JEREMY Corbyn has poured cold water over calls for Labour to back a second referendum on the UK's membership of the EU - saying it is "an option for the future" but "not an option for today".
The Labour leader also revealed that if there was another referendum he did not know how he would vote.
Mr Corbyn, in an interview with Sky News' Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, also told how his party "couldn't stop" Brexit because of the parliamentary arithmetic.
He said: "We couldn't stop it because we don't have the votes in Parliament to do so.
"There was a referendum in 2016, a majority voted to leave the EU, there are many reasons why people voted. I don't think you call a referendum and then say you don't like the result and go away from it, you've got to understand why people voted and negotiate the best deal you can," he added.
Asked about calls for a second referendum Mr Corbyn said: "It's an option for the future but it's not an option for today, if there was a referendum tomorrow what's it going to be on, what's the question going to be?"
Mr Corbyn, on which way he would vote in such a referendum, said: "I don't know how I am going to vote, what the options would be at that time."
The Labour leader also trashed Theresa May's Brexit deal, telling Sky News that it was a "one-way agreement" in which the EU "calls all the shots".
He said: "We'll vote against this deal because it doesn't meet our tests. We don't believe it serves the interest of this country, therefore the Government have to go back to the EU and renegotiate rapidly.
"There's 500 pages in this document much of which is quite vague, where's the guarantee on environmental protections, where's the guarantee on consumer protections, where's the guarantee on workers' rights?"
Mr Corbyn said Labour would focus on negotiating a permanent customs arrangement with the EU, as if this was not agreed the UK would "lose on jobs, lose on investment and we lose on future economic development".
Shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti, appearing on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, later said that Mrs May's Brexit deal was "the worst kind of bureaucratic fudge that doesn't deliver for anyone".
Baroness Chakrabarti said the deal had been "designed to look as if it can please everybody and it can't" and if it were to be rejected by the Commons Mrs May "ought to go to the country" with it.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel