International News

LONDON, (APP/AFP) – After weeks on the sidelines,
senior figures in the opposition Labour party came out fighting
for Britain to stay in the EU on Friday amid fears their failure
to get out the left-wing vote may result in a Brexit.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is officially backing the
“Remain” campaign but has been keeping a low profile, leaving
members of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives to
fight it out between themselves.
But with opinion polls showing the race for the June 23
referendum is neck and neck, raising the real possibility that
Britain could become the first country to leave the EU,
senior Labour figures are now stepping up.
Ahead of a speech in London on Friday, former party
leader Ed Miliband acknowledged in a BBC interview: “Some
Labour voters don’t know where we stand at the moment.”
Corbyn has refused to share a platform with Cameron
and there are concerns some Labour voters will abstain or
back a Brexit to give the Conservative leader a bloody
nose.
Miliband urged them not to, saying: “This is not a
mid-term protest… This is a once-in-a-generation decision
which will shape our country for decades to come.”
He accused the “Leave” campaign, also backed by the
anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel
Farage, of “trying to perpetrate a fraud on Labour voters”.