General Election 2017: Theresa May slams Jeremy Corbyn as ‘too weak to deliver Brexit’

Theresa May says Jeremy Corbyn is too weak to be able to negotiate an effective Brexit settlement with the EU.

With the latest General Election polls showing the Conservative lead over Labour shrinking, the Prime Minister is set to refocus the Tory campaign on Brexit.

A poll for the Sunday Telegraph put the Tories two points down in the past week on 44 per cent, just six points ahead of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour on 38 per cent – a four point climb.

But with formal talks on Britain's withdrawal from the EU due to start just 11 days after polling on June 8, Mrs May will say on Tuesday the Labour leader is totally unprepared for the process that lies ahead.

Campaigning in the West Midlands, she will say position papers released last week in Brussels showed EU officials were already adopting an "aggressive negotiating position" which would need to be met by "strong leadership" from the UK.

Sir Lynton Crosby, the Conservative campaign supremo, is reported to have ordered a refocus on Brexit for the remainder of the campaign after Mrs May was forced to backtrack on her plans to reform the funding of social care in the face of widespread opposition.

The Conservatives highlighted the latest negotiating documents released by the European Commission - including one on the so-called "divorce bill" which calls for a "single financial settlement" covering all the UK's outstanding liabilities.

"This single financial settlement should be based on the principle that the United Kingdom must honour its share of the financing of all the obligations undertaken while it was a member of the Union," the paper stated.

The paper does not put a figure on the settlement but previous reports from Brussels have suggested it could be at least £50 billion - a sum flatly rejected by ministers.

In her speech, Mrs May is expected to say: "The European Commission has shown the importance of the choice faced by the British public next week.

"They are adopting an aggressive negotiating position, which can only be met by strong leadership on behalf of Britain.

"Jeremy Corbyn is in no position to provide that kind of leadership. He has no plan to deliver Brexit, and he has already admitted he would give control of our borders and control of our laws back to Brussels."

She will say with Britain's future prospects and prosperity depending on "getting Brexit right" there could only be one choice when it came to deciding who should lead the country into the negotiations.

"I am clear about the instruction I have been given, clear about what needs to be done, and ready to get on with the job on day one - while Jeremy Corbyn doesn't have the belief, the will or the plan to deliver Brexit," she is expected to say.

"And he doesn't have the strength to do so either. Because the only way he can get into No 10 is by doing a deal with the Scottish Nationalists and the Liberal Democrats who do not believe in Brexit and do not want it to succeed.

"We know this. And the rest of Europe knows it too. And they also know that a weak government in a hung parliament here at home won't be able to stand up for Britain in Europe."

Additional reporting by Press Association