May turns tables on Labour over Brexit concerns

The Prime Minister attempted to downplay concerns over the Brexit deadlock which has emerged over the Irish border issue and instead tried to focus on divisions within the Opposition.

She faced shouts of “How?” from Labour MPs after stressing there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn labelled the Government’s Brexit approach a “shambles” as EU withdrawal dominated the pair’s exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Mr Corbyn criticised the Government for offering “heavily redacted” assessments of the economic impact of Brexit and also asked Mrs May to put forward further details of the so-called multibillion-pound Brexit divorce bill.

He asked: “Can the Prime Minister put before the House a fully itemised account that could be independently audited by the Office for Budget Responsibility and the National Audit Office on any proposed payment?”

Mrs May replied: “We’re at the point of progressing on to the next stage, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

“So the final settlement won’t be agreed until we’ve actually got the whole of the deal agreed.

“I have to say to you, you’ve asked me questions earlier about hard borders - you know, half the Labour Party wants to stay in the single market, half the Labour Party wants to leave the single market.

“The only hard border around is right down the middle of the Labour Party.”

Mr Corbyn replied: “Eighteen months since the referendum, no answers to the questions, today they haven’t yet concluded phase one - no answers to the questions, and the DUP appear to be ruling the roost and telling her what to do.”

He claimed the Government is unable to solve major issues facing the country, adding: “In fact it’s making them worse.

“The economy is slowing, more people in poverty, Brexit negotiations in a shambles.

“This Government is clearly not fit for the future. If they can’t negotiate a good deal, wouldn’t it be better if they just got out of the way?”

Mrs May said Mr Corbyn makes promises each week “that he knows he can’t deliver”, adding: “They keep doing it.

“At the election he told students they would write-off their student debt.”

Labour MPs could be heard saying “no” and “wrong” at this point before Mrs May went on: “Then he said ‘I did not commit to write-off the debt’.

“But what is the Labour Party doing? They’re putting round leaflets which say ‘Labour will cancel existing student debt’.

“It’s time (Mr Corbyn) apologised for grossly misleading Labour leaflets.”

Mr Corbyn opened by asking Mrs May if she agreed with International Trade Secretary Liam Fox’s July assessment that securing a free trade agreement with the EU will be “one of the easiest in human history”.

The PM was heckled as she said “very good progress” was being made in the Brexit talks before asserting the Government believed it could get a deal “that is right for the whole United Kingdom”.

Mr Corbyn also said Mrs May “hasn’t succeeded in convincing many people” before saying there were “1.5 billion reasons why” the PM should have shared details of the Irish border proposals with the DUP, in a nod to her minority government’s Westminster pact.

Mrs May faced further Opposition heckling as she noted European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker had said there were “still a couple of things” being negotiated.

The PM, following later shouts of “How?” from Labour MPs over the aim of not having a hard border, said: “Those Labour members who shout ‘How?’, that’s the whole point of the second phase of the negotiations, because we will deliver this, we aim to deliver this as part of our overall trade deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

“And we can only talk about that when we get into phase two.”