Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott has signalled that the Conservatives may not necessarily campaign against re-joining the EU if there is a second referendum on the issue.
On Andy Burnham raising the prospect of re-joining the EU, Trott told the Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “People at home are sitting there watching this, thinking like, “Good God, what is the prime minister doing? Why is he trying to open up what was settled?
“There was a vote. It was decided. It’s so completely undemocratic to say, ‘We didn’t like the first answer. We’re going to ask you again’. It’s absurd. But this, of course, we would oppose it.
“It’s a subject, though, that kind of, at the time, broke the Conservative Party in two. That’s been going on since the Maastricht rebels of the 90s.”
She said the Conservatives would oppose any plan to re-join and was then asked if the party would oppose re-joining if there was a second referendum: “Look, I think we, I think so. Yes, I would. I don’t know.
“I haven’t asked Kemi that question directly, but that would be my absolute assumption. And we absolutely oppose the fact that he’s doing this in the first place.”
She added: “We’re getting into quite a lot of hypotheticals here. I mean, he’s going to [have to] win the next election in order to do this, and I don’t think he will.”
On her party’s policies on welfare payments, Trott said she was sceptical about paying state benefits to people with ADHD: “We’re doing it a step at a time. Like it’s really important. But the principle is there. Like if you can work, you should work.
“It is ridiculous there are 100,000 people with ADHD on PIP. I’m sceptical, to be honest. It’s about the individual people, isn’t it?
“I’m telling you what I think because I’m telling you genuinely what I think, and it is this is a complicated area, right? And I don’t want people sitting at home who can’t leave the house, who have got ADHD and schizophrenia to things.
“I think [there’s a] complex response. There is a principle point that if you can work, you should work. Mild mental health conditions should not require it.”