Jeremy Corbyn attacks May's 'half-baked' Brexit deal

Jeremy Corbyn used prime minister’s questions to lambast the government’s planned Brexit agreement, saying Theresa May’s strategy would give parliament a false choice “between a half-baked deal or no deal”.

Using all his questions to focus on the interim withdrawal agreement which will be put to the cabinet at an emergency meeting later on Wednesday, the Labour leader said the plan was the inevitable result of “two years of bungled negotiations”.

He also roundly mocked some of May’s ministers, notably the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, who last week attracted significant attention after comments emerged in which he admitted he had not realised how important the Dover-Calais sea route was for UK trade.

Such ignorance from a minister was “disturbing to so many people”, Corbyn said.

May responded robustly, accusing Labour of being inconsistent on Brexit, but she notably declined to answer several direct questions from Corbyn.

She began by saying the cabinet would meet later to “decide on the next steps in the national interest”. She said: “I am confident that this takes us significantly closer to delivering on what the British people voted for in the referendum.”

Corbyn was immediately scathing. “After two years of bungled negotiations, from what we know of the government’s deal it’s a failure in its own terms,” he said.

“It doesn’t deliver a Brexit to the whole country, it breaches the prime minister’s own red lines, it doesn’t deliver a strong economic deal that supports jobs and industry. And we know they haven’t prepared seriously for no deal.”

He asked: “Does the prime minister still intend to put a false choice to parliament between her botched deal or no deal?”

May replied by saying Corbyn and his party had “only one intention – that is to frustrate Brexit and betray the vote of the British people”.

Corbyn subsequently asked May whether the UK parliament would have the unilateral right to leave any backstop arrangement that would be in place to prevent a hard Irish border, a key demand of many Tory Brexiters.

May said she was “aware of the concerns” over the backstop, but avoided the direct issue, prompting Corbyn to respond: “I think that non-answer has confirmed that parliament won’t have that sovereign right.”

The Labour leader then switched to mockery, asking how many of the 40 trade deals the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, had promised would be ready for Brexit had been negotiated, another question she pointedly dodged.

Moving on to Raab’s comments, Corbyn asked May: “When did the prime minister become aware of this absolutely shocking revelation about Britain’s trade routes?”

The Labour leader ended by saying May had spent two years “negotiating a bad deal that will leave the country in an indefinite halfway house, without a real say”.

He said: “They think they can impose a false choice on parliament between a half-baked deal or no deal, when a sensible alternative plan could bring together parliament and the country. Even Conservative MPs say the the prime minister is offering a choice between the worst of all worlds and a catastrophic series of consequences.”

May replied: “I’ll tell you where the woeful ignorance lies – it lies on a Labour party frontbench that thinks you can build a better economy by spending £1,000bn more, putting up people’s taxes and destroying jobs. The real threat to jobs and growth in our country sits on the Labour party frontbench.”