Don’t let Labour sleepwalk us to Brexit disaster, warns Theresa
‘This no time for weak government’
THERESA May yesterday warned that Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘ half-baked’ Brexit plans and lack of leadership would leave him ‘ alone and naked’ in the Brussels negotiating chamber.
In her most strident attack yet, the Prime Minister said there was a ‘very real danger’ of Britain ‘sleepwalking’ into a Brexit disaster under the Labour leader.
‘I am prepared. I’m ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not,’ she said.
During the visit to Wolverhampton, Mrs May warned that her Labour rival was ‘simply not ready to govern and not prepared to lead’.
She added: ‘He’s not prepared to use the nuclear deterrent. He’s not prepared to take action against terrorists. He’s not prepared to give the police the powers they need to keep us safe.
‘He’s not prepared to take a single difficult decision for the good of our economy. He’s not prepared to answer questions about his long track record of supporting people who want to harm – and even attack – our country. And – with the Brexit negotiations due to begin only 11 days after polling day – he is not prepared for those negotiations.’
Mrs May said Monday’s television debate ‘showed that Jeremy Corbyn’s minders can put him in a smart blue suit for an interview with Jeremy Paxman, but with his position on Brexit, he will find himself alone and naked in the negotiating chamber with the EU’.
She added: ‘If you don’t vote at this election – and if you don’t vote for me in this election – you risk sleepwalking into the very real danger that Jeremy Corbyn will find himself in the hot seat, in the negotiating chair, on your behalf.’ Mrs May said Mr Corbyn had ‘lurched chaotically from half-baked plan to halfbaked plan’ since the Brexit referendum. ‘The truth is that Jeremy Corbyn has no plan for Brexit at all and when you think about it, that is incredible, because the Brexit negotiations will begin just 11 days after the election,’ she added.
‘There will be no time to waste. No way of stalling. No way of asking Europe to hang on while we figure out what we want to do.
‘The Europeans are ready to go, and are determined to fight for a deal that works for them. This is no time for a weak government and a weak leader to be making it up as they go along.’ Mrs May argued that Mr Corbyn had ‘shown poor judgment and weak leadership throughout the process so far. On the day the referendum result was declared, Jeremy Corbyn thought we should trigger Article 50 straight away,’ she added. ‘That reckless misjudgment would have immediately handed the Europeans the advantage in the negotiations and seriously curtailed the time we had to formulate our own negotiating position and objectives. It would have cost our country dear.
‘And let’s remember that, while my team and I have put in the work to develop a coherent plan over the last ten months, he has had seven different Brexit plans in nine months – none of which added up to a coherent vision for our country.’
Mrs May defended her manifesto in an interview with Channel 5 News. She said: ‘I think it’s right that a government doesn’t just open the sweetie tin for people, but actually says there are some hard choices, some challenges ahead, which we need to address.’