Bumper tax month for Hammond
THERESA MAY mocked Jeremy Corbyn over allegations he was in contact with a Cold War spy amid claims the Government is “on the road to nowhere” over Brexit.
Mrs May said the Labour leader normally asks her to “sign a blank cheque” at Prime Minister’s Questions, adding: “I know he likes Czechs.”
Mr Corbyn appeared to pretend to yawn following the joke.
He has flatly denied reports that he was a spy for communist Czechoslovakia during the Cold War, describing claims, which originally appeared in that he passed information to an agent of the Czech StB intelligence agency during the 1980s as “nonsense”.
The Prime Minister’s jibe over the allegations came after Mr Corbyn focused his contributions at PMQs on Brexit.
Mr Corbyn opened by joking: “Yesterday the Brexit Secretary assured the country that Brexit will not plunge Britain into a Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction.
“Doesn’t the Prime Minister feel he could set the bar just a little bit higher?”
Mrs May said the UK wants to “take back control of our borders, our money and our laws” via Brexit, adding: “The only fiction around in relation to Brexit and the European Union is the Labour Party’s frontbench who can’t even agree with themselves what their policy is.”
Mr Corbyn claimed the Government had “abandoned” its position of seeking tariff-free trade with Europe and replaced it with “as tariff-free as possible”, something Mrs May rejected.
The Labour leader later asked: “Could the Prime Minister take this opportunity now to tell the House and the country what is the Government’s desired outcome?”
Mrs May snapped back: “I’m very happy to – a bespoke economic partnership.”
After Mrs May played down concerns about the potential for a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Mr Corbyn said: “The Foreign Secretary (Boris Johnson) recently made a speech about Brexit and he found time to mention carrots, Spam, V-signs, stag parties and a plague of boils. Not one mention of Northern Ireland in his speech.”
Shouts of “What about the THERE WILL be a fixed end date for the post-Brexit transition period during which Britain will follow EU rules, a minister said, despite critics highlighting a leaked Government document which suggests it could last “indefinitely”.
Brexit Minister Steve Baker insisted “there will be a fixed date” despite the leaked paper saying the transition’s duration should be determined by how long it takes the Government to introduce measures needed for life outside EU rules. IRA?” could be heard in the chamber. During the pair’s exchanges, the Labour leader accused the Government of being on the “road to nowhere” as he challenged Theresa May to reveal her Brexit strategy.
He said: “We’re halfway through the six speeches we were told would set out the Government’s negotiating position.
“So far, all we’ve had is waffle and empty rhetoric. Businesses need to know, people want to know, even her backbenchers are demanding to know – but it isn’t clear from today’s exchanges.
“This Government isn’t on the road to Brexit, Mr Speaker, it’s on the road to nowhere.”
Mrs May doubted that Mr Corbyn had asked a question, before
Pro-EU Labour MP Chuka Umunna said the document obtained by Bloomberg represented the “final nail in the coffin of the idea that Brexit means ‘taking back control’” as the UK does not set out an end date.
The Government is aiming for a transition period of “around two years” after leaving the EU on March 29 2019, during which it will follow Brussels rules to ensure businesses only have to adapt to one set of rule changes once a free trade deal is agreed.
The leaked paper said the insisting the UK was “unconditionally committed to the safety and security” of Europe.
She added: “Can I congratulate (Mr Corbyn) because normally he length of the “status quo” transition “should be determined simply by how long it will take to prepare and implement the new processes and new systems that will underpin the future partnership”, which “points to a period of around two years”.
The Government has previously stated that the period should be “strictly time-limited” but an end date is not proposed in the document.
Instead it points to a desire to “discuss with the EU the assessment that supports its proposed stands up every week and asks me to sign a blank cheque, and I know he likes Czechs...”
Later in PMQs, Mrs May told the House that from autumn 2019 end date” of December 31 2020. But Mr Baker insisted a date will be agreed.
He said: “I’d be quite happy for us to have the minimum period necessary to get out successfully into the new arrangements but that is a matter to negotiate with the European Commission.
“You can see that they want us to exit at the end of the budget period, the Prime Minister is suggesting two years.
“But what will be the case is, when we’ve agreed, there will be a fixed date.” “we return to deciding the colour of passports that we want”.
The Prime Minister made the statement in response to a question from Tory backbencher Chris Green, who asked if she would back a manufacturer in his constituency who was bidding to make the new passports.
She said she could not comment on the company as it was a competition matter but added: “It is right that from autumn 2019 we will issue blue and gold passports, that’s always been the UK colour of choice for our passports. I think it is absolutely right that after we leave the European Union we return to deciding the colour of passports that we want, not what the European Union want.”
Mr Umunna, who supports the Open Britain campaign for close ties with the EU, said: “The Government’s vision for a Brexit transition period should be the final nail in the coffin of the idea that Brexit means ‘taking back control’. The reality is the complete opposite, we are losing control.
“It appears the Government wants transition to last indefinitely – a never-ending road to nowhere because the Cabinet can’t agree on our future trading relationship with the EU.” CHANCELLOR PHILIP Hammond’s efforts to balance the books have been given a boost after the Treasury enjoyed a bumper haul of tax receipts last month.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show public sector net borrowing, excluding state-owned banks, was in surplus of £10bn in January, better than economist expectations for a surplus of £9.6bn.
It is the second highest surplus since records began in April 1993, but is £1.6bn lower than the figure logged in January 2017.
Government coffers were bolstered by receipts on self-assessed income tax and capital gains tax, which totalled £18.4bn in January, but marked a £900m drop from a year earlier.
The deficit excluding banks for the current financial year – April 2017 to January 2018 – dropped by £7.2bn to £37.7bn.