Stephen Pollard

notice to the EU that we will leave: that we leave the EU. Any other outcome would bring catastrophic damage to our politics because it would show that even when the British people make a clear and unambiguous decision, our political class cannot be trusted to implement it.

Which is why by far the most important development this week has been not in Brussels but in Westminster. Ever since the vote Jeremy Corbyn has said that he accepted it. He said it last June and he repeated it this June during the election.

Not surprising really. Throughout his career he has consistently opposed every deepening of the EU. He voted against Maastricht and all the other treaties that entrenched us further in the EU.

So it should not have shocked anyone that he went absent during the referendum and gave barely any support to the Remain campaign. And it made sense when, following the referendum result, he tried to position Labour as officially backing Brexit – even sacking three frontbenchers who supported a Commons motion to stay in the single market shortly after the general election.

Until now. Last week Sir Keir Starmer repositioned Labour as backing single market membership. Now Mr Corbyn has

SO much for the idea that Jeremy Corbyn is a man of principle. In reality he is prepared to sell out his own deeply held beliefs if he can spot a political advantage – in this case the chance to defeat the Government.

It looks, however, as if he won’t even come close to that. The Tory Remainers will stay loyal and some Labour MPs may even defy their leader in order to honour the views of the British people.

But there is a lesson here that extends beyond Brexit. It is that Mr Corbyn is the very worst type of ideologue, who is prepared to say or do almost anything no matter what he has previously promised.

That is a frightening prospect. In which context it is par for the course that his allies have invited the Venezuelan and Cuban ambassadors to the Labour Party conference.

These are countries that have long been admired by members of the hard-Left here in Britain despite economic stagnation, human rights abuses and in the case of Venezuela a full-scale descent into anarchic chaos.

And just like Mr Corbyn, the leaders of the despotic regimes in charge of Venezuela and Cuba say one thing about democracy and freedom and then do another – in their case by rigging elections or ignoring results they don’t like.

These regimes provide a salutary warning about Britain under a Corbyn government: a poisonous cocktail of extremist ideology and political chicanery.

‘Government is not going to be defeated’