Corbyn Refused to Say if He Would Back His Soft Brexit Deal in a Second Referendum

SALFORD, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 19: (AVAILABLE FOR EDITORIAL USE UNTIL DECEMBER 19, 2019) In t
Jonathan Hordle//ITV via Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn refused nine times to say if he would back his own proposed renegotiated soft-Brexit deal.

The socialist has pledged that if he becomes prime minister, he will go back to Brussels and renegotiate the exit agreement to include a customs union with the EU and a close relationship to the Single Market — essentially a Brexit in name only. He would then put this deal against Remain in a second referendum with no credible Leave option.

Labour’s position on whether it would campaign for a super-soft Brexit or Remain has mainly been indicated as being anti-Leave. In September, leading party figure Emily Thornberry admitted she would lobby against the deal and the month prior, Diane Abbott said that she would also be campaigning for Remain.

The party’s official position was not clarified during last night’s leadership debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson. The Labour leader had refused to answer whether he would back his own deal.

At one point during the panel, Mr Corbyn had said: “We will negotiate an agreement and we will put that alongside remain in a referendum. I will carry out that referendum. It will be a genuine choice. And we will carry it out.”

In response, Mr Johnson said: “Does he want to do this deal? If he doesn’t believe in it or could campaign against it? What’s the point in Brussels offering this deal? Are you going to campaign for Leave or Remain?

In his closing remarks, Prime Minister Johnson criticised the Opposition leader for his failure to come clean with the British electorate where he and his party stands on Brexit.

“Our choice is very simple. We can get Brexit done, or we can spend another Groundhog Year with another referendum with Mr Corbyn, who you’ve heard tonight, cannot answer the fundamental question: Is he for Remain or Leave?” Johnson said.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage also criticised Mr Corbyn for failing to tell viewers “if he would back Leave or Remain in Labour’s second referendum. A total failure of leadership.”

Mr Corbyn’s Labour Party has come under criticism for turning its back on some five million left-wing Leavers. In the 2017 General Election manifesto, Corbyn had promised to deliver on the results of the referendum. By July 2019, Corbyn had said that he would back a second referendum, and in September outlined his plans to ask for a soft Brexit deal from the EU.

Mr Farage has vowed to go after Labour in its Brexit heartlands in Wales, the North, and the Midlands as a result of Corbyn’s betrayal of Labour Leavers.

A YouGov poll conducted straight after the debate found that the majority (51 per cent) of voters thought that Mr Johnson had won the debate. However, this performance came despite reports that the panel host, ITV’s Julia Etchingham, had interrupted Mr Johnson more than she had Mr Corbyn.

According to a senior Tory spin doctor, Ms Etchingham interrupted the prime minister 30 times but Mr Corbyn just 14 times during the hour-long debate, according to The Sun.

Nigel Farage’s assessment of the panel put neither Corbyn nor Boris as the winner, saying: “We have a clear winner of the ITV debate tonight: Julie Etchingham.”

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