Labour 'would gain 1.5million votes' by backing a second referendum, poll finds

Labour could win an extra 1.5 million votes if it backs a second Brexit vote, a poll has suggested.

According to a YouGov poll of just over 10,000 people, half saw Brexit as the most important issue faced by MPs.

And of those 5,122 people, 26% said they would be more likely to vote Labour if the party supported a public vote on the outcome of talks on Britain’s departure from the EU.

Among the Labour voters polled in the research, which was commissioned by the People’s Vote campaign, 6% said they would be less likely to vote for the party in such situation.

Former YouGov president Peter Kellner said the percentages could mean that Labour would stand to gain a total of 1.55 million voters – with 200,000 supporters lost but 1.75 million attracted to the party.

That could equal 2,400 voters per seat if equally distributed across constituencies, he said, giving Labour the chance to gain around 50 seats from the Conservatives and up to 16 from the SNP.

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He admitted it was unlikely that votes would be equally spread across constituencies, saying it was a “hypothetical exercise”.

But he said he believed the results suggest Labour support for a second referendum would help the party make “significant gains in votes and seats”, adding: “In a tight general election, it could make the difference between returning to government and remaining in opposition.”

Meanwhile, another poll revealed that seven in ten (70%) Britons aren’t confident that Theresa May will get a good deal for Britain from other EU leaders in the negotiations.

The results in the latest Ipsos MORI Political Monitor showed little change from July when it was 72% but is worse than the 60% who did not have much confidence at the start of the year, while three in ten (28%) said they are confident the PM will get a good deal.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t fare much better in people’s hopes, with two-thirds (67%) saying they wouldn’t be confident in him getting a good deal, compared to three in ten (28%) saying they would be.