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Shadow NI Secretary Tony Lloyd rejects new referendum

BBC Tony LloydBBC
Shadow Secretary of State Tony Lloyd opposes another Brexit referendum

The Shadow Secretary of State has dismissed the proposal for a fresh Brexit referendum saying he would prefer a general election.

Tony Lloyd said the second referendum option would be an "abnegation".

Mr Lloyd was interviewed for BBC Northern Ireland's Sunday Politics programme ahead of the Labour conference in Liverpool.

He said if the UK leaves the EU without a deal it would be "a gift to those who want to return to violence".

He also said leaving without an agreement would be "disastrous and dangerous for Northern Ireland" and would see a return to the "paraphernalia on the border we all recognise from twenty years ago".

Reuters Labour party conferenceReuters

The veteran Labour MP denied that he was scaremongering and insisted that his concerns were shared by the PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton.

Mr Lloyd said it was important to protect the benefits of the peace process in Northern Ireland and he described the Good Friday Agreement as "precious".

He made his comments before the party leadership said they would back another referendum if party members supported the move.

Meanwhile, Mr Lloyd's party leader Jeremy Corbyn told The Andrew Marr Show a hard Irish border could resolved by the trade agreement and a customs union with the EU.

Mr Marr put it to him that the EU have been "crystal clear that a customs union does not resolve the Irish border question".

"I think we can reach an agreement that would ensure there is a freedom of trade across the Irish border and across the Irish Sea," said Mr Corbyn.

"There has to be a trade agreement with Europe in order to achieve that - that is the case that Keir Starmer (Brexit spokesman) and I have put, will put and will negotiate if we are in government at that point.

"The EU does not want to see an unravelling of the Belfast Agreement and the whole Irish peace process and they see the imposition of a border as part of that unravelling and they are right about that.

"I think we can get an agreement which will ensure you do not have the hard financial border," he added.