Fresh Labour split as second MP says she would ‘take No Deal over no Brexit’ as she admits the party’s decision to ‘play poker’ by voting down Theresa May’s deal backfired

• Labour MP Sarah Champion today said ‘if it came to it I would take No Deal’
• Voted against Theresa May’s deal three times but said she was playing ‘poker’
• She is second Labour MP after Caroline Flint to suggest they will back No Deal 
• Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour policy on Brexit is to avoid a No Deal divorce at all costs
• Comments represent a boost for Boris Johnson who has kept No Deal as option 

A Labour MP who voted against Theresa May’s Brexit deal three times has said she would now ‘take No Deal’ if it meant the UK actually leaves the EU. 

Sarah Champion said she had been playing ‘poker’ when she voted against the existing deal because she hoped defeats would force Mrs May to improve her offer. 

But Ms Champion today appeared to concede the strategy had backfired and had resulted in her now having to accept that a No Deal Brexit may be the only way to deliver on the result of the 2016 EU referendum.  

Ms Champion becomes the second Labour MP to have spoken publicly about potentially supporting a No Deal split from Brussels after Caroline Flint did the same last month. 

The comments are likely to draw criticism from the Labour leadership with Jeremy Corbyn having set his party ardently against a disorderly break.  

However, the remarks do represent a boost to Tory leadership favourite Boris Johnson’s hopes of delivering on his ‘do or die’ pledge to get Brexit done with or without a deal by October 31. 

Sarah Champion said today that ‘if it came to it I would take No Deal if that meant we could leave because we have to leave’ 

Tory former chief whip Mark Harper questioned Ms Champion on why she was now willing to accept a No Deal Brexit when she had voted against Theresa May’s deal three times

Ms Champion’s comments suggest the mood may be softening among Labour MPs who represent constituencies in the party’s northern Leave-voting heartlands who opposed Mrs May’s deal but fear failing to deliver Brexit will cause a fierce backlash at the ballot box. 

Some 26 Labour MPs signed a letter to Mr Corbyn last month in which they warned against pivoting to back a second referendum in all circumstances. 

If such a number of Labour MPs were to swing in behind a new deal secured by the next PM – or even agreed to back No Deal – then they would likely balance out a group of an estimated 30 Tory MPs who have set themselves against leaving without an agreement.    

Mr Johnson has promised to take Britain out of the EU by Halloween if, as expected, he beats Jeremy Hunt in the battle to replace Mrs May in Number 10. 

Asked by the BBC to choose her preference between No Deal and no Brexit, Ms Champion said: ‘It’s the awful question which I knew you were going to ask and I have to caveat it. 

‘I want us to leave, the country wants us to leave and for our democracy I think we have to leave.

‘So therefore if it came to it I would take No Deal if that meant we could leave  because we have to leave.’ 

Mark Harper, the Tory former chief whip who was appearing alongside Ms Champion, then asked her: ‘Why didn’t you vote for the deal though because you didn’t vote for it three times?’

Ms Champion replied: ‘Because there were so many opportunities for Theresa May to put in things which didn’t need to go back to the EU which would have guaranteed workers’ rights, environmental rights, equality rights.’

Mr Harper tried again and said: ‘But you just said you prefer to do No Deal than not leave at all but you weren’t prepared to vote for the deal that you had the chance to vote for three times and I really don’t understand that.’

Caroline Flint suggested in June that she would back No Deal if the UK and EU had been unable to strike an accord by the end of October

Ms Champion then suggested she and her fellow Labour MPs had been trying to bluff the Prime Minister. 

‘Well, because it is poker, isn’t it,’ she said. 

‘If I am being completely honest I hoped she would listen to what the Labour frontbench were saying and would move and she didn’t.’

Told that Mrs May had moved in a number of areas, including on workers’ rights, Ms Champion said: ‘The extent she moved effectively caused her to be sacked.’

Ms Flint broke cover in June to say that she would be willing to back No Deal if it came to it. 

Asked what she would do if there was still no agreement done in the run up to the October 31 deadline, she said: ‘I won’t be voting to revoke Article 50.’ 

Asked if that meant she would back a No Deal, she said: ‘If that is where we end up that is where I will be.’   

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