This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Jeremy Corbyn sought to exploit Tory divisions over Brexit in the House of Commons on Wednesday, as he accused Theresa May of presiding over a shambles.

At prime minister’s questions, the Labour leader said the prime minister had had “23 months to negotiate an agreement” with her cabinet, but was yet to agree what customs arrangement she wants to strike with the EU27 after Brexit. “These negotiations are in a shambles,” he added.

Cabinet divisions over Brexit have burst into the open in the past week, with Boris Johnson launching an unprecedented attack on May’s preferred solution of a customs partnership, under which the UK would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels.

He told the Daily Mail: “That’s not taking back control of your trade policy, it’s not taking back control of your laws, it’s not taking back control of your borders and it’s actually not taking back control of your money either, because tariffs would get paid centrally back to Brussels.”

The interview followed a staunch defence of the customs partnership by the business secretary, Greg Clark, as well as leading business groups on Sunday, in what was regarded by Brexiters as a coordinated intervention.

Brexiters believe there is a majority in May’s Brexit inner cabinet against the proposal, which they describe as a “dead parrot”.

They prefer the alternative maximum facilitation, or “max-fac” approach, which would use technology to minimise border checks.

Corbyn pointed out that this plan had been criticised by the former UK representative in Brussels, Sir Ivan Rogers, who described it as a “fantasy island unicorn model”.

“They have two options, neither of which are workable,” Corbyn said. The government, he said, had “wasted weeks working up proposals that the EU said was unworkable, that her own foreign secretary described as crazy”.

May conceded: “There were two options in my Mansion House speech. Questions have been raised about both of them and further work continues.”

She said there would be a deal where the UK would “leave the customs union, we have an independent free-trade policy, we maintain no hard border in Northern Ireland and we have as frictionless trade as possible”.

Whitehall sources said May’s Brexit inner cabinet would return to the issue again next Tuesday after a fractious meeting last week ended without agreement.

Backers of the customs partnership believe it is the only option capable of solving the challenge of preventing new border checks being introduced in Ireland.

Brussels had previously rejected the idea, but officials from the Department for Exiting the EU are continuing to look at the issue. The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, held out a glimmer of hope on Tuesday, saying May’s approach was a “welcome suggestion”.

“The view of the EU is that it isn’t workable in its current form but it is something that perhaps we could make workable,” he said.

The customs union explained – Brexit Means … podcast Read more

Labour is also divided over Brexit, with 83 of the party’s peers defying the leadership on Tuesday night to back a House of Lords amendment to the EU withdrawal bill aimed at keeping Britain in the single market.

The government is expected to bring the key piece of Brexit legislation back to the Commons in the next fortnight, and seek MPs’ backing to remove 14 amendments made by peers, on issues including the Brexit date and a future customs union.

Labour whipped its peers to abstain on Tuesday’s amendment, which was tabled by Lord Alli and proposed pursuing membership of the European Economic Area. Pro-single market MPs hope it will put pressure on the leadership to shift its position.

Corbyn’s spokesman suggested after PMQs that the party would continue to seek “a new relationship with the single market”; but he stressed that EEA membership “includes a number of different relationships”.

He added that Labour objected to key aspects of the single market, including state aid and competition rules, and would seek “exemptions, clarifications or a negotiated change” to ensure Labour could carry out its manifesto pledges of increasing state involvement in the economy.

May said Corbyn’s approach was contradictory, because signing up to a customs union, as Labour proposes, would force Britain into trade deals it had played no part in negotiating.

“He has spent an entire career opposing a customs union. Now, when the British people want to come out, he wants to stay in. I know he’s leader of the opposition but that goes a bit far,” she said.

Labour insists it would only sign up to a customs union if it were given some say over future deals.

Nick Timothy, the prime minister’s former chief of staff, used a column in the Daily Telegraph to side with Johnson and urge May to reject the customs partnership, which he said would restrict Britain’s ability to strike future trade deals.

He said the government should instead back “max fac” – even if that means extending the transition period beyond 2021 while new technologies are developed.

“If there is a compromise to be made, ministers might accept that ‘max fac’ will take longer to be introduced than the current implementation timetable suggests,” Timothy said.

The same idea was also advocated by Nick Boles, a backbencher and Michael Gove ally on Wednesday.