Corbyn ‘misses open goal’ as he avoids the hot topic at PMQS
JEREMY CORBYN was last night accused of missing an “open goal” after he failed to mention Brexit once during Prime Minister’s Questions, just hours after Theresa May had suffered the most bruising day for any prime minister in the Commons for 40 years.
The Labour leader was expected to seize on the hat-trick of defeats suffered by Mrs May on Tuesday evening, which saw the Government found to be in contempt of Parliament and forced to publish the Attorney General’s legal advice on the proposed EU Withdrawal Agreement.
But rather than press home the advantage, Mr Corbyn focused his six questions on the problems associated with the roll-out of universal credit, accusing ministers of creating a “hostile environment” for benefit recipients.
While he was cheered on by a number of Labour MPS, Tom Brake, the Brexit spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, claimed that Mr Corbyn had failed to address the most pressing issue of the day.
“The last PMQS before the most critical set of Brexit votes ever and the publication of legal advice which confirms Northern Ireland could be split from the UK, and not a word from Jeremy Corbyn about Brexit,” he added. “Talk about missing an open goal.”
Echoing his comments, Joanna Cherry, of the SNP, said: “Whilst the issues raised by Jeremy Corbyn today are very important, I can’t believe he has missed the gaping open goal of the triple-whammy of Tory Government defeats yesterday.”
Last night, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn defended his line of questioning, telling reporters that the public “want the issues facing them in their day-today lives to be addressed”.
He added: “We will be talking about Brexit every day this week, as we did every day last week and as, no doubt, we will do every day next week.
“It was absolutely right to focus on other issues which are causing extreme hardship for millions of people in the country.”
Separately, Mr Corbyn was also facing questions yesterday after it emerged that he had broken Parliamentary rules by failing to declare a paid-for trip to New York four years ago.
He has belatedly registered a £859 five-day trip in 2014 funded by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
At the time, MPS had to declare any visits costing more than £660 in their register of interests within four weeks, according to parliamentary rules.
Labour said the four-year delay was a result of an “administrative oversight” and that Mr Corbyn has apologised to the Commons watchdog.
He has already been reported to the parliamentary standards commissioner for other trips believed not to have been declared correctly between 2007 and 2014.
A Labour spokesman said: “Jeremy has apologised unreservedly for this administrative oversight and registered the trip.
“During more than 30 years as an MP, Jeremy has regularly made trips overseas to further the cause of peace and human rights and he has always sought to live up to the highest standards of transparency and accountability.”