Jeremy Corbyn: I'll sort Brexit out in six months
Jeremy Corbyn has claimed he will sort Brexit out in six months, insisting: "It really isn't that complicated."
Launching Labour's general election campaign in a speech to party activists London, Mr Corbyn insisted that as Prime Minister he would swiftly solve the issue that has dominated British politics for the last three and a half years.
Criticising Boris Johnson's "failure" to deliver Brexit on October 31, he said he would take the issue "out of the hands of the politicians" by holding a referendum on a deal he would negotiate with the EU.
But in a move that threatens further division among his shadow cabinet, the Labour leader admitted that he had still not decided which side Labour would campaign for.
Mr Corbyn said a Labour government would first negotiate a new deal with Brussels. "Within six months that offer, alongside Remain, would be put to the British people," he added.
"In the meantime our party will come together in the way we always do, discuss that, and decide what we're going to do.
"But basically it will be about bringing our communities together and putting the issue behind us."
He added that Brexit "really isn't that complicated".
Shadow cabinet members including Tom Watson, Emily Thornberry and John McDonnell have urged Mr Corbyn to push Labour as a Remain party in the lead up to the December 12 poll.
The event took place in front of a packed room of Labour activists, who jeered national journalists for asking questions and shouted "liar" when Mr Johnson's name was mentioned.
Mr Corbyn pledged to take on the "establishment elite", saying: "We’re going after the tax dodgers. We’re going after the dodgy landlords. We’re going after the bad bosses. We’re going after the big polluters. Because we know whose side we’re on."
Asked how he expected to get the public to vote for him when his polling ratings are the lowest of any opposition leader since 1977, he said the election was not about him.
"It is not a presidential election," he said, adding that the poll was about about Labour candidates, "with all the diversity we’ve got and all the life experiences we bring to this country and to our party and our parliament".
He refused to say whether he would stand down if he lost the election, and denied he was part of the "Islington elite", saying he had always worked hard for the people in his constituency.
