Nigel Farage has voted in today’s elections after taunting Jeremy Corbyn by saying: ‘Labour are in so much trouble here, you can’t believe it’.
The Brexit Party leader has predicted they ‘could win big’ today as voters abandon the Tories, leaving them up to 23 per cent behind in the polls.
Labour appear to be battling with the Liberal Democrats for second place as a recent survey found that voters are unsure about what their position on Brexit is.
Mr Farage has sought to exploit that fissure, visiting Labour heartlands where the majority voted to leave the EU and declaring Jeremy Corbyn’s party ‘is vulnerable in the most extraordinary way’.
Last night Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell insisted that Labour does back Brexit – hours after Mr Corbyn ruled out voting for Theresa May’s deal.
When asked if ‘Labour wanted Brexit’ he told Channel 4 News: ‘Yeah we want to abide by the decision of the last referendum’.
Nigel Farage has targeted Labour as well as the Tories taunting Jeremy Corbyn that they are in ‘big trouble’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves after voting in the European Parliament election at a polling station in Islington today with his party also struggling
Nigel Farage denied claims he hid on his Brexit Party bus to avoid being doused in milkshake again yesterday.
He was campaigning in Kent when two men and a woman were spotted waiting for him at his next stop in Rochester.
One of Mr Farage’s supporters said they were carrying milkshakes and he was quickly alerted. His bus driver Michael Botton said the Brexit Party leader had to quickly change his plans to avoid an attack – though later his spokesman insisted that Mr Farage had not hidden inside the bus.
‘There are a couple of guys standing over there with milkshakes, they were going to throw them over him,’ Mr Botton told website Kent Live. ‘But the police are there, we’ve spotted them and now Nigel isn’t getting off the bus.’
The group were accosted by Brexit Party organisers who prevented them from getting too close to Mr Farage.
The Tories predicted to get 12 per cent of the vote in today’s European elections – 23 points behind Nigel Farage Brexit Party who are on 35 per cent.
The PM’s party is also trailing Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the final opinion poll before today’s election has revealed, but they may just edge out the Greens.
Some polls showed the Tories could win just seven per cent of the vote – their lowest share in history.
Brexit rebel Caroline Flint warned MPs to vote for Theresa May’s Brexit divorce or face No Deal.
Ms Flint, who represents Don Valley, urged the Commons to ‘take stock’ after the expected mauling for her party and the Tories in the European elections.
The former minister under Gordon Brown, who has voted for the PM’s deal before, was one of the few MPs to stick up for Mrs May’s plan during a Commons debate today.
She said: ‘Anybody on any side of the House, if they claim to be against No Deal, they should give this proposition due consideration and think about how they would amend it.’
Labour’s Caroline Flint today backed the Tory PM’s Brexit deal as a way to avoid No Deal
She added: ‘The PM has said several times already that if the second reading of this Bill does not succeed there will not be another opportunity to leave with a Withdrawal Bill.
‘The only course and direction will be to leave without any deal at all.
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured today) has ruled out any chance of Labour backing the PM’s deal
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn earlier declared Mrs May’s Government was ‘too weak’ and ‘too divided’ to get Britain out of the Brexit ‘mess’ it had created, describing her latest offer as not a ‘genuine compromise’.
He said no Labour MP could vote for a deal ‘on the promise of a Prime Minister who only has days left in her job’.
The Labour leader said the Prime Minister’s promised ‘bold new deal’ is ‘little more than a repackaged version’ of her three-times rejected deal.
He told the Commons: ‘The rhetoric may have changed but the deal has not.’
Mr Corbyn said Mrs May offered no change on a customs union, single market alignment nor on environmental protections.
He went on: ‘This Government is too weak, too divided to get this country out of the mess that they have created.’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mrs May’s deal is not a ‘genuine compromise’ and that Labour MPs cannot vote for it given the Prime Minister only has ‘days left in her job’.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Corbyn said: ‘It is clear no compromise would survive the upcoming Tory leadership contest.’
He added: ‘It is clear that the shrunken offer that has emerged satisfied no-one. Not her own backbenches, not the DUP, and not the official opposition either.
‘No Labour MP can vote for a deal on the promise of a Prime Minister who only has days left in her job. Even if the Prime Minister could honour her promises, the deal she is putting before us does not represent a genuine compromise.’
Mrs May faced MPs after her latest Brexit deal offer was lambasted with several Brexiteer ministers deciding to stay away and meet privately instead
As Theresa May’s leadership implodes, the Conservatives have dropped another three points over the past week – while Nigel Farage’s new outfit have gone up by two
Theresa May had pleaded with MPs to let her Brexit deal pass, as she faced intense pressure to quit after Tories rejected her latest proposals.
The Prime Minister warned that whoever succeeded her would face the same Brexit pressures as she called on MPs to back the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB).
In a Commons statement she appeared to acknowledge that her time in office was limited, having already said she will set out a timetable for her departure after the crunch vote on her Bill.
‘In time another prime minister will be standing at this despatch box,’ she told MPs.
‘But while I am here, I have a duty to be clear with the House about the facts.
‘If we are going to deliver Brexit in this Parliament we are going to have to pass a Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
‘And we will not do so without holding votes on the issues that have divided us the most – that includes votes on customs arrangements and on a second referendum.’
Conservative Eurosceptics have reacted with fury to the Brexit plan’s offer of a vote on whether to hold another referendum.
Senior Tory MPs will again seek to change party rules to allow a confidence vote in her leadership if she refuses to leave Number 10.
Mrs May said the WAB would be published on Friday and backing it would help get the UK out of the EU by the end of July.
‘We can bring an end to the months – years – of increasingly bitter argument and division that have both polarised and paralysed our politics,’ she said.
‘We can move on, move forwards, and get on with the jobs we were sent here to do, what we got into politics to do.
‘That is what we can achieve if we support this new deal.
‘Reject it, and all we have before us is division and deadlock.’