Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has reaffirmed his refusal to meet Theresa May for Brexit talks unless she is prepared to rule out a no-deal break with the EU.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Corbyn – the only Westminster leader to reject her offer of a meeting – said the talks were “not genuine” and accused her of trying to “play for time”.
Following the crushing defeat of her Brexit deal in the Commons, he said she had – through her spokesmen – rejected a customs union, which he said was necessary for any new deal to win support in Parliament.
He complained she had also made clear she remained unwilling to consider extending the Article 50 withdrawal process – Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29 – or a second referendum.
“Whatever one thinks of those issues, that reinforces the view these are not genuine talks, but designed to play for time and give the appearance of reaching out, while sticking rigidly to your own emphatically rejected deal,” he wrote.
“As I have set out repeatedly in our exchanges across the despatch box and in my previous letter, Labour would support a deal based on a new customs union with a UK say on future trade deals, a strong single market relationship, and guarantees on workers’ rights, consumer standards and environmental protections.
“But meaningful dialogue or negotiations require acknowledgement that your Government’s deal has been decisively rejected, and the Government must now be open to other options that can win support in Parliament.
“And the starting point must be a commitment to rule out ‘no-deal’.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel