Matthew Taylor

Jacob Rees-Mogg: involving ‘Remainer’ Corbyn in Brexit is ‘a mistake’

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Jacob Rees-Mogg – May should be ‘held to account’ over Brexit Sophy Ridge began the day with an interview with the head of the European Research Group, Jacob Rees-Mogg. Rees-Mogg was critical of Theresa May’s handling of Brexit, and despite backing her Withdrawal Act at the third time of asking, he made clear that he was deeply dissatisfied that she had effectively rejected the possibility of a ‘no deal’ exit:
JRM: The Prime Minister could have taken us out on the 29th of March, but [she] asked for an extension, [she] changed the date by prerogative power… to the 12th of April… She has made active choices to stop us leaving, and she deserves to be held to account for that. Inviting Corbyn to Brexit talks ‘is a mistake’ Rees-Mogg also expressed his disappointment that the Prime Minister had invited Jeremy Corbyn into discussions on Brexit, with a view to making concessions in order to secure her Brexit deal:
JRM: I think having Jeremy Corbyn as part of the Brexit process is a mistake. He is not sympathetic to the government, obviously, and is a Remainer. So what you’ve got is two Remainers trying to work out how we should leave, ignoring the 17.4 million people who voted to leave. He continued:
JRM: ‘I think the Prime Minister risks giving a degree of credibility to Mr Corbyn and undermining the general thrust of the Conservative argument that he is a Marxist who would be dangerous to this nation’s interests.’ ‘Of course we should have European elections’ Rees-Mogg also made the point that, despite his long-standing euroscepticism, he would be in favour of the UK holding elections to the European Parliament if the UK is still a member of the EU by the 23rd of May:
JRM: If we’re still in, of course we should have European elections… If we had those elections I would vote in them, and I would always vote for a Conservative candidate. Shami Chakrabati – Theresa May has not ‘moved an inch’ Ridge also spoke to the Shadow Attorney General about whether any progress has been made between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in their Brexit talks:
SC: So far our impression is that Theresa May has not moved an inch on her red lines… Compromise is not just telling us again and again how good your existing deal is. This is a deal that’s been voted down in Parliament three times… As yet, there’s been not a jot of movement form the government and that isn’t going to break the deadlock. Corbyn ‘won’t be leader forever’ Ridge asked Chakrabati about the Jewish Labour Movement, who are holding a vote of confidence in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in the wake of leaked documents and emails which have been published in the Sunday Times. The documents appear to show inaction by the party regarding multiple complaints of anti-Semitism. Chakrabati, the author of a controversial report into this very matter, urged the Movement to back their leader:
SC: How can we take on [anti-Semitism in] our party without a vote of confidence in the leader? My plea to the Jewish Labour Movement is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together – not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn, because he is one person, and he won’t be leader forever. Jess Phillips – Labour ‘needs to show some leadership’ on Brexit Earlier in the week, Ridge interviewed the Labour MP Jess Phillips, who she met in her Birmingham Yardley constituency. Ridge asked Phillips how her constituents felt about Labour’s equivocation over its Brexit position:
SR: Is there a feeling that Labour is playing politics? JP: I think there is a bit of a feeling of that, certainly within the Labour party membership and the broader country. I think that it hasn’t been clear actually, from the beginning… We’re at a point where, what you need to do is show some real leadership and say … ‘This is our position’… because at the moment we’re sort of irritating everyone and pleasing no one. Sam Gyimah – Some members have ‘Tory heads and Ukip hearts’ The former Universities Minister who resigned in order to try and force another referendum has spoken of the deselection attempts he has had to endure, partly due to his Brexit stance:
SG: I think some of them, this particular group of people have Tory heads and Ukip hearts. I made a judgement call… Ultimately when I saw Theresa May’s Breixt deal, I said this comes to the question ‘What am I in politics for?’ And we’ve got to say to people the truth that we see. Rebecca Long Bailey – Labour may vote to revoke Article 50 Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary told Andrew Marr that Labour was keeping all options on the table except a ‘no deal’ Brexit, even if that meant staying in the EU:
AM: Logically, you must be preparing to vote to revoke Article 50…? RLB: We’ll keep all options in play to keep no deal off the table… If we get to a situation where Parliament has to look at revoking Article 50, that will be disappointing… but it will be a matter that we consider very carefully at the time. We have promised… that we’ll do all we can to avoid a ‘no deal’ situation. Caroline Lucas – Put any deal to a public vote The Green MP Caroline Lucas has argued that, despite continually voting against the government’s Withdrawal Act, that she would finally relent if it was to be put to a referendum:
CL: I think frankly that for MPs like myself, we would be prepared to vote for Mrs May’s deal or indeed, whatever deal comes out of the discussions that might be happening between Labour and the Conservatives… as long as it is contingent on a public vote. Andrea Leadsom – ‘Appalling’ to hold second referendum But the Leader of the House of Commons has shot the idea of a ‘confirmatory referendum’ down in flames:
AL: It is appalling to consider another referendum, mainly because people talk of it as a confirmatory referendum – no it’s not. It is an attempt by those who are on the Remain side of the argument to run it again and put it back to the people with, by the way, Remain on the ballot paper. Nobody is for one moment suggesting this is just to confirm the Prime Minister’s deal or even WTO withdrawal. Working with Corbyn is ‘not something I want to do’ Leadsom also defended the principle of the government working with the Leader of the Opposition, although somewhat less than enthusiastically:
AL: Working with Jeremy Corbyn is not something I want to do at all. It’s not something the Prime Minister wants to do. But far worse than that would be to fail to deliver on Brexit… We were quite clearly told by the people in 2016 to leave the European Union. UK will ‘survive and thrive’ with no deal And finally, Leadsom told Marr that despite the pessimistic forecasts for life after a no deal Brexit, the UK was in a good position thanks to strong contingency planning:
AL: If we ended up with no deal, we would survive and thrive. There is no doubt about that… The civil service have done an amazing job of ensuring that we minimise the problems. Now, I’m not an advocate of no deal, but it would not be nearly as bad as many like to think it would be.

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