Corbyn’s first reaction? He congratulates rock band

JEREMY Corbyn finally broke his silence on the Salzburg summit yesterday – 24 hours after Theresa May’s Chequers plan was rejected by her fellow EU leaders.

The Labour leader said nothing yesterday morning about the EU debacle.

He did, however, find time on Thursday evening to send a tweet congratulating the Labour-supporting rock band Wolf Alice for winning the Mercury Prize for music.

Finally, after Mrs May made her No 10 statement yesterday afternoon, Mr Corbyn was moved to give his response, in which he claimed the Prime Minister had shown herself to be ‘incapable of delivering a good Brexit deal’.

He said: ‘Theresa May’s Brexit negotiating strategy has been a disaster. The Tories have spent more time arguing among themselves than negotiating with the EU.

‘The political games from both the EU and our government need to end because no deal is not an option.’ On Thursday night Mr Corbyn tweeted: ‘Congratulations to @ wolfalicemusic on winning the #MercuryPrize. Well deserved. And thank you for the great support you gave @UKLabour in the 2017 General Election. We should all listen to them about the importance of music education.’

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer accused Mrs May of being ‘in denial’ over the Chequers proposals. ‘The Prime Minister’s negotiating strategy is collapsing around her and that’s why we’re in this impasse and the country is staring down the barrel of no deal,’ he told BBC News.

‘I think the levels of anxiety are going up around the country day after day and the Prime Minister, I think, is appearing to be in denial. I don’t understand why she’s failed to hear the message that the Chequers proposal wasn’t going to be accepted by the EU and frankly it’s not going to be accepted by her own party.’