If Mrs May bends to Corbyn’s whims, all Brexit’s benefits will be lost

‘He’s zig-zagged like a drunk stumbling home from a Communist Party knees-up’

THREE years after t he nation voted decisively to leave the European Union, Brexit still hangs in the balance. In a final, desperate bid to get her EU deal through Parliament, our Prime Minister has teamed up with the Marxist Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

This is a major mistake – bad for Brexit, bad for the Tory Party and potentially disastrous for t he nation. Mrs May must change course, and quickly.

Mr Corbyn, remember, has no serious interest in securing an effective Brexit. Throughout the whole process, he has zig-zagged like a drunk stumbling home from a Communist Party knees- up. Rather he will demand what amounts to a Single Market – something my party has explicitly rejected.

If the PM bends to Mr Corbyn’s whims now, we can kiss goodbye to the opportunities Brexit offers us.

Indeed, there would be no way of taking back control of our laws from Brussels and Strasbourg. We would be stuck with the freedom of movement of people, with no control of our borders.

And we would give up the right to strike global free-trade deals with fast-growing and emerging economies, which would help create more jobs here as well as cutting the cost of living.

Mr Corbyn has even held talks with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, and the two are actively coordinating their positions to dilute or derail Brexit.

When the PM returns to Brussels this week to seek another delay to Brexit, the EU will probably try to impose punitive conditions already discussed with Mr Corbyn’s team.

At the same time, the Labour leader will want to set conditions on the PM before allowing Labour MPs to support her approach in the Commons.

Labour’s antics are designed not to deliver a Brexit faithful to the referendum, but to create chaos – which Mr Corbyn wants to exploit to seize power.

He has a history of sympathising with the IRA, Hamas and Hezbollah, so it is no surprise Mrs May’s overtures have gone down badly with Conservatives. Our supporters are frustrated or simply giving up, with many threatening to take their vote elsewhere, to Ukip or even Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

Indeed, her approach threatens to damage the Conservatives for years. But just as serious is the danger from Mr Corbyn and the hard Left Labour rabble he wants to put into power. The Government has spent years explaining why Mr Corbyn would sink our economy with his Loony Left ideas. Why rehabilitate him now?

Why sub-contract the biggest decision we have faced in a generation to a man whose unsavoury friends and anti-Western obsessions threaten national security?

Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, warned in this newspaper earlier this year that Mr Corbyn’s adviser, Seumas Milne, would have ‘no chance’ of passing Whitehall security checks.

Mr Corbyn has no intention of putting the country first. But by inviting him into the Brexit process, the Government is giving him a veneer of credibility.

There is now a danger that Brexit could be lost and that the Government could fall – handing the keys to Downing Street to Corbyn.

As Brexit Secretary, between July and November last year, I warned the Prime Minister we could end up in this position. I urged her to take a firmer line with Brussels, insisting on an ability to exit the now-notorious ‘backstop’ – a regime of laws to be imposed on the UK without us having any say. My efforts were undermined by others within Government.

The Government also failed to heed the concerns of the DUP and other MPs about the arrangements for Northern Ireland.

Brussels connived with the Irish government on a protocol that threatens the constitutional and economic integrity of the UK. The Government should have seen off this predatory pincer movement.

Two more Ministers have resigned in frustration at these failings. On Wednesday, the Brexit Minister responsible for No Deal planning, Chris Heaton-Harris, stepped down after the PM announced she would delay Brexit again, as did Nigel Adams, a Wales office minister and whip – the latest in a long list of Ministers who have left in despair at the Government’s failure to keep its promises.

If the EU continues to seek to humiliate our country, the Government must not cower. Instead, buoyed by the self-belief and courage of the British people, we should step out of the failing Eurocracy and walk tall in the world.