Stop playing chicken with people’s lives, warns Yvette Cooper

Chair of Home Affairs Committee Yvette Cooper, whose amendment to delay Brexit will be voted on this week says PM Theresa May and the country's rich Brexiteers are putting ordinary people's lives at risk.

She attacked May for continually delaying Brexit negotiations and votes – and even 'wasting four months on a general election'.

'We've had continued delays continually kicking the can down the road,' she says. Adding that May and her government need to stop 'waiting for other people to sort this out'.

'We can't keep playing a game of chicken that's not the way to make decisions. In the end someone needs to take responsibility.'

Jeremy Corbyn has yet to say publicly whether he will support her amendment to allow Article 50 to be delayed if a no-deal Brexit looks imminent.

She said that parliament needs to put pressure on the PM to sort things out. 'She should be ruling out no deal,' she said and should not put families in a situation where food prices rise and there are shortages in medicines

Cooper said she wants to see Britain stay in the customs union to protect manufacturing jobs in her constituency where 69 per cent voted to leave the EU. 'I'm trying to get the government to take responsibility and sort this out.'

'Some of the richest people in the country calling for a no deal are not the ones who are going to suffer.'