‘Let the people decide’ Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn tells Theresa May at PMQs

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. Photograph: House of Commons/PA Wire - Credit: PA

Jeremy Corbyn has told Theresa May that it is time to let the people decide Brexit at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Jeremy Corbyn: "The best thing would be to go back to the people and let them decide which way we go" on #Brexit, the government is now "an irrelevance"

Theresa May: "Labour want to block Brexit, and that would be a betrayal of the many by the few"https://t.co/s98lQB3T8u #PMQs pic.twitter.com/ovPykyKNVD
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) July 3, 2019

As the pair argued over Brexit, Theresa May maintained that it was Labour’s fault that Westminster was in a state of paralysis.

Speaking at the despatch box, Corbyn told Theresa May: “Your deal was rejected three times by the House.

“When something has been rejected three times, you might think about an alternative method of doing things.”

He continued to explain that her successors “have no answers” and that the only way to solve the impasse was to put it back to the people.

He said: “This government is now an irrelevance. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have fantasy plans. Since she and her successors have no answers doesn’t the prime minister accept the best thing to do is to go back to the people and let them decide which way we go?”

While it does not appear to be a change in policy, some have suggested that it is a clear indication that Jeremy Corbyn is expected to more enthusiastically back a public vote as a way out of the Brexit deadlock.

Theresa May, by contrast, blamed Labour six times for the country heading towards a no-deal Brexit, and said that Labour wanted to Brexit.

She said: “I can look workers in the eye! [Jeremy Corbyn] can’t do that because he has voted three times for no deal.”

She continued to tell MPs: “The shadow Brexit secretary (Sir Keir Starmer) doesn’t support Brexit, the shadow foreign secretary (Emily Thornberry), the shadow chancellor (John McDonnell) doesn’t support Brexit, the Labour deputy leader (Tom Watson) doesn’t support Brexit.

“Labour wants to block Brexit and that would be a betrayal of the many by the few.”