If Corbyn has a plan for Brexit, let’s hear it

Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool will be dominated by the one question that Jeremy Corbyn has desperately tried to duck – what, precisely, is the party’s policy on Brexit? Until now, the Opposition has cowered behind its so-called six conditions for support of any deal. This echoes Gordon Brown’s five tests for joining the euro, drawn up in such a way that they could never be met.

Labour’s position effectively rules out anything Theresa May might eventually agree with the EU, notwithstanding the Salzburg debacle. But what does Labour think it can negotiate in her place that does not mean staying inside the customs union and the single market, both of which it rejected in the general election campaign last year?

Labour’s thinking is seemingly that any deal will be rejected by the Commons, the Government will fall and a general election will follow. Mr Corbyn says this is preferred to a second referendum. But the two are not mutually exclusive.

In the event of an election Labour would have to set out what it wants from the Brexit negotiations that Mrs May has not already broached. By the end of this week, one of those demands could well be a second referendum on anything a future Labour government would negotiate.

Since Mrs May is implacably opposed to another plebiscite, one would only happen in the event of her departure from Downing Street, which could precipitate a general election in any case.

But with time running out and the UK due to leave the EU next March when does Labour imagine all of these events can happen? Would it seek an extension from the EU of the Article 50 timetable (a timeframe it had previously agreed to) in order to accommodate them? At a time when clarity is essential we need to know.

Polls suggest most Labour members want the party to commit to another referendum; and although Mr Corbyn has declined to do so openly he has nonetheless promised to be bound by any conference vote in favour.

This is another cop-out by Mr Corbyn who on the most important issue facing the country has demonstrated a woeful lack of leadership. If he is now preparing to go along with efforts to reverse Brexit then he needs to explain his thinking honestly and unambiguously – not just to the country but to the 40 per cent of Labour voters who were in favour of leaving.