EU PRES: I BACK JEZ..
Tusk advises PM to accept Corbyn customs scheme
BRUSSELS chief Donald Tusk yesterday told Theresa May that Jeremy Corbyn’s new Brexit plan offered a promising way forward.
The European Council President urged the Prime Minister to grasp an olive branch the Labour leader offered in a letter for a permanent customs arrangement.
But Downing Street insiders suggested she batted away Mr Tusk’s advice, telling him furious Labour MPs’ votes could not be relied on.
One source said: “It is evident that the letter had caused a fairly lively debate in Mr Corbyn’s party.”
Labour MPs, the majority of whom were against Brexit, railed against Mr Corbyn’s plan and were furious he did not mention a second referendum in his letter.
He wrote that an offer of staying in a customs union would help avoid the need for an Irish backstop.
He also dropped one of Labour’s original tests, which demanded the exact same economic benefits outside the EU as within it, recognising it was unrealistic.
Labour MP Owen Smith revealed afterwards that he and “lots of other people” were considering quitting the party.
Chuka Umunna said: “This is not opposition, it is the Mr Corbyn facilitation of a deal which will make this country poorer.”
Mrs May had “robust” talks in Brussels but it emerged there will be no further negotiations before the end of February, weeks before the UK leaves the EU. A senior EU source said: “We can rework the political declaration if the red lines change.”
But de facto Deputy PM David Lidington suggested the customs union plan, which would breach the PM’s red line on an independent trade policy, was “wishful thinking”.