British PM’s team pushes back new Brexit referendum after crisis week

Bloomberg

Theresa May’s team pushed back against reports they are warming to a second referendum on Brexit as the UK prime minister prepares to face Parliament today.
David Lidington, May’s effective deputy, and Chief-of-Staff Gavin Barwell said they don’t favour another plebiscite after newspapers reported they’d held talks on the issue.
May herself launched a broadside at former Prime Minister Tony Blair for championing a “People’s Vote.”
“For Tony Blair to go to Brussels and seek to undermine our negotiations by advocating for a second referendum is an insult to the office he once held and the people he once served,” May said in comments released by her office. “We cannot, as he would, abdicate responsibility for this decision.”
Speculation has intensified about a second referendum on leaving the European Union since May withdrew a House of Common vote on her divorce deal with Brussels when it became clear it was headed for defeat. May then survived a bid by her own lawmakers to unseat her as leader of the Conservative Party.
She is running out of options as time runs short for clinching a deal with the EU.
The premier will face a hostile House of Commons — and further calls for another referendum — on Monday after her appeals for help from the bloc’s leaders were rebuffed at a summit in Brussels.
The idea of a national vote is gaining traction with both those who hope it would stop the UK leaving the bloc and those who see it as a threat that will bring Brexiteers behind May’s plan.