Would you take us out the EU? Corbyn won’t say
JEREMY Corbyn was yesterday accused of a “chaotic” approach to Brexit after repeatedly failing to pledge he would take Britain out of the European Union if he was prime minister.
Pressed to promise he would not go back on the British people’s referendum decision, he replied only by insisting Labour’s approach to Brexit was different from Theresa May’s.
Mr Corbyn also vowed to stay on as Labour leader even if the party suffers the heavy General Election defeat widely predicted by the current dire opinion polls.
“I was elected leader of this party and I’ll stay leader of this party,” he said.
Speaking at Labour’s election campaign launch in Manchester yesterday, he insisted: “We’re fighting to win this election. That is the only question.”
However, he sounded less assured when pressed by the BBC to promise he would not put Brexit into reverse. Asked six times if as PM he would make sure the UK left the EU – whatever the final deal – he refused to say categorically that he would.
Earlier, in his prepared launch speech, he declared that the election “isn’t about Brexit itself – that issue has been settled – the question now is what sort of Brexit do we want”.
Mr Corbyn campaigned against Brexit in last year’s referendum although his commitment was questioned by some Remainers, including those in his own party.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said yesterday: “The chaotic incoherence of Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to Brexit means the 27 other EU countries would make mincemeat of him in negotiations.
“We simply cannot take the risk of Corbyn in Downing Street in four weeks’ time negotiating Britain’s future.”
Richard Tice, co-chairman of Leave Means Leave, said: “Jeremy Corbyn was once a fierce critic of the EU although in recent years he has refused to flex his Eurosceptic muscles.
“His comments earlier are of serious concern – the Labour Party must make it clear it will ensure Britain leaves the EU.”
Mr Corbyn was joined at Labour’s formal election campaign launch by shadow cabinet ministers in a cavernous events venue in Urmston in the suburbs of Manchester.
Hundreds of Labour activists cheered for their leader – some chanting “Corbyn, Jez we can!” – as he vowed to transform Britain for the benefit “of the many, not the few”. In what the Conservatives dubbed an “angry and divisive” speech, he promised a
Labour government would be bad news for “tax cheats, rip-off bosses and greedy bankers”.
He said: “We have four weeks to ruin their party, four weeks to have a chance to take our wealth back, four weeks to show what kind of country we are.”
And he warned of “a real danger the Tories’ fearmongering and spin will make some people settle for less than they should”.
He did not mention public finances in his speech, nor immigration, although later promised reporters his party would produce “a fair migration policy”.
Conservative chairman Patrick McLoughlin said: “This angry, divisive, chaotic speech makes clear the choice at this election.
“He didn’t mention the deficit or immigration – because he’d wreck our economy with higher taxes and more debt.”
Mr Corbyn was introduced on stage by ex-Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh.
She recently starred as rape victim Trish Winterman in ITV’s hit crime drama Broadchurch.
She passionately told activists of feeling “excited and exhilarated” when Mr Corbyn became Labour leader because he shared her own values of “equality, justice and peace”.
There were 30 days, she said, to “turn this mass movement into a government, a country, a society that really gives a toss about stuff, about other people”.
After interviews, Mr Corbyn boarded Labour’s “battle bus” and headed for a shopping centre in nearby Salford, where he enjoyed an ecstatic welcome from activists and autographed fans’ posters and even T-shirts.
JEREMY CORBYN yesterday refused repeatedly to confirm if he would take Britain out of the EU in the unlikely event of him becoming prime minister. The hapless leader finds himself torn.
He has to keep the support of his MPs and the party’s metropolitan liberal voters, the majority of whom are fanatically pro-EU. At the same time he also needs to retain the backing of the huge number of working-class Labour voters who backed Leave.
Corbyn’s approach has been to try to avoid taking a clear stand. To that end he has repeatedly offered contradictory statements and dodged simple questions. This tactic has served merely to infuriate both Remainers and Leavers, neither of whom are satisfied with his muddled stance on the issue.
Brexit is the biggest political event facing this country and the most important thing we as a nation have done in decades. It beggars belief that Corbyn, the leader of the opposition, can ask us to make him prime minister without having a plan for how – or even if – he would go about taking Britain out of the EU.
In June last year the British people voted to leave the EU. It is an insult for Corbyn, who cannot even confirm he is ready to respect that vote, to ask us to put him in charge of the country.