Corbyn’s a threat to UK, says former Labour minister

A FORMER Labour minister last night urged voters to back the Tories, saying Jeremy Corbyn is ‘the biggest threat Britain has faced for a generation’.

Digby Jones, who served as trade minister under Gordon Brown, will use a speech to the Conservative Party conference tomorrow to warn the Tories to ‘ stop obsessing about Brexit’ and focus their fire on Labour.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, the prominent Eurosceptic also encouraged party activists to back Theresa May’s Chequers deal and downplayed the dangers of adopting a ‘common rule book’ for trade with the EU.

The former CBI chief delivered a withering rebuke to Boris Johnson, whose campaign to ‘Chuck Chequers’ is set to overshadow the conference.

He said: ‘My message to Boris is: just for once, put your country ahead of your personal ambitions and get behind the Prime Minister. Boris is making a play for the Prime Minister’s job. I don’t mind that, but I do mind it when he’s gambling my country to do it.’

Lord Jones, who was made a peer by Mr Brown, said Mr Corbyn’s virulent anti-business stance had persuaded him to back the Tories. ‘I was a Labour minister but I am encouraging people now to vote Conservative,’ he said.

‘We are in danger of ignoring the biggest threat Britain has faced for a generation. It isn’t Brexit – the biggest threat is a Corbyn government. He and the people around him – deep in their soul, in their DNA – hate business, they hate wealth creation, they do not like democratic capitalism.’

Lord Jones urged Mrs May not to make any more concessions to the ‘arrogant, autocratic’ EU.

‘The Remain camp and the Establishment and the divisions in the Government have meant that we the country keep going back and giving [EU chief negotiator Michel] Barnier more.

‘He hasn’t had to do any negotiation – he’s just constantly had to say no and he’s watched the Remain camp and the Establishment ruin our country, frankly. Enough is enough.’

Despite his criticism, Lord Jones believes Chequers provides the basis for a reasonable exit deal. He is also relaxed about the idea of a common rule book for goods, arguing it is what Britain’s manufacturing sector needs.

‘Don’t obsess over the ideology,’ he said. ‘Think about the practical application.’

‘They hate business’