a manifesto commitment to call a public vote on the deal with an option to remain in the EU” was backed by Bishop Auckland Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and North West Durham CLP.

Newcastle Central CLP called on the party to “campaign for a public vote on an unsatisfactory, or ‘no deal’ Brexit, including the option of remaining in the EU”.

The Newcastle Central motion continued: “Failing this, call for a general election with a manifesto commitment to call for a public vote on the deal with an option to remain in the EU.”

Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson had urged the party to accept the views of members. </s> LONDON — Britain's main opposition party took a step at its annual conference toward backing a new referendum on Brexit — but stopped short of saying the vote should include an option not to leave the European Union at all.

Delegates at the Labour Party conference in the northwestern English city of Liverpool will debate a motion Tuesday saying that if Parliament rejects the government's Brexit deal, "Labour must support all options remaining on the table, including campaigning for a public vote."

The motion, whose wording was argued over during a five-hour meeting late Sunday, does not specify that a new referendum should include an option to remain in the EU, as many party members want.

Most of the party's half-million members voted in 2016 to remain in the EU. But many of its 257 lawmakers represent areas that supported leaving, so Brexit poses an electoral dilemma for the left-of-center party.

With the U.K. and the EU now at an impasse in divorce talks, and just six months to go until Britain officially leaves on March 29, many Labour members think the party should try to force a new referendum that could reverse Britain's decision to quit the 28-nation bloc.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and other party chiefs oppose that idea, saying Labour must honor voters' 2016 decision to leave. They say a better option would be a general election and a Labour government.

Party finance spokesman John McDonnell said Monday that "we argued for 'remain' in the past but we lost that vote so we have to respect that."

But Labour lawmaker David Lammy, who backs a second vote, said a referendum offering the choice between "no deal or a bad deal" would be "farcical."

"It absolutely must include the right to stay in the EU," he said.

Labour is meeting after a rocky week for divorce negotiations between Britain and the EU.

The Conservative government's blueprint for future trade ties with the bloc was rejected last week by EU leaders at a summit in Salzburg, Austria. That left Prime Minister Theresa May's leadership under siege and Britain at growing risk of crashing out of the EU with no deal in place.

May insists her plan is still on the table. It seeks to keep the U.K. in the EU single market for goods but not for services, in order to ensure free trade with the bloc and an open border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

But EU officials say that amounts to unacceptable "cherry-picking" of elements of membership in the bloc without accepting all the costs and responsibilities.

May met Monday with her divided Cabinet, where some Brexit-supporting ministers are urging her to seek a looser relationship based on a bare-bones free trade agreement that would leave Britain free to strike new deals around the world.

Pro-Brexit Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg said Britain would prosper under a "Canada Plus" deal — a variation on the free trade agreement struck between Canada and the EU after years of negotiations.

May's says a "Canada-style" deal would not prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Amid mounting uncertainty, the British government has stepped up preparations for leaving without an agreement — though it insists that outcome is unlikely.

On Monday, it published a new batch of documents outlining some disruptions to Britain's economy and daily life that could be caused by a "no deal" Brexit.

The group of "technical notices" to businesses said British digital subscribers could be unable to access services such as Netflix when they travel in Europe, truckers could need special permits to transport goods to the EU, and planes between Britain and the continent could be grounded if there is no Brexit agreement.

The papers noted that airlines "would lose the automatic right to operate air services between the U.K. and the EU without seeking advance permission."

"In this scenario the U.K. would envisage granting permission to EU airlines to continue to operate. We would expect EU countries to reciprocate in turn," the document said.

Previous batches of papers said businesses could face red tape, customers could see higher credit card fees and patients could endure delays to medical treatment.

They even said Britain could get less warning of falling space debris from an EU agency if Britain crashes out of the bloc without a deal.

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The Labour Party announces it will support a second referendum on the end of the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union unless Wednesday sees Labour's proposed Brexit deal supported by Parliament.