Jeremy Corbyn mounted a bid to torpedo Theresa May’s Brexit plan today by pitching for Tory rebels to help force a Norway-style relationship with the EU.
The Labour leader made his move in a letter to the PM setting out his revised conditions for backing a deal – including a permanent customs union and close alignment to the single market.
The grand gesture is intended to show voters Mr Corbyn is ready to compromise, while heaping pressure on Mrs May to break her key red lines.
Tory former minister Nick Boles welcomed the overture as a ‘big step to a cross-party compromise’ based on an enhanced Norway model.
But Mr Corbyn’s terms – which crucially drop his previous call for her to secure the ‘exact same benefits’ as current membership – enraged Labour Remainers who accused him of ‘enabling’ Brexit.
Fresh splits also emerged in Mr Corbyn’s frontbench team as shadow Brexit minister Matthew Pennycook said the party ‘must move to support a public vote’ unless Mrs May accepts the conditions ‘in full’.
The intervention came as Mrs May headed to Brussels for the latest round of talks to wring more concessions on the Irish border backstop. It could further undermine her position, by persuading the EU it does not need to give ground.
In the letter to the PM, which follows their Brexit meeting last week, Mr Corbyn called for a ‘permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union’.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured last night) is trying to outflank Mrs May by making a pitch to join forces with Tory Remainers
Tory former minister Nick Boles welcomed the overture as a ‘big step to a cross-party compromise’ based on an enhanced Norway model
Fresh splits emerged in Mr Corbyn’s frontbench team as shadow Brexit minister Matthew Pennycook said the party ‘must move to support a public vote’ unless Mrs May accepts the conditions ‘in full’
Mr Corbyn posed for pictures in his Westminster office last night as he tried to show he is willing to compromise
The grand gesture (pictured) is intended to show voters Mr Corbyn is ready to compromise, while heaping pressure on Mrs May to break her key red lines.
He stated: ‘This would include alignment with the union customs code, a common external tariff and an agreement on commercial policy that includes a UK say on future EU trade deals.’
Labour also wants close alignment with the single market ‘underpinned by shared institutions and obligations, with clear arrangements for dispute resolution’.
Mr Corbyn urged for ‘dynamic alignment on rights and protections’ so UK standards do not fall behind those of the EU, commitments on participation in EU agencies and funding programmes, and ‘unambiguous agreements on the detail of future security arrangements, including access to the European Arrest Warrant and vital shared databases’.
He also calls for further talks with the PM ‘with the aim of securing a sensible agreement that can win the support of Parliament and bring the country together’.
The letter does not mention previous Labour demands that any deal must deliver the ‘exact same benefits’ as membership of the single market and customs union currently does.
The Labour leadership has been distancing itself from calls for a second referendum, despite pressure from rank-and-file MPs.
An amendment tabled in Brexit votes last month said a referendum should only be considered after a deal was approved by the Commons.
But Mr Pennycook suggested today that Labour should support a so-called ‘People’s Vote’ if its demands are not met.
‘We’ve now set out in detail the changes needed to secure @UKLabour support for a deal,’ he tweeted.
‘Either May accepts them in full and commits to enshrining them in law before exit day or we must move to support a public vote. No other credible options left to prevent a ‘no deal’.’
Former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie attacked Mr Corbyn’s move.
Mr Leslie tweeted: ‘Seriously? Offering to help Tory Govt enable #Brexit? It’s not just Labour’s conference policy in the bin.
‘When the jobs go & revenues for services dry up as a result – Labour’s leadership will have ZERO right to complain: they share responsibility.’
Labour MP Phil Wilson, a supporter of the People’s Vote campaign for a second referendum, said: ‘It was perhaps inevitable that at some point my party would publish something like this even though most Labour MPs, members and voters have long since worked out that there is no form of Brexit that can meet the promises made in 2016 or do anything but make people poorer.
‘Our party conference agreed last year that if it couldn’t get a general election it should explore other options including a new public vote.
Theresa May was in Brussels for crunch talks with Jean-Claude Juncker (right) and others to try to wring more concessions on the Irish border backstop
The PM and the EU commission chief – usually known for his exuberant touchy-feely style – stood grim-faced next to each other before disappearing for private talks
‘In the end there is only one way out of this mess for both our country and the Labour Party, a people’s vote.’
Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner defended the shift in policy away from the six tests Labour originally set for a Brexit deal, saying the offer was made ‘in a spirit of co-operation and compromise’.
‘It’s not about tests now,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘What we are doing is saying we believe that these are the options that are available that would actually secure a majority in the House of Commons.’
The Labour leader tells the PM that last month’s rejection by MPs of her Withdrawal Agreement means a different approach is needed.
He writes: ‘Without changes to your negotiating red lines, we do not believe that simply seeking modifications to the existing backstop terms is a credible or sufficient response either to the scale of your defeat last month in Parliament, or the need for a deal with the EU that can bring the country together and protect jobs.’