Why Labour’s Brexit MPs are finally feeling more upbeat

Kate Hoey has paid a heavy price for being a supporter of Brexit. The Labour MP has been hounded online and faced a vicious deselection battle in her Vauxhall constituency from activists who say that she has no place representing an area in which nearly eight in ten voters backed ‘Remain’. But rather than change her mind, Hoey has stuck to her guns. At a Labour Leave event on the fringes of the party’s conference in Liverpool, Hoey had a message for her critics: there’s no contradiction in backing Brexit and being a leftie.

Hoey wasn’t the only Labour MP making that point at last night’s event. Graham Stringer, who has also been on the receiving end of similar criticism and faced a no confidence vote over his stance on Brexit, said he thinks pursuing a second referendum would be ‘electoral peril’ for his party. Some remain supporters have argued the reverse: that if Labour allows the Tory government to press ahead with Brexit on its watch, people will never forgive them.