Get ready for possibly the Xmas TV event of the year – May v Corbyn on the Brexit deal

Number 10 so confident of May’s knowledge of the withdrawal agreement that they are considering challenging a Corbyn to a debate on it ahead of the meaningful vote on the 12th of December https://t.co/lnkGQ03DIT — James Forsyth (@JGForsyth) November 24, 2018

Would Corbyn agree?

According to ‘James Forsyth in the Sun:

“May herself is confident about selling her deal. She knows the withdrawal agreement backwards. Her copy of it is marked up with reference tabs and she relishes mocking Corbyn for not having read it.Such is May’s swagger about her knowledge of the deal that there is talk in No10 of challenging Corbyn to a debate over it.”

My guess is that Corbyn’s advisors would try to get him to avoid any acceptance of the challenge though that could be risky as we saw at the last election when Mrs May refused to debate Mr Corbyn.

A refusal to accept such a challenge would lead to lots of taunting by the Conservatives and No10, no doubt, would see this as a way of helping unify her party against Labour.

At the moment the Conservative Party is totally split on the deal and Brexit while Labour is really just not seen as a player with Corbyn having a long history of opposition to the EU which is totally out of step with the majority of its voters. Its most ubiquitous Brexit performer, Lord. Adonis, is not even an MP.

One thing that Labour has never acknowledged is how important anti-Brexit tactical vote was to it at GE17. That’s not going to be there next time.

At PMQs on Wednesday we saw Theresa May demonstrate her expertise on the subject in the exchange with Corbyn and my guess is that this helped make the argument internally that such a TV debate might be a good idea.

I’d love it to happen.

Mike Smithson

Follow @MSmithsonPB



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