May: EU will think Christmas has come early if Labour wins

THERESA May savaged Jeremy Corbyn over Brexit yesterday, saying Brussels bureaucrats would think ‘ Christmas has come early’ if he became prime minister.

She accused him of an ‘ abdication of leadership’ on the key issues facing Britain, including the economy and protecting the country from terrorism.

Mrs May said the Labour leader was unable to explain his party’s approach to ‘the most basic questions that need to be answered’ on Brexit, such as whether to stay in the single market and customs union and whether to remain under the jurisdiction of EU judges.

And she ridiculed his refusal to walk away from the EU without a deal, even if Brussels tries to punish us.

‘he would throw away our negotiating position at a stroke by rejecting the very idea of walking away with no deal,’ she said. ‘Now, I often say “no deal is better than a bad deal” because that is in Britain’s national interest.

‘Jeremy Corbyn seems to think that any deal – no matter what the price, no matter what the terms – is better than no deal. That’s not leadership. That’s an abdication of leadership.

‘The bureaucrats in Brussels would think Christmas had come early if the British government adopted such an approach. Yet that is exactly what Jeremy Corbyn is proposing.’

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Mrs May warned that the consequences of a botched Brexit would be ‘dire’.

She insisted that Mr Corbyn did not have the experience to lead Brexit talks, which are due to start 11 days after the election. ‘There’s no time for learning on the job,’ she said.

The Prime Minister said her pledge to take back control of Britain’s borders, laws and money after Brexit gave a ‘clear’ position to both the public and Brussels.

By contrast, she accused Labour of seeking to ‘fudge’ the issue and leave Britain ‘half in, half out’ of Europe.

Mrs May also contrasted Labour’s spendthrift plans with the Tory aim of finally eradicating the huge budget deficit left by the last Labour government.

She said Labour failed to understand that ‘every pound the government borrows falls to others – those who come later, including people not yet born – to pay’.

And she added that her government would focus on growth by slashing corporation tax – a direct attack on Labour’s plan to reverse planned cuts, which she said would ‘punish businesses’.