Did Corbyn reject the deal before he read it?
JEREMY Corbyn was criticised for rejecting Boris Johnson’s EU deal soon after it was announced yesterday – almost half an hour before the details were revealed.
The Labour leader, who has repeatedly promised to deliver the people’s wishes on Brexit, claimed the deal ‘should be rejected’ shortly after Mr Johnson revealed that an agreement had been reached.
He described it as a ‘sell-out deal’ – even though the legal text of the withdrawal deal was not actually published for another 26 minutes.
Mr Corbyn also confirmed he would support a referendum on the deal before it comes into effect – a proposition that would delay Britain’s leaving date further.
Conservative MPs said it was astonishing that Labour had rejected the deal before having had a chance to digest it.
The Labour leader made a point of claiming the proposals risked ‘triggering a race to the bottom’ with regard to workers’ rights and environmental protections.
But when the deal was published almost 30 minutes later, it stated that Britain was committed to ‘maintaining environmental, social and employment standards at the current high levels’.
Paul Scully, Conservative deputy chairman, said: ‘It beggars belief Corbyn rejected the deal before he’d even read it.
‘It shows he has no intention of keeping his promises to respect the referendum, and would only inflict yet more dither and pointless delay on the country.
‘He is wholly incapable of making the decisions needed to take Britain forward.’
The Prime Minister announced at 10.22am yesterday that a ‘great new’ Brexit agreement had been reached with the EU.
At 10.51am, Mr Corbyn was asked for his view – and revealed that his party would not be supporting Mr Johnson’s withdrawal agreement.
He said: ‘From what we know, it seems the Prime Minister has negotiated an even worse deal than Theresa May’s, which was overwhelmingly rejected.’ But the actual legal text of the deal was not published until 11.17am – well after Mr Corbyn had dismissed it out of hand.
the Despite details, risk apparently triggering he added: not a ‘These race knowing to proposals the bottom on rights and protections – putting food safety at risk, cutting environmental standards and workers’ rights, and opening up our NHS to a takeover by US private corporations.
‘This sell-out deal won’t bring the country together and should be rejected. The best way to get Brexit sorted is to give the people the final say in a public vote.’
deal, ‘From it doesn’t what we’ve meet our read demands of this or expectations, it creates a border down the Irish Sea and it leads once again to a race to the bottom in rights and protections for British citizens and a danger of the sell- off of our national assets to American companies.’
Asked whether he had given up on his plan to negotiate a Labour Brexit deal, Mr Corbyn replied: ‘Not at all. A Labour government elected in a general election would within three months negotiate an agreement with the EU... and then within six months we would put that to a referendum.’
Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: ‘Corbyn is seriously misreading the view of the British public who want Brexit done.
‘He knows he is the most unpopular Opposition leader since records began in the Seventies. Maybe he thinks it can’t get any worse. It can. His immediate condemnation of the deal reveals him in an even clearer light.’ Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer also dismissed the deal, saying it ‘paves the way for a decade of deregulation’. He argued it would give the Government a ‘licence to slash’ worker, environment and consumer protections.
Sir Keir added: ‘If Boris Johnson has confidence in his deal, he should put it back to the people in a public vote against Remain.’
Tony Lloyd, the party’s Northern Ireland spokesman, said Labour MPs were ‘almost bound’ to vote for holding a referendum if Mr Johnson found a majority to support his deal.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that even though Labour would ‘prefer a general election’, it was ‘consistent’ with party policy that MPs would back holding a confirmatory vote on the freshly inked Brexit deal.