Pressure Increases on U.K. Labour MPs to Vote Down Brexit Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Pressure is increasing on lawmakers in the U.K. opposition Labour Party to vote down any Brexit deal that Prime Minister Theresa May can secure.

Without a majority in the House of Commons, and with more than 50 of her Conservative lawmakers saying they will vote against her, May needs Labour representatives to vote with her if she's to have any chance of getting her deal through.

But Momentum, the influential Labour pressure group, said on Tuesday an “overwhelming majority” of its members wanted the party to vote against a deal. After consulting them, it said this was the position of 92 percent of those who responded.

Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has made clear this is likely anyway -- Labour sees the collapse of Brexit talks as the likeliest route to a general election in the coming months -- but this will increase the pressure on lawmakers to toe the line. Momentum has the numbers and the enthusiasm to make life difficult for Labour members of parliament, including stopping them from being selected as candidates.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Emma Ross-Thomas

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