Corbyn undermines UK's Brexit stance telling EU 'no deal' not an option

Jeremy Corbyn today threatened to undermine Theresa May in Brussels by telling European Union leaders that he “will not countenance” the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

The Labour leader met with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, at the European Commission headquarters. Before the meeting, he said: "We cannot countenance the idea that we just run headlong into no deal in Europe. 

"No deal would be catastrophic for manufacturing, industry and jobs. I don't want to see that."

Just across the road in the Council’s Justus Lipsius building, the Prime Minister was arriving to meet EU leaders to address them about the deadlocked Brexit negotiations.

Jeremy Corbyn

 “Jeremy Corbyn coming here today only helps the EU," said Syed Kamall, Britain’s most senior Conservative MEP. “He is effectively Michel Barnier’s puppet.

“Nobody really wants no deal but in a negotiation, you have to be prepared to walk away. The threat of a cliff-edge Brexit is part of the process and it is concentrating minds in Brussels.”

Earlier the Labour leader was given a “rock star” reception in Brussels and hailed as Britain’s next prime minister by Europe’s socialists at a conference before the European Council summit.

“The British Labour Party does not see anyone in Europe as our enemies,” he said in a speech punctuated with regular gales of applause. “You are our friends, colleagues and comrades."

He was joined onstage by the prime ministers of Sweden, Malta, Italy, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Austria’s chancellor as Chuck Berry's 1958 rock-and-roll classic Johnny B Goode blared from the speakers of the conference centre.  

Mr Corbyn exchanged warm words with France’s EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici at the event, which was also attended by the bloc's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini.

Before being mobbed by his selfie-demanding fanbase, Mr Corbyn was introduced as “the next prime minister of the UK” by Gianni Pittella, the Italian leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.

Mr Corbyn also met with Antonio Tajani, the European Parliament president, who had previously dismissed Mrs May’s offer of £20billion to the EU budget as “peanuts”.

The European Union has repeatedly blamed Britain for not being clear in its negotiating position, pointing to Cabinet divisions.

When The Telegraph put it to Mr Tajani that his meeting with Mr Corbyn would add to that uncertainty, the Italian former commissioner said it was his duty as a democrat to listen to people.

He said that Brexit negotiations would only take place with the UK government but later added: “I cannot say who will be the next prime minister of Great Britain.”