End botched Brexit and protect jobs, says Corbyn

LONDON: Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn criticised the government on Tuesday for failing business with its “botched” Brexit plan, saying only his Labour Party could make Britain’s departure from the European Union work for manufacturers. Unveiling a Labour campaign to boost manufacturing and keep public contracts in Britain, Corbyn took aim at Prime Minister Theresa May for driving a Brexit plan that would leave Britain “in hock to Donald Trump”. In a bid to sell the benefits of his Brexit vision of negotiating a new customs union, Corbyn piled pressure on May, who is struggling to sell her plans to not only the competing factions in her governing Conservative Party but across Britain just over eight months before the country is due to leave.

But Corbyn also faces dissent in his party, with many Labour lawmakers and members calling for him to back a second referendum on any deal and support keeping the closest possible ties with the EU by staying in its single market and customs union. “Theresa May and her warring cabinet should think again, even at this late stage, and reconsider the option of negotiating a brand new customs union,” Corbyn told the EEF manufacturers’ organisation in the city of Birmingham. “A botched ... Brexit will sell our manufacturers short with the fantasy of a free trading buccaneering future, which in reality would be a nightmare of chlorinated chicken, public services sold to multinational companies and our country in hock to Donald Trump,” he said. — Reuters