Downing Street has described talks between Theresa May and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn as “constructive,” with further meetings scheduled to take place on Thursday, as the UK attempts to break the Brexit deadlock and avoid crashing out of the EU without a deal by April 12. However, the Labour Party has struck a more cautious note, saying there had not been as much change as Corbyn had expected. The EU has warned that simply holding talks is not enough to be granted an extension beyond April 12, and that the withdrawal agreement would need to be passed by that date if a no-deal Brexit were to be avoided.
On Wednesday afternoon, the meeting between Corbyn and May was attended by a number of cabinet and shadow cabinet members, including Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, and Chief Whip Gavin Barwell. Corby was joined by his shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, advisor Seamas Milne, as well as party whip Nick Brown. “Today’s talks were constructive, with both sides showing flexibility and a commitment to bring the current Brexit uncertainty to a close,” Downing Street said. “We have agreed a programme of work to ensure we deliver for the British people, protecting jobs and security.”
In a statement following the meeting, Corbyn said that he had put the party’s perspective to the Prime Minister, in particular its push for a customs union with the EU, as well as strong guarantees around workers and consumer rights and environmental protections in line with EU standards. He also raised the possibility of a confirmatory public vote on any deal to avoid leaving on a bad deal or no deal.
It comes amid signs of divisions within both parties, as Labour also indicated its commitment to ending freedom of movement with the EU, while some Labour MPs questioned the logic of engaging with the government in this way, warning that it was an attempt to make the party share responsibility for the government’s vision of Brexit. Meanwhile Conservative MPs lambasted the government for engaging with Labour, which they warned could shift Britain towards a softer Brexit, while two ministers resigned in protest.
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The talks provide a final opportunity for the UK to avoid a no-deal Brexit after May’s withdrawal deal was thrice rejected by MPs, who also rejected all 8 alternative strategies put to them. An effort by MPs to hold another series of indicative votes next week was unsuccessful on Wednesday, as Speaker John Bercow voted against it after MPs were tied on the question. “It is not for the chair to create a majority that doesn’t otherwise exist,” Bercow explained
European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said the developments in the UK meant they had a “few more days”. “If the UK is in a position to approve the withdrawal agreement with a sustainable majority by April 12, the EU should be prepared to accept a delay until May 22,” he told the European Parliament on Wednesday. “Britain has been keen to avoid an extension beyond May 22 because this would pose legal and logistical difficulties relating to European Parliamentary elections due to take place on May 23.
Also read:Juncker: No more short Brexit delays unless leave deal approved by April 12
However, the withdrawal agreement would have to be approved by the House of Commons by April 12, Juncker said. “If it has not done so by then, no further short extension will be possible. After April 12, we risk jeopardising the European Parliament elections, and so threaten the functioning of the EU.”
The British government has insisted it has been left with little choice but to reach out to Labour after Conservatives and their confidence and supply partner the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland insisted they could never support May’s deal in its current manifestation. “The country needs a solution, and the country deserves a solution, and that is what I am working to find,” May told MPs during Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday.
“It is the remorseless logic of not backing the Prime minister’s deal,” Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay told the BBC on Wednesday morning. “It is very disappointing that the cabinet has decided to entrust the final handling of Brexit to Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party,” said Boris Johnson, the former Foreign Secretary and a hard Brexiteer. “It now seems all too likely that British trade policy and key law-making powers will be handed over to Brussels — with no say for the UK,” he added, insisting that there were no circumstances in which he could support being part of a customs union with the EU.
Johnson, who had twice voted against May’s withdrawal deal because of the Irish backstop, supported the deal last Friday after May said she would step down to make way for a successor in time for the next phase of negotiations if her deal were agreed to. He was not alone as other MPs pushing for a “hard” Brexit lambasted the decision to open talks with Corbyn, with one — Jacob Rees-Mogg — describing him as a “known Marxist”. Nigel Adams, the Minister for Wales, resigned from the government, accusing May of making a “grave error.” Chris Heaton-Harris, another minister resigned his post saying he could not countenance a further extension to the Brexit process, after Britain failed to leave the EU on March 29.
The DUP attacked the decision to engage with Labour accusing the government of “subcontracting out the future of Brexit” to a man who the Conservatives had “demonised for four years”.
The Conservative and DUP concerns with the withdrawal deal centre around the backstop that would put the UK in a customs union with the EU were negotiations on future relations to break down, in order to prevent a “hard” border developing on the island of Ireland. Even the government’s legal advice on this has acknowledged that there is no mechanism for the UK to exit the backstop unilaterally, leaving being permanently locked into it a legal risk.
The customs union solution would solve the hard border risk in Northern Ireland, and would be welcome by businesses through the avoidance of the tariff issue. However, Brexiteers believe it would not amount to the Brexit that had been promised to people in the referendum because it would not leave Britain free to make its own trade deals with the rest of the world on its own terms.
Nevertheless, the customs union deal came the closest to commanding a parliamentary majority in a series of indicative votes on alternative Brexit options earlier this week. It lost by just three votes. May has now indicated that should Labour and the government fail to come up with a solution, they would put a series of alternatives to Parliament which could then be voted on. “The government stands ready to abide by the decision of the House,’ she said on Tuesday evening following a lengthy cabinet meeting that spanned seven hours.