- Negotiators in Brussels have met with the firebrand socialist in recent weeks
- They want to know if Mr Corbyn will honour Tory promises if he sweeps to power
- Political insiders say there has been a ‘significant change of tone’ towards Labour since June’s General Election
EU officials have held secret Brexit talks with Jeremy Corbyn amid fears that Theresa May’s Government will collapse before Britain leaves the bloc.
Negotiators in Brussels have met with the firebrand socialist as well as shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer in recent weeks.
They are seeking assurances from Mr Corbyn that he will honour promises made by the Conservatives if he sweeps to power before Britain leaves the EU in 2019.
Political insiders say there has been a ‘significant change of tone’ towards Labour in Brussels since June’s General Election in which the Conservatives lost more than a dozen seats across the country.
EU officials are seeking assurances from Mr Corbyn that he will honour promises made by the Conservatives if he sweeps to power before Britain leaves the EU in 2019
Senior EU officials are said to fear that upcoming Brexit talks with Mrs May on October 19th could be made irrelevant if there is a change of government.
An insider told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Corbyn is beginning to be taken seriously in Brussels.
‘He has been a mystery on European affairs through the referendum and since.
‘People didn’t quite know what he wants or what he thinks but that is changing.’
The Conservative civil war has worsened after Mrs May’s dire conference in Manchester, which culminated in her speech being wrecked by a prankster, sore throat and collapsing set.
It has left the Prime Minister vulnerable to leadership challenges – forcing her to insist she has the ‘full support’ of the Cabinet after an attempted coup earlier this week.
Grant Shapps, pictured left, went public with a plot to unseat Theresa May, pictured right, as leader of the Conservatives – but she dismissed calls to quit
She dismissed calls to quit and said she was ‘providing calm leadership’ after Grant Shapps went public with his plot claiming that ‘one or two’ members of Mrs May’s own team privately wanted her to go.
But the former party chairman admitted his plot was still well short of the 48 names needed to force a contest for the top job.
He was brutally lampooned by Conservative MPs, who branded him ’embittered’, a ‘used car salesman’ and said he spoke for ‘no-one’.
One backbencher said Remainers were making a ‘pathetic’ bid to regain control of the party and said of the idea he had 30 supporters: ‘Diane Abbott must be doing the adding up.’