Labour MPs openly defy Jeremy Corbyn by heading for Brexit talks with Theresa May’s ministers
Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie led a delegation of pro-EU MPs for talks at the Cabinet Office today
SENIOR Labour MPs today openly defied Jeremy Corbyn by heading for a Downing Street meeting with Theresa May's top aides.
Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie and other leading moderates visited the Cabinet Office this morning for talks with ministers along with Tories such as Anna Soubry.
Their visit came despite Mr Corbyn banning all Labour MPs from engaging with the Government over Brexit.
He told them they shouldn't help ministers thrash out a Brexit plan unless Mrs May takes No Deal off the table.
Mr Leslie and Mr Umunna were accompanied by Labour colleagues Luciana Berger and Gavin Shuker.
Tories Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen and Phillip Lee also joined the pro-EU delegation.
The group lobbied Mrs May's deputy David Lidington in a bid to get the Government to support a second referendum on Brexit.
They told him it would be impossible to extend Article 50 in order to buy more time for a Brexit deal, as some MPs have argued.
Speaking afterwards Mr Umunna said it had been a "constructive meeting".
Last week, Mr Corbyn wrote to Labour MPs telling them to refuse Mrs May's offer of a Brexit conference.
But a string of moderates have defied his orders and gone for talks with the PM or her allies.
Labour's Brexit policy was plunged into deeper confusion today as one of the leader's key allies appeared to back a second referendum.
Shadow Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner said: "If there is a motion for a second referendum that's put before Parliament, our position as a party is that we'd be supporting a public vote."
A Labour spokesman immediately slapped him down, insisting that Labour hasn't yet committed to a re-run of the 2016 vote.
Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, claimed the party would only back a referendum when Britain is "about to hit the wall of No Deal".
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