Merkel’s stance fires May’s campaigning

Theresa May will claim German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tough stance on Brexit shows the need for a Tory election win to give the UK the “strongest possible hand” in the forthcoming negotiations.

The prime minister will use a campaign visit to Leeds to urge Labour supporters to lend her their vote rather than put Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10.

She will say that every vote for the Tories will improve her position when facing European leaders in the “tough” talks ahead.

Leeds voted narrowly for Remain, but the Yorkshire and the Humber region as a whole backed Brexit.

German leader Mrs Merkel used a speech in the Bundestag to claim the UK has “illusions” about the realities of Brexit, insisting there was no way it could continue to enjoy the same rights it had as a member of the EU.

Mrs May will seek to exploit divisions within Labour over its leadership by telling Leeds voters: “I know this city is one of the places that people call a ’traditional Labour area’.

“But here, and in every constituency across the country, it may say Labour on the ballot, but it’s Jeremy Corbyn that gets the vote.”

She will again use her key campaign message that the election is a choice between “strong and stable leadership” from her or a “coalition of chaos“under Mr Corbyn.