JEREMY Corbyn has indicated his most positive approach yet towards a second EU referendum and loosened his language on the continuation of free movement of workers post-Brexit.

The Labour leader made his comments as UK ministers today prepare to discuss the details of Theresa May’s “new, bold offer” on Brexit, due to be put before MPs next month.

Mr Corbyn insisted another vote on Britain’s future in Europe would not be “disastrous” as some of his colleagues believe and explained: “What we fought the General Election on was to respect the result of the referendum and that we’ve done; to try to get a deal which guarantees trade and relations with Europe in the future and if we can get that through Parliament…then it would be reasonable to have a public vote to decide on that in the future.”

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Pressed on Labour’s position on retaining a public vote on a Brexit deal as merely an “option,” Mr Corbyn told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “We would want a vote to decide what the future would be, so yes.”

Mr Corbyn also appeared to row back from the Labour Party’s 2017 manifesto pledge to end free movement, saying he was “not staunchly against free movement” and recognised there had to be “a lot of movement of workers” across Europe.

He stressed the issue would be “open for negotiation” with the EU under a Labour government.

Asked about the lack of clarity in Labour’s position on Brexit – only 13 per cent of voters in a poll thought the party’s approach was clear – Mr Corbyn accused the media of being “obsessed” with how people voted three years ago.

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He said: “Labour supporters voted both Leave and Remain and every other party in this European election is appealing to either one side or the other, defining everybody on 2016. We’re not. We’re defining people as hopefully supporters of us but also people that have common problems, however they voted.”

Labour sources insisted Mr Corbyn was not expressing a change in policy.

But Nicola Sturgeon attacked what she regarded as Labour’s equivocal position, saying the Opposition had “tried to pretend that they’re both in favour of Remain and in favour of Leave and they end up fooling nobody and haemorrhaging support and respect as a result”.

Meanwhile, Rory Stewart, the International Development Secretary, insisted Conservatives and Labour were only “half an inch apart” on Brexit, despite the cross-party talks collapsing last week amid recrimination.

He said: “We do in many ways agree; none of us wants to remain in the EU, none of us wants a no-deal Brexit, which means logically there has to be a deal. If there is to be a deal, the Labour and Conservative positions are about half an inch apart.”

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Mr Stewart explained the Prime Minister’s new offer of an “improved package” of measures would cover three elements: strengthening workers’ rights, environmental protection and trade with Europe. It is also believed to include the use of technology to avoid the need for border controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

When it was pointed out Mr Corbyn had said this was not enough, the former Black Watch officer replied: “At no stage has Jeremy Corbyn…said there is anything else that he wants other than he sometimes suggests he wants a second referendum to be able to remain in the EU…

“Within the terms of a Brexit deal, I don’t believe there is anything that Jeremy Corbyn or we want that is that far apart.”

Mrs May is expected to give a keynote speech in the coming days setting out details of her new offer to be included in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which will be debated and voted on by MPs in the first week in June.

On Tuesday, the UK Cabinet will discuss the "definitive votes" process, whereby MPs would vote on various Brexit options, but Mr Corbyn expressed coolness towards the proposal, saying: “It’s unlikely it would take us any further forward.”

In other developments:

*Change UK has called for revocation of Brexit “in the national interest” if the alternative presented by the Government is a no-deal Brexit;

*Trade Secretary Liam Fox will argue in a speech on Monday that the UK will be more open to the world post-Brexit and the City of London will "emerge fitter, stronger and more dynamic than ever”;

*Mr Stewart and his Remain Cabinet colleague Amber Rudd will this week launch a One Nation caucus of 60 Tory MPs, urging their party to reject the "comfort blanket of populism" and promote candidates who oppose a no-deal Brexit and the Brexiteer ERG faction;

*Simon Coveney, the deputy Irish premier, made clear the EU would not renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal deal regardless of who the UK's next PM was as the bookies made Boris Johnson the clear favourite to succeed Mrs May;

*Sir Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader, turned the airwaves blue after repeating his party’s "B*****ks to Brexit" European elections slogan and

*Labour veteran Dame Margaret Hodge has been called on by Sue Hayman, the Shadow Environment Secretary, to "consider her position" in the party after supposedly urging Labour supporters to vote tactically for pro-EU candidates in Thursday’s Euro-poll