JEREMY Corbyn has been urged to drop his “bewildering” approach to Brexit and back a People’s Vote or the Labour leadership will be “every bit as culpable as the Tories”.

The warning, from the SNP, comes after the Labour leader continued to oppose a second EU referendum despite a poll suggesting almost three-quarters of his party’s members want one.

A survey of more than 1,000 party members found 72 per cent would like to see their leader throw his weight behind a People's Vote.

However, Mr Corbyn has long resisted such calls and, asked today if he would change his stance, replied: "What we will do is vote against having no deal, we'll vote against Theresa May's deal.

"And at that point she should go back to Brussels and say this is not acceptable to Britain and renegotiate a customs union, form a customs union with the European Union to secure trade."

At last year's Labour Party conference a motion was passed which said if another general election were not called, then Mr Corbyn should pursue another referendum on Brexit.

John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, has suggested that in these circumstances, a second EU poll would be “inevitable”. It is thought other senior Shadow Cabinet members such as Tom Watson and Sir Keir Starmer are supportive of a People's Vote should a general election fail to materialise.

Speaking about Labour’s conference motion Mr Corbyn told reporters the policy was "sequential" on a range of issues, explaining: "The issue of another referendum was, of course, one of the options, but that was very much after the votes have taken place in Parliament.

"We haven't yet had a vote and the Government really should be ashamed of itself.

"This vote has been delayed and delayed and delayed. It's finally going to take place the second week of January. That is not acceptable, this vote should have taken place more than a month ago,” declared the Labour leader.

"This Government is just trying to run down the clock and create a sense of fear between either no deal or May's deal. Well, both of those options are completely unacceptable," he added.

But the SNP and pro-EU campaigners urged the Labour leader to listen to his members.

Stephen Gethins, the Nationalists’ Europe spokesman, said as the clock ticked down to March 29, the UK was perilously close to crashing out of the EU without a deal; a situation, he said, would be devastating for jobs, public services and household incomes.

“We need to find common ground across the political divide to stop that disaster and the SNP has been leading efforts and liaison with other parties to try to achieve this.

“A second EU referendum would give the public the chance to reject the false choice of Theresa May’s unwanted deal or an extreme no deal scenario.

“With his own party members and voters overwhelmingly supportive of this approach, it’s bewildering that Jeremy Corbyn insists that a good Brexit is possible; it appears that everyone accept Jeremy Corbyn and the Tories knows there is no such thing as a jobs-first Brexit,” declared the Fife MP.

“Labour must come off the fence and stop letting the UK Government get away with its disastrous plans or they’ll be every bit as culpable as the Tories,” he added.

Labour backbencher Phil Wilson, speaking on behalf of the People’s Vote campaign, noted how his own party’s leadership had “too often hidden behind myths that Labour is almost evenly divided on this issue when the clear evidence from this and other polls shows that it is the leadership which is increasingly out of step with its supporters".

Urging Mr Corbyn to listen to Labour members, the Sedgefield MP added: “Labour’s leadership now has a huge opportunity to be at the front of a popular campaign against the Government’s Brexit deal and make sure the public are given the right to have the final say in the form of a People’s Vote. I urge Jeremy to seize this chance to change the course of history, before it’s too late."

Eloise Todd, head of the pro-EU Best for Britain campaign, said: “Labour members are clear about what they want. Jeremy Corbyn has run on a ticket of party democracy so that party policy will reflect the views of ordinary members more than ever before. Brexit is his chance to deliver on that promise and with a majority of the country now wanting to stay in the EU that leadership is needed more than ever.

"The clock is ticking and Labour must change tack in the New Year by securing a public vote on Brexit and campaigning to reflect what its members and families and communities around the UK want: to stay in the EU and rebuild Britain from within,” she added.

The poll, carried out by YouGov for the Economic and Social Research Council-funded Party Members Project, also found backing for a second vote among Labour supporters with 57 per cent of current Labour voters and 61 per cent of those who backed the party at the 2017 election wanting Mr Corbyn to "fully support" a fresh referendum.

It also suggested that tens of thousands of Labour members could be prepared to quit the party over the leadership's approach to leaving the EU.

Some 23 per cent of Labour members put the party leader’s failure to back a second referendum down to a belief that he supports Brexit.

Some 29 per cent opposed the stance the party has taken on Brexit and 56 per cent of those told researchers it has caused them to consider quitting. This proportion would be equivalent to around 88,000 members, according to the project's analysis.

If there were another referendum - and a three-way question - some 88 per cent of Labour members said they would back Remain, three per cent said they would leave with Mrs May's deal and five per cent would support leaving with no deal.

Professor Tim Bale from Queen Mary University of London, which was involved in the research, said: "Our survey of Labour's grassroots clearly shows that Corbyn's apparent willingness to see the UK leave the EU - a stance he has recently reiterated - is seriously at odds with what the overwhelming majority of Labour's members want and it doesn't reflect the views of most Labour voters either."

He added: "Labour's grassroots clearly hate Brexit and, although many of them still love Corbyn, he might not be able to rely for much longer on their support for him trumping their opposition to leaving the EU.

"As a result, our research is bound to increase the pressure on Labour's leader to get off the fence."