Corbyn stumbles on Brexit
Manchester, May 9: Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn launched the party’s general election campaign on Tuesday but was quickly caught in a muddle over his position on Brexit.
Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap general election for June 8 seeking a bigger mandate going into the Brexit negotiations with the European Union.
“This election isn’t about Brexit itself,” Corbyn said at the Labour campaign launch in Manchester, northwest England. “That issue has been settled.
“The question now is what sort of Brexit do we want — and what sort of country do we want Britain to be after Brexit?”
The veteran socialist said Labour wanted a “jobsfirst Brexit” that safeguarded industry and improved the economy.
But his position quickly became less clear when the BBC asked him five times if Britain would leave the EU if he was prime minister, and he did not answer directly.
A source said there was no question Britain was leaving the EU, stressing Corbyn had said in the past he would respect the vote to leave and there would be no referendum re-run.
Conservative Brexit minister David Davis said Corbyn was incapable of negotiating with Brussels. “The chaotic incoherence of Corbyn’s approach to Brexit means the 27 EU nations will make mincemeat of him in the negotiations,” he said. — AFP