We can’t trust ‘weak’ Corbyn to negotiate Brexit deal, says PM
JEREMY Corbyn is too ‘uncertain and unsure’ about Brexit to be trusted with the negotiations, Theresa May will say today.
She will warn that Labour’s leader would have a ‘weak hand’ in the talks if elected prime minister propped up by a coalition.
‘We need someone representing Britain who is 100 per cent committed to the cause,’ the Prime Minister will say.
‘Not someone who is uncertain or unsure, but someone utterly determined to deliver the democratic will of the British people.’
Several ministers laid into the Labour leader over the weekend, as the Conservatives stepped up their verbal assault on him over Brexit.
Boris Johnson warned that Mr Corbyn would be no match for Brussels if he was in charge. The Foreign Secretary told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: ‘I think they’re going to look at him, and they’re going to have him for breakfast. And I think it would be deeply damaging to the interests of this country.’
Brexit Secretary David Davis called the Labour leader ‘incredibly indecisive’ and said Labour’s policy on Brexit had changed ‘half a dozen times’.
In a speech today to launch the Conservatives’ Welsh manifesto, Mrs May will say: ‘There are just 17 days to the election, and negotiations will begin 11 days after that.
‘The UK’s seat at the negotiating table will be filled by me or Jeremy Corbyn. The deal we seek will be negotiated by me or Jeremy Corbyn. There will be no time to waste and no time for a new government to find its way. So the stakes in this election are high.
‘Our future prosperity, our standard of living, our place in the world, and the opportunities we want for our children – and our children’s children – are either in the strong hand you grant me by supporting my candidates in this election ... or the weak hand of Jeremy Corbyn, backed by the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the SNP who don’t want Brexit to succeed.
‘Every vote for me and my team in this election will be a vote to strengthen my hand in the negotiations to come. Every vote for any other party – Labour, the Liberal Democrats or Plaid Cymru – is a vote to send Jeremy Corbyn into the negotiating chamber on our behalf.’
Yesterday Mrs May also said that Britain will stake a claim for a share of the EU’s assets worth billions of pounds.
The PM said the UK has financial ‘rights’ as well as ‘obligations’, and is entitled to a slice of Brussels assets, including the European Investment Bank.
Government officials suggest the UK’s share of the bank’s assets are worth around £10billion, or 16 per cent of the total.
Today the remaining 27 EU member states will sign off their legally binding negotiation position. Formal talks are expected to begin on June 19.
Senior Eurocrats have sug- gested they will demand Britain pay 100billion euros (£85billion) or more, and refuse to engage in trade talks until the bill is settled.
Yesterday it was reported that the bill could rise even higher as anonymous officials said Britain also owed money from 2007 to 2013.
But Mr Davis said the negotiations would be plunged into ‘crisis’ if the EU refuses to discuss trade until Britain agrees to pay up, raising the prospect he could walk away entirely.
He told The Sunday Times: ‘We don’t need to just look like we can walk away. Under the circumstances, if that was necessary, we would be in a position to do it.’ On the question of money, he added: ‘I don’t know what a moderate number of billions is. I’m sufficiently poor to think £1billion is a lot of money.’
Mr Davis attacked Eurocrats with ‘axes to grind’ for the poisonous briefings to European and UK newspapers at the start of the general election campaign – thought to have come from Martin Selmayr, chief of staff for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
The leaks sparked a backlash from Mrs May, who accused officials of trying to influence the election. Mr Davis said: ‘[The briefing] was out of line and they know that. That’s not the way to approach dealing with a major country like the United Kingdom.
‘There are plenty of people in the European Union who want this to succeed. There may be some who want it to fail. I’m of the view that the likeliest outcome is the outcome we are looking for.’
Mr Davis also rejected suggestions that ministers would give full rights to remain in Britain to any EU citizen who has spent any time living here, including access to benefits.
But he said the offer to the 3.5million EU nationals already living here would be ‘as generous as it is possible to be’.
Stephen Daisley – Page 18
‘There will be no time to waste’