Brexit to save jobs ..except for May’s
Corbyn’s backing for customs union could help Tory rebels topple the PM
THERESA May could face being toppled by Tory rebels after Jeremy Corbyn sided with them on Brexit in a major policy shift.
The Labour leader yesterday unveiled plans for a “new and comprehensive” permanent customs union agreement with the EU after we quit the bloc.
He said the plan, welcomed by business groups, would keep “full tariff-free access” to EU markets, save jobs and avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland.
Mr Corbyn said: “We will remain close to the EU, that’s obvious.”
The move means Labour could back a cross-party amendment to the Prime Minister’s Trade Bill to enforce the idea, prompting a Commons showdown.
Tory Remainers downplayed the idea of voting with Labour and Stephen Hammond said: “We are a long way from that yet.” But ministers reportedly warned Mrs May last week there is a “very real threat” of defeat.
And spooked Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson claimed Mr Corbyn had “betrayed Leave voters because he wants to win a Commons vote”.
The Bill is thought to have been pushed back to April or May as Mrs May tries to win over MPs in a speech this Friday. Reports suggest she could turn the vote into a “confidence” issue, a gamble that would call the bluff of rebels – but potentially force her out if she lost.
So far, she has only lost one Commons vote on Brexit. But she faced months of internal plotting after losing her majority in last year’s general election.
Mr Corbyn unveiled his vision in a speech at Coventry’s National Transport Design Centre. Under his plan, we would be unable to strike trade new deals with the rest of the world on our own – undermining a flagship Tory policy.
Instead, Mr Corbyn said we should negotiate deals in a partnership with the
EU and promised Labour would not countenance leaving Britain a “passive recipient” of EU rules.
But he admitted we may end up having only a “right to be heard” in Brussels on future trade, not a veto.
Mr Corbyn also admitted there was no back-up if the bloc refused to give us a meaningful say, adding: “The Plan B is to continue negotiating in order to achieve Plan A.”
Addressing students and Labour members, Mr Corbyn refused calls to retain membership of the EU single market – saying instead that we need a “new and strong relationship with the single market”.
This, he claimed, would allow exemptions to EU rules, making it easier to nationalise the water sector and Royal Mail. Mr Corbyn also promised a “fair and managed” immigra- tion policy but aides could not say if it would cut the number of people coming into the country.
Writing in today’s Mirror, the leader adds: “Let me be crystal clear: it is not migrants who drive down wages, it is bad bosses and bad governments.”
Unions and business leaders welcomed the customs union policy, which the CBI said “will put jobs and living standards first”. GMB general secretary Tim Roache said Labour had shown “clear leadership that would safeguard our ports, transport firms and manufacturing sectors”.
Even the Evening Standard, edited by Conservative ex-Chancellor George Osborne, said: “Tories gifted Corbyn an open goal on the customs union and he just put the ball in.” Institute of Directors chief Stephen Martin said “many businesses, particularly manufacturers, will be pleased” but warned there were unanswered questions. Tory Liam Fox will today brand staying in a customs union “a complete sell-out of Britain’s national interests”. The Trade Secretary will say the move would leave us “negotiating with one arm tied behind our back” because Brussels would decide on trade deals. Trade outside the EU has risen from 44% to 57% of our exports over 13 years and we need a “more flexible approach”, Dr Fox will argue.
Meanwhile, Wales and Scotland yesterday rejected a “very big change” that would have broken the deadlock over the Tories’ flagship Brexit Bill.
Mrs May’s deputy David Lidington had offered to let the “vast majority” of powers returned from the EU start in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast rather than Whitehall.
But Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said the legislation remained an “unacceptable attack on devolution” and Scotland’s Brexit Minister Michael Russell said the proposal was “totally unacceptable”.
JEREMY Corbyn’s embrace of a Europe customs union will protect British jobs and earnings, and could inflict a political defeat on Theresa May.
The Labour leader’s winning of applause from businesses, trade unions, most Labour MPs and party members has set off alarm bells in the clueless Government.
Mr Corbyn is starting to map out where Brexit would leave Britain if Labour was doing the negotiating. This piles pressure on incompetent Mrs May.
Labour is yet to identify clearly its final destination but Mr Corbyn is on a journey.
Dazed Mrs May, pushed one way and another by rival Tory pro-Europeans and hardline no-dealers, is on a road to nowhere.