Britain on election alert as Corbyn rejects talks
BRITAIN was on general election alert last night after top civil servants were ordered to draw up contingency plans for a snap poll.
Amid the fragile political situation, Britain’s top mandarin told government departmental heads to be ready in case an election is needed to break the Brexit deadlock.
Cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill met civil service chiefs this week to discuss preparations in case prime minister Theresa May decides to go to the electorate.
Back in Westminister, Jeremy Corbyn faced a ferocious backlash yesterday after ordering Labour MPs to snub Brexit talks with Mrs May. The Labour leader prompted anger on Wednesday night when he refused the offer of talks in Downing Street to break the Brexit deadlock – unless Mrs May first ruled out the possibility of leaving without a deal.
Yesterday he also ordered his party’s MPs not to engage with the government unless his conditions were met.
He said: ‘I urge colleagues to respect the conditions [I have set] and refrain from engagement with the government until no deal is taken off the table.’
The order led to the cancellation of talks between Brexit secretary Steve Barclay and his Labour counterpart Keir Starmer.
But senior Labour MPs Yvette Cooper, Hilary Benn and Stephen Kinnock defied their leader to meet Mrs May and senior ministers yesterday.
Mr Corbyn called the meetings a ‘stunt’. However, both Tory and Labour MPs were quick to contrast his stance with his long history of sitting down with terror groups and repressive regimes.
Veteran Labour MP Mike Gapes said: ‘Jeremy has been quite happy in the past to talk to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Assad regime, the Iranians – all without preconditions.’
Former prime minister Tony Blair said: ‘If, in a moment of national crisis, the prime minister asks the leader of the opposition to come and talk, of course he should.’
In a letter to Mrs May yesterday, Mr Corbyn repeated his demand for no deal to be ruled out.
He also said Theresa May would have to abandon the deal she struck with the EU and scrap her negotiating red lines before he would consider any discussions.
Mrs May said she was ‘disappointed’ by his refusal to meet her without preconditions – an offer which had been taken up by the leaders of the SNP, Liberal Democrats, DUP, Plaid Cymru and the UK Green Party.
Meanwhile, the Tánaiste told the Dáil that a no-deal Brexit would become an exercise in damage limitation for the country.
Simon Coveney said: ‘It would
Corbyn called the meetings a ‘stunt’ 15 months to hold new referendum
be impossible in a no-deal scenario to maintain the current seamless arrangements between the EU and UK across a full range of sectors, which is currently facilitated by our common EU membership.’
It also emerged yesterday that official guidance has now been drawn up on the possible timeline for a second Brexit referendum.
A document, apparently presented at cross-party Brexit talks, suggested that another referendum would take 15 months to arrange and hold.
Downing Street has repeatedly insisted the next general election will not take place until 2022, as mandated by the Fixed Terms Parliament Act.
Only this week, the prime minister told MPs that holding a ballot now would be ‘the worst thing we could do’, with some Tories fearing that the party would lose seats to Labour, handing the keys to Number 10 to Jeremy Corbyn.
But cabinet ministers have held conversations about how an election may now be the only way to move forward, with one warning a poll is ‘on the way’.
Despite the failure of its attempt to oust the government this week, Labour has also not ruled out the possibility of repeatedly tabling no-confidence motions in a bid to topple Mrs May.