To date, the Labour leadership and been relatively quiet on the European Union referendum, so much so that the Labour leader’s views on the subject are not known by much of the public. New polling by Opinium shows that only 47 per cent even think the Labour leader is in favour of remaining in the EU, with 40 per cent saying they don’t know his view and 12 per cent believing that he actually wants Britain to leave. This contrasts with 78 per cent who know that David Cameron wants Britain to stay in the EU. The Opinium polling, conducted for the Observer, also shows the ‘Leave’ side has 43 per cent of respondents saying they will vote to leave the EU and only 39 per cent saying they will vote to ‘Remain’. The overall poll of polls is only marginally better, showing a narrow 51 per cent-49 per cent split in favour of ‘Remain’ once don’t knows are excluded. The referendum remains on a knife edge.

For Britain to stay in, Labour needs to make its voice heard so that everyone knows where the party and its leader stand. A ‘Remain’ vote in June will require Labour’s pro-EU vote base to turn out to the polls.

Given the demographics of support for ‘Remain’, turnout poses a particular problem. Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign spoke of the need to mobilise politically under-represented groups who do not often vote. Yet as recent research by the Fabian Society has noted, only 56 per cent of Labour voters from May are presently very likely to vote in June, leaving as many as six million votes on the line for Remain. Labour needs to do all it can to mobilise these voters – now is the time for Labour to use the energy and conviction that swept Corbyn to the leadership to get behind the ‘In’ campaign.

A strong Labour voice is also needed to show that a broad range of mainstream political opinion is behind Britain’s membership of the EU, and portray the ‘Leave’ campaign as the political fringes of Nigel Farage and George Galloway. The ‘Leave’ campaign are trying to present the referendum as a contest between ‘the Establishment’ and big business against small business and the ordinary man but no one could accuse Corbyn of being the voice of the establishment – a big intervention from him would blow that argument out of the water.

However, most interventions from Labour on the referendum so far have come figures from the last parliament’s shadow cabinet – Yvette Cooper, Tristram Hunt, Chuka Umunna. Heidi Alexander gained some traction, with an article warning about the dangers of Brexit for the NHS, while Alan Johnson has spoken up in his capacity as leader of the ‘Labour In For Britain’ campaign. But the status of the Labour leader and his shadow chancellor are needed to get wider media coverage than can be sustained and filter through to politically agnostic sections of the public. A party line in favour of EU membership is not good enough. Labour needs to throw its full weight behind the ‘In’ campaign and use the momentum from the leadership to achieve much greater and wider media coverage.

The party needs to stand up and argue that international cooperation is necessary to tackle the ever more international challenges we face, from climate change to terrorism to sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Indeed, commitment to such cooperation is written into the party’s constitution and on every member’s membership card, – the belief that ‘by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.’ Huge excitement was generated by the current leadership’s campaign last summer, built on a promise to turn out non-voters and inspire new people. Now more than ever we need some of those people making the trip to the polling station and responding to a sense of mission renewed for this summer’s historic vote.

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Edward Jones is a member of Progress. He tweets @EJCJones93