Labour heading for Brexit strategy showdown in Brighton

Labour MPs and activists are gearing up for a battle over Brexit at the party’s conference in Brighton next week, after Jeremy Corbyn made clear he is ready to take Britain out of the EU if a Labour deal is backed by the public in a second referendum.

In an article in the Guardian, Corbyn signalled that a Labour government would seek to negotiate its own Brexit deal, and put it to a public vote – and that he would implement the result. He declined to say whether he himself would support remain or leave.

“A Labour government would secure a sensible deal based on the terms we have long advocated, including a new customs union with the EU, a close single market relationship, and guarantees of workers’ rights and environmental protections. We would then put that to a public vote alongside remain. I pledge to carry out whatever the people decide, as a Labour prime minister.”

Related: Labour members to push for anti-Brexit stance at conference

The Norwich South MP Clive Lewis, one of the founders of the campaign group Love Socialism Hate Brexit, said some activists were likely to feel “despondent” on reading Corbyn’s words.

“There’s no such thing as a good Brexit,” he said. “I understand some people will be despondent that our leader isn’t going to campaign for the position that the vast majority of our members would like him to. But I’m a glass half full kind of guy, and no one should despair, because we’re a movement, and we’ve never been about individuals.”

He added: “It’s about whether you want to see an outward-facing, progressive country – or are you an inward-looking, socialism-in-one-country-type movement that’s backward-looking? That’s the challenge now before us.”

Some members of the shadow cabinet, including John McDonnell and Emily Thornberry, have already signalled that they would campaign for remain in any future referendum, whatever deal a Labour government was able to secure from Brussels.

But the Labour leadership fears that would render the negotiations moot – and see Corbyn swept out of Downing Street if the public voted leave, as David Cameron was in 2016.

Asked by Sky News on Wednesday whether he would campaign for leave or remain, he said: “My job is to deliver the option chosen by the British people.”

Related: We must stop Brexit in any form, councillors tell Jeremy Corbyn

Remain campaigners fear Corbyn’s blunt restatement of Labour’s position – including his insistence that voters be presented with a leave option – could be used to try to stifle debate in Brighton.

More than 90 constituency Labour parties (CLPs) have submitted motions to next week’s conference, with most calling for Labour to commit immediately to campaigning for remain in a referendum, whatever the result of negotiations with Brussels.

Their representatives will hammer out a composite motion, which will then be put to the conference for a vote.

They believe they could win but some are wary about being seen to be in direct conflict with Corbyn, whose position has the backing of the major Labour-supporting unions.

Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, who has made no secret of his own reluctance to overturn the result of the Brexit referendum, has been urging Corbyn to set out his own stance, and encourage the party to fall in behind him.

Some campaigners already appear to be backing away from a confrontation in Brighton. Mike Buckley, director of Labour for a People’s Vote, said, “it’s inevitable that Labour will end up supporting remain in a referendum, because ultimately we all know there’s no Brexit that is going to do better for jobs and workers – so in a sense what happens on Brexit at conference is a moot point, because this is where we’ll end up.”

The final decision about what would be included in a Labour manifesto would be taken at a “clause V” meeting, which includes shadow cabinet members, as well as representatives of the unions, and the parliamentary labour party.

However, it could be difficult for them to ignore a composite motion passed at conference, particularly if the manifesto is being drafted just weeks later.

Corbyn has been under pressure from close allies, including the shadow cabinet office minister, Jon Trickett, to ensure a “credible” leave option is presented to Brexit-backing Labour voters.

Trickett said: “There are three options facing the country. One is a no-deal Brexit, which is horrendous. But voting against a no-deal Brexit is not the same as voting against Brexit, because I think it’s possible to get a Brexit which works for jobs.

“I think we have now narrowed down the options to essentially a Labour Brexit or remain. That does justice to the referendum; but hopefully also to those people who feel they want to remain.”

A number of Labour MPs, including Stephen Kinnock, have also joined the cross-party MPs for a Deal group, who would like the opportunity to support some form of Brexit. Kinnock only supported the backbench Benn bill aimed at forcing Boris Johnson to extend article 50, to allow more time for a deal to be reached.

Corbyn believes Jo Swinson’s decision to position the Liberal Democrats as a pro-revoke party – in the event that the Lib Dems should win a general election – has opened up space for Labour to portray itself as more moderate on Brexit than either of the other two main parties.

The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, tweeted that the Lib Dems were “prepared to overturn the people’s decision without going back to the people”, while Labour will “offer the people the chance to vote on the way forward”.

But Alan Johnson, the former Labour cabinet minister who led the party’s remain campaign in 2016, warned that the policy was too complicated. “I think we’ll get slaughtered, in the sense that you’d have to have a very large foot in the door to keep people on the doorstep long enough to explain it,” he told the BBC’s World at One.

Labour MPs on both sides of the Brexit divide are concerned about the idea of a general election campaign being dominated by Britain’s future relationship with the EU, rather than the domestic issues on which Corbyn has strong arguments to make.

The Leeds West MP Alex Sobel, another member of Love Socialism Hate Brexit, said: “Ninety per cent of the PLP want a referendum first – even some of those in leave constituencies who are not so exercised about a referendum – because a general election will become a proxy for the Brexit issue.”

On Corbyn’s position, he said: “The fact that we are now firmly supporting a referendum in basically any circumstances is a huge move forward. The lack of clarity remains on where the party would stand in that referendum.

“We all recognise that you can’t force everybody in the Labour party to support staying in the EU – but the party itself should have a position; and so should Jeremy himself as leader.”