Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Corbyn exposed the flaw in May’s Brexit plan at PMQs

Today’s choice for ‘A Book At Bedtime’ is the government’s draft Brexit deal. At daybreak the masterpiece was being referred to as a 500-page tome but its estimated length has now risen to 540 pp. That explains why the PM looked so calm and unruffled and at PMQs. No MP is going to risk brain damage by working through this Proustian monster. Even the wonkiest wonk in Westminster won’t read it all, and May stands to profit from her colleagues’ ignorance of the fine print.

Roger Gale, who once held the demanding role of children’s TV producer, spoke up for every workshy lazybones in parliament. He asked the PM to release ‘details’ (i.e. a three-line summary) of the agreement so that he and his pals can base their comments on fact rather than speculation, (i.e. avoid a 12-hour reading marathon.) What MPs really need is an audio-version narrated by a silky-voiced Remainer like Michel Barnier or David Cameron.

Jeremy Corbyn had an excellent day. He asked short, detailed questions that required similar answers. He targeted the PM with a yes-or-no query about ‘parliament’s sovereign right to withdraw unilaterally from any back-stop’. May, who has a ghost-like ability to duck and dive while standing still, produced a cascade of waffle. She spoke of the backstop’s nativity and its likely future.

‘There needs to be a back-stop, as insurance, but neither side wants to be in a back-stop,’ she flim-flammed. ‘We don’t want to be in a position where the EU would find it convenient to keep us in.’

Behind this smoke-screen lay an admission. Corbyn found it.

‘That non-answer confirmed that parliament won’t have that sovereign right.’

May failed to refute his conclusion. So the back-stop, (BS for short), is simply the EU by another name.

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