May had ‘serious and engaged’ talk with Corbyn on idea, says Labour but No 10 says PM has not shifted position

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May met to discuss the Brexit crisis for the first time this year, in a summit where the two sides disagreed afterwards about whether the prime minister was willing to soften her opposition to a customs union.

A spokesman for the Labour leader said shortly after the meeting broke up that May had shown a “serious engagement in the detail” of Corbyn’s proposal for a customs union with the European Union after Brexit.

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A few minutes later, Downing Street responded by saying that while May had asked Corbyn questions she had not shifted her underlying position. Sources said she had told the Labour leader that the UK must be free to sign its own trade deals.

The party leaders met for 45 minutes at the prime minister’s office in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon.

Labour has been stung by criticism that Corbyn had refused to engage with May over Brexit – and the opposition party was keen to meet the prime minister after the Commons voted in principle against leaving the EU without a deal on Tuesday night.

Previously Corbyn had refused to meet May because she would not rule out leaving without a deal. But he changed his position after MPs voted in favour of an amendment from Conservative backbencher Caroline Spelman, inviting parliament to declare its opposition to a no-deal scenario.

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The Labour spokesman said May was “interested in exploring the details of each element” of Labour’s Brexit proposals, which also include a strong single-market relationship and greater protection for workers’ rights.

Downing Street said the conversation about the customs union amounted to a longer version of the exchange between Corbyn and May on the floor of the Commons during the Brexit debate on Tuesday.

May had asked Corbyn: “Will he now tell the house whether he means accepting the common commercial policy, accepting the common external tariffs, accepting the Union customs code … and accepting the EU’s state aid rules?”

In reply Corbyn had said a customs union “would be designed to ensure that our jobs and investment are protected, that there is frictionless and seamless trade with the European Union, and that we have a say in future trade arrangements”.

The two party leaders will meet again soon, most likely within days, although there are considerable reservations on both sides as to whether it would be possible to complete a cross-party Brexit deal.

Earlier, it emerged that May has asked cabinet ministers Stephen Barclay and Greg Clark to consult Labour MPs and trade unions over proposals to introduce greater protections for workers’ rights in another attempt to woo the opposition.

The Brexit secretary and the business secretary will meet unions and Labour members over the next couple of days to discuss the possibility of future legislation, which would also cover enhanced environmental protections.

At a lunchtime briefing, Downing Street advisers pointed to remarks made by the prime minister during Tuesday’s Brexit debate, where she said: “The government will not allow the UK leaving the EU to result in any lowering of standards in relation to employment, ​environmental protection or health and safety.”

May also told the Commons she wanted parliament to be able to “consider any measure approved by EU institutions that strengthens any of those protections” after Brexit in a calculated bid to win over some Labour MPs.

The plans were also expected to be discussed at the afternoon meeting between May and Corbyn – although the Labour leadership is highly sceptical as to whether her comments will satisfy key trade unions.

Downing Street nevertheless hopes to persuade a handful of pro-Brexit Labour MPs to support any final deal that May brings back to parliament, partly because it needs to offset a group of diehard Conservative MPs who will not vote for any deal with the EU.

The MPs No 10 will hope to target include the 24 who rebelled against the party whip either by voting against or abstaining on Yvette Cooper’s amendment that aimed to delay article 50 to buy time to prevent a no-deal Brexit.

Fourteen MPs voted against Cooper, including the former minister Caroline Flint and Laura Smith, the MP for Crewe and Nantwich, as well as veteran Eurosceptics Kate Hoey, Graham Stringer and Dennis Skinner.

A further 10 MPs abstained including the junior shadow ministers Gloria De Piero and Melanie Onn, as well as Tracy Brabin, Judith Cummins, Yvonne Fovargue, Mike Kane, Emma Lewell-Buck, Jim McMahon, Ruth Smeeth and John Spellar.

Anti-Brexit MPs expressed disappointment at the size of the rebellion, saying it had strengthened the prime minister’s hand in showing that there was not a united front opposed to her. “What’s the point of Tories coming across if we can’t keep our side together?” one MP asked.

Labour indicated there would be little meaningful sanction against those who defied the party whip on Cooper on Tuesday night. A party spokesman said they would be “spoken to by the whips’ office in the next few days”.

The spokesman added that Corbyn would press May to consider supporting a customs union with the EU as a way to deal with the Irish backstop that is so unpopular on the Tory right.

He added that the Labour leader “had no confidence” in the idea that the prime minister could otherwise secure any concessions from EU member states over the next fortnight in terms of eliminating the backstop from the draft withdrawal agreement, that covers the UK’s exit from the EU.

• This article was amended on 30 January 2018 as it wrongly said Stephen Twigg abstained. This has now been corrected.