Key points

After many weeks avoiding the subject, Jeremy Corbyn’s six questions grilled Theresa May about the Brexit negotiations, which stalled on Monday when the DUP vetoed the prime minister’s proposed deal with the EU. Quoting Liam Fox, Corbyn began: “In July, the trade secretary said the Brexit negotiations would be the easiest in human history. Does the prime minister still agree?”

To laughter from both sides of the house, May said very good progress had been made in the negotiations and she expected to get the right deal for the UK when the nation leaves the European Union, single market and customs union. Corbyn replied quoting the Tory donor Charlie Mullins, who on Tuesday said May’s incompetence was “hobbling” the UK’s negotiations. “This truly is a coalition of chaos,” he concluded.

May replied by drawing attention to the Labour frontbench’s own inconsistencies on Brexit. The Labour approach to Brexit is not having a plan – “the only thing Labour is planning is a run on the pound”.

Corbyn asked whether May could clearly outline what the government’s plan was for the Irish border. May responded that there would be no hard border, and that the constitutional integrity and internal market of the UK would be respected. To shouts of “how?”, May said that was the point of the second phase of negotiations. The Labour leader then turned to David Davis’s admission on Wednesday morning that sectoral assessments of the impact of Brexit had not been done – despite his assurances that “50 or 60” had.

Quick guide Why is the Irish border a stumbling block for Brexit? Show Hide Counties and customs Inside the EU, both Ireland and Northern Ireland are part of the single market and customs union so share the same regulations and standards, allowing a soft or invisible border between the two.

Britain’s exit from the EU – taking Northern Ireland with it – risks a return to a hard or policed border. The only way to avoid this post-Brexit is for regulations on both sides to remain more or less the same in key areas including food, animal welfare, medicines and product safety. The 'backstop' in Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement was intended to address this - stating that if no future trade agreement could be reached between the EU and the UK, then rules and regulations would stay as they are. This has been rejected by Brexit supporters as a 'trap' to keep the UK in the EU's customs union, which would prevent the UK striking its own independent trade deals. There are an estimated 72m road vehicle crossings a year between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and about 14% of those crossings are consignments of goods, some of which may cross the border several times before they reach a consumer. Brexit supporters say this can be managed by doing checks on goods away from the border, but critics say it will be difficult to police this without any physical infrastructure like border posts or cameras, which could raise tensions in the divided communities of Ireland.

Interactive: A typical hour in the life of the Irish border Photograph: Design Pics Inc/Design Pics RF

May said there was sectoral analysis, which had been given to the select committee, and the government would not give a running commentary on negotiations. “This really is a shambles,” Corbyn replied, saying all the government had done was publish a redacted version.

Corbyn added that Boris Johnson used to say the EU could go whistle; now the government was planning to pay £50bn. Could it publish an audited account? May said of the size of the divorce bill that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. Corbyn finished by saying that on Brexit, social care, the NHS or universal credit, the government was not fit for the future. “If it can’t get a good deal, it should get out of the way.” May retorted that Labour made promises it could not deliver – like its promise at the last election to write off student debt.

Snap verdict

Just when you thought our politics couldn’t get much more dispiriting, this PMQs probably set a new low. It is supposed to be a forum where the prime minister is held to account, but rarely have exchanges at PMQs seemed so ill-matched to the gravity of the issues facing the country.

Corbyn tends to avoid Brexit at PMQs, and you can see why. While his questions about, say, housing or universal credit have an urgency or passion to them, today’s felt a bit more half-hearted and, despite May facing the biggest crisis of the Brexit talks, he did not manage to unsettle her at all.

But if Corbyn was ineffective, May was complacent – and borderline delusional. “Very good progress” in the Brexit talks? Even the Daily Mail couldn’t swallow that. She seemed oblivious to the real prospect of the talks ending very badly indeed. She had nothing new to announce, but there were some vague hints in what she said that she thinks the solution to the Irish border problem will be simply to delay the whole thing until phase two of the talks. She kept stressing that the border was a phase two issue, even though Dublin and the EU want key assurances on this bolted down in phase one.

Most memorable lines

Half of Labour wants to stay in the customs union, half wants to leave – the only hard border is in the Labour party.

May on Labour’s Brexit divisions.

This really is a shambles



Corbyn on the government’s confusion over the sectoral analyses of the impact of Brexit.