Labour Finally Does Right Thing

Jeremy Corbyn has been spending months running the left-wing version of the same con Boris Johnson is running — i.e. “May’s Brexit deal is bad, so we should do Brexit with my theoretically much better deal.” The obvious problem is that there’s no actual deal that the EU (which has strong incentives to make any unilateral exit as painful as possible) and Parliament (the problem is “the Brexit deal would be awesome if I was doing the negotiating” is a game everyone can play) would both agree to that would be materially better. So this is the correct move:

Britain’s opposition Labour Party said on Monday that it was prepared to support a second referendum on withdrawal from the European Union, a shift that could have significant ramifications for the fate of Brexit and for the country’s future.

After the resignations of nine Labour Party members last week, and amid the prospect of more, the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, dropped his longstanding resistance to a second vote on leaving the bloc.

Getting an amendment for a new vote through Parliament any time soon is unlikely, but Mr. Corbyn’s support for one will cheer pro-European Britons, who have been fighting to reverse the outcome of the 2016 referendum decision. Without the support of Labour, there is no chance of a second referendum ever being authorized by lawmakers.

Though lacking in detail, Labour’s announcement suggested that, under pressure from many of his own lawmakers and party members, Mr. Corbyn, who is a lifelong critic of the European Union, will ultimately fall into line with those who support a so-called people’s vote.

The British people should get to vote on the actual deal, not the imaginary one pro-Brexit forces lied about being able to get.