Corbyn accuses Tories of failing the country after Brexit deal defeat

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused the Tories of failing the country following the historic Brexit deal defeat.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Corbyn said any other Prime Minister would have resigned over the biggest Government defeat in history.

But Theresa May hit back, telling the Commons the Opposition leader has no Brexit plan for the country and refused to say if he would campaign to leave the EU.

Calling again for a general election, Mr Corbyn said: “This Government has failed our country – it cannot govern.

“It cannot command the support of most people and, facing the most important issue at the moment which is Brexit, they failed again and lost the vote last night.

“Isn’t it the case, Mr Speaker, that any other Prime Minister faced with the scale of defeat last night would have resigned and this country would be able to choose the Government that they want?”

Mrs May responded by criticising Mr Corbyn’s lack of a Brexit plan and claiming he could not be trusted with the UK’s security or economy.

She said: “He talked about the importance of the issue of Brexit that is facing this country.

“Later today we’re going to have the no confidence debate – he has been calling for weeks for a general election in this country – and yet on Sunday when he was asked, in a general election would he campaign to leave the EU, he refused to answer.

“Not once, not twice, not three times but five times he refused to answer.

“So on what he himself describes as the key issue facing this country, he has no answer.”

She added: “He would abandon our allies, weaken our security and wreck our economy and we will never let that happen.”

Mr Corbyn earlier accused the PM of being “in denial” about the failure of her Brexit deal and asked if she was ruling out “any form of customs union” with the EU as part of her attempts to secure a consensus.

Mrs May said she would be listening to the views of MPs to identify what could command the support of the Commons and deliver on the EU referendum result.

The Labour leader responded: “My question was about the customs union – the Prime Minister seems to be in denial about that, just as much as she’s in denial about the decision made by the House last night.

“I understand the Business Secretary (Greg Clark) told business leaders on a conference call last night: ‘We can’t have no-deal for all the reasons you’ve set out.’

“Can the Prime Minister now reassure the House, businesses and the country, and confirm that is indeed the Government’s position, that we can’t have no-deal?”

Mrs May said Mr Clark was making the point that a deal is required to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

She went on: “There are actually two ways of avoiding no-deal – the first is to agree a deal and the second would be to revoke Article 50.

“Now, that would mean staying in the European Union, failing to respect the result of the referendum, and that is something that this Government will not do.”

Mr Corbyn continued to attack Mrs May on her record, including on Brexit and poverty, and asked her to choose her biggest failure.

He said: “The PM has not answered on the customs union, she has not answered on no-deal and continues to spend £4.2 billion of public money on a no-deal scenario.

“In denial on a customs union, in denial on a no-deal, in denial about the amount of money being spent preparing for no-deal, in denial on last night’s result, and even the UN rapporteur on poverty says the Government is in … a state of denial about poverty in Britain.

“Can the Prime Minister tell us, what is her greatest failure?”

Mrs May reiterated that Mr Corbyn needed to be clear about his own Brexit policy.

She said: “He talks about being in denial, but the only person in denial in this Chamber is him because he has consistently failed to set out what his policy on Brexit is.

“I said to him last week that he might do with a lip reader – I think when it comes to his Brexit policy, the rest of us need a mind reader.”

Tory Remainer Dr Sarah Wollaston later asked Mrs May if she would consider extending Article 50.

The Totnes MP said: “Driving off a cliff never ends well particularly if it results in a crash and burn Brexit with no deal in just 72 days’ time, but there’s another way that we can avoid this and that is to be realistic in extending Article 50 to allow us to put a realistic negotiated Brexit direct to the British people to ask if it has their consent.”

Mrs May responded saying she believed the Government “should deliver on the vote of the referendum in 2016”, adding: “She and others have talked about extending Article 50, the European Union would only extend Article 50 in the circumstances in which it was going to be possible to come to an agreement on a deal.”

Tory former minister Nicky Morgan, who chairs the Commons Treasury committee, asked Mrs May if she would “maintain maximum flexibility” in the forthcoming discussions over how to proceed with Brexit.

The Prime Minister said she would approach discussions in “a constructive spirit”.