West Midlands Labour MP in call for mandatory people's vote to stop Brexit

Preet Gill, a member of Jeremy Corbyn's frontbench team, wants the country to return to the polls for a second referendum on Brexit – and claims this time there would be "a different result".

She told the Express & Star she wants to see "every single person in this country" vote on Brexit, and suggested the UK may have swung towards Remain as it knows "far more than it did" in June 2016.

Mrs Gill also urged Leave supporters to "keep and open mind" and "talk to Remainers", saying it was vital that the country was united.

Shadow Minister for International Development Mrs Gill represents Birmingham Edgbaston, which voted 52.7 per cent to stay in the EU and was one of the few Remain constituencies in the West Midlands.

In a message to Leave voters in the Black Country, the former Sandwell councillor said: "We've got to really focus on facts. I understand there is so much emotion and feeling on both sides and I appreciate that.

"I talk to people in my constituency that voted to Leave and try to understand some of that.

"But people have got to try and understand the impact on the economy. No one says that the EU does not need reform – it does – but you need to reform it when you are inside it.

"Britain is a global leader. We should never lose that responsibility we have in terms of our role in wider society.

"I would say to those people [who backed Leave] keep an open mind, talk to Remainers, have conversations, please don't close your minds off. It is really important that we are united.

"We also need to think about how this will impact on our younger generation going forward.

"I think we can get to a point where we can recognise that the 'people's vote' can be the way of coming out of this, making sure that everybody's view is represented on that ballot paper, and maybe we need to say that the vote is mandatory and get everybody out to come and vote."

Referring to people who didn't vote in the 2016 referendum, she said: "Nobody is talking about them, and actually what their views are and how they have shifted in the last 18 months.

"I think we will have a different result, I don't accept when people say we will end up in the same position.

"Let's make it mandatory, let's get every single person in this country to vote and let's see what happens.

"The country knows far more than it did 18 months ago. The views of constituents and the wider country is that people are really fed up of this and they expected much more.

"People want to get back control... Parliament wants to take back control, it's time we did that."

Labour has kept the possibility of pushing for a second referendum as an option if the party can't force a General Election.

But Mr Corbyn is coming under increasing pressure from his MPs to officially back a 'people's vote', with Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden among those to support such a move.

The party's deputy leader and West Bromwich East MP Tom Watson recently suggested a public vote had become a likely option to break the Brexit impasse.