Labour could bypass second referendum if it agrees Brexit deal with government, shadow cabinet minister suggests

Labour could be prepared to bypass a second referendum and sign up to a Brexit deal it agrees with government, the party's shadow business secretary has hinted.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, who is taking part in cross-party talks between the two parties to try and find a compromise, refused to say whether Labour would demand a confirmatory referendum on whatever compromise was found in the cross-party talks. 

Asked by Sky News whether a second referendum was a "red line" in the talks, Long-Bailey replied: “I wouldn’t couch it in terms of a second referendum, but our party policy has always been that firstly we want to get a Brexit deal that puts our economy and living standards first and protects our environmental protections, workplace protections, health and safety standards.”

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“We want a customs union arrangement in order to keep our borders open, so that our manufacturing industry isn’t detrimentally affected, and we keep the movement of goods flowing as freely as possible. And we want a strong single market relationship.”

The shadow business secretary said the talks had been "productive" but that the government needed to move its red lines. 

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Over the past few weeks, and in the wake of the Prime Minister's deal being defeated three times, the focus of the talks shifted to whether the government would be able to accept some form of a customs union with the EU, which Labour favours.

“The discussions so far have been productive, we have gone into a lot of detail," she said. "But as of yet we haven’t seen the government move on any of their red lines. We want to see hard and fast movement on those red lines as quickly as possible.”