News / Politics

Labour to seek no-confidence vote ‘soon,’ Corbyn says as Brexit day nears

Sunday, 13 January 2019 9:09 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 13 January 2019 10:00 PM ]

Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn (R) listens to a journalists's questions after giving a speech on Brexit at a manufacturing plant in Wakefield, north England on January 10, 2019. (AFP photo)

With only 10 weeks before the punitive Brexit day, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says the party will “soon” call a no-confidence motion in the government of Prime Minister Theresa May.

The party would take the measure if lawmakers reject Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal with the EU in a vote on Tuesday, Corbyn told BBC One on Sunday.

“We will table a motion of no confidence in the government at a time of our choosing, but it’s going to be soon, don’t worry about that,” he said.

Pressed on the timing by the host, Andrew Marr, Corbyn added, “We’ll have the vote and then you’ll see.”

“We’re not tearing up the treaty of Rome any more than the EU wants to tear up the treaty of Rome,” he said. “What we’re saying to the EU is: this is the political situation in Britain, where we have a country that’s divided on this issue. We want to bring them together; a trade relationship helps to bring people together. I think they understand that.

London and the European Union have failed to reach an agreement about Britain’s decision to leave the bloc.

“I think you will find that when you get into serious negotiations as a government, determined to have that good relationship with Europe, that there will be an ability to negotiate,” Corbyn said.

The process of Britain's withdrawal from the EU will be triggered on March 29.

Reports suggested that preparations were underway by the European council president, Donald Tusk, to hold a special leaders’ summit aimed at pushing back Brexit day until at least July.

Labour seeks a general election first rather than a second referendum on Brexit.

The Labour leader has also made it clear that if the party wins power, he intends to negotiate his own version of Brexit.

PressTV-‘UK parliament plots to seize control of Brexit’

A report states the British parliament is trying to wrest control of Brexit process away from PM.

If he became prime minister, Corbyn said, he would ink a deal that would keep the UK in a customs union and with access to the single market.

“At the very minimum, a customs arrangement with the European Union that gives us a say of what goes on but also avoids the whole issue of the problems of Northern Ireland, which this deal does,” said the Labour leader. “We’re campaigning for a customs union.”

He further added that, “What I’m saying is we’re campaigning for a country that is brought together by investment,” noting that people are “very, very angry about the way they’ve been treated in their different communities around the country.”

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