May, Corbyn at loggerheads over ruling out no-deal Brexit before talks
UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn traded barbs on Thursday over the Labour leader's demand that a no-deal Brexit be ruled out before he sat down for talks on a way forward.
May said the opposition leader was setting “an impossible condition”, while Corbyn rejected her offer of talks as a “stunt”.
Corbyn has come under fire for snubbing any face to face discussion with May, and for ordering his MPs to do the same. The prime minister offered talks with all opposition leaders after winning a confidence vote on Wednesday, 24 hours after suffering the biggest parliamentary defeat in UK history when her Brexit deal was crushed in the House of Commons.
He also faced increasing internal party pressure over backing a second referendum, with some Labour MPs demanding him to support it and others to reject as they feared an electoral backlash from leave-supporting constituencies.
"I note that you have said that 'ruling out' no deal is a precondition before we can meet, but that is an impossible condition because it is not within the government's power to rule out no deal,” May wrote in a letter to Corbyn.
"Let me explain why. Under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union and the Withdrawal Act 2018, we will leave the EU without a deal on 29 March unless Parliament either agrees a deal with the EU or the UK revokes article 50 and chooses to stay in the EU permanently.”
"So there are two way to avoid no deal: either vote for a deal, in particular a Withdrawal Agreement, that has been agreed with the EU, or to revoke Article 50 and overturn the referendum result.
"I believe it would be wrong to overturn the referendum result."
Corbyn addressed party supporters in the southern coastal town of Hastings on Thursday, accusing may of holding “phony talks" in an attempt to "run down the clock and try to blackmail MPs to vote through her botched deal on a second attempt by threatening the country with the chaos that no-deal would bring”.
“Last night’s offer of talks with party leaders turned out to be simply a stunt, not the serious attempt to engage with the new reality that is needed,” he said.
“I say to the prime minister again, I am quite happy to talk but the starting point for any talks about Brexit must be that the threat of a disastrous no-deal outcome is ruled out, taken off the table, and we can talk about the future of the plans that we will put forward and the future relationship with Europe.”