Keir Starmer has warned Boris Johnson that not striking a post-Brexit trade deal would be a “complete failure of statecraft”.
After the Prime Minister admitted a damaging no deal departure was on the cards, the Labour leader urged him to pull out all the stops to get one.
As talks continued in Brussels, he called on him to “deliver on” his promise to get a deal as crashing out would be a huge blow to the UK economy.
And he denied the UK would have to compromise its sovereignty to get an agreement with the European Union over the line.
Mr Starmer also came his closest yet to confirming that Labour would back an agreement if the PM managed to bring one home.
The move could cause splits in the party with some MPs fearing the Opposition would then be blamed for negative impacts of the deal in future.
In an interview with the Mirror, he said: “We haven’t got a deal yet. We will have to look at a deal and I hope it does come.
“But if it is a straight choice between a deal and no deal then I’m in no doubt that a deal is in the national interest.”
Mr Johnson admitted before last year’s general election campaign that failing to secure a trade deal would be a “failure of statecraft”.
He also said the chances of Britain breaking away from the EU at the end of 2020 without a trade agreement in place were “absolutely zero”.
Echoing his remarks, Mr Starmer said: “It is a complete failure of statecraft particularly from a PM who told us there was absolutely no chance of a no deal Brexit.
“There’s no point dressing it up as an Australian deal. You might as well call it a Mongolian deal.
“It is no-deal and if we end up there that means we haven’t got a trading agreement with our most important trading partners.”
The PM and Brussels chief Ursula von der Leyen have given negotiators until Sunday to overcome “significant differences” between the two sides - or stop talking.
Mr Starmer insisted: “I want him to get a deal. He promised an oven ready deal - he needs to deliver on it, That’s in the national interest.
“This is the PM who made one promise to the British people going into that election, that he would get Brexit done.
“It looks like he’s going to fail on the only promise he has made to the British people.”
Mr Johnson has said that EU proposals for three main obstacles - fishing, competition standards and policing a deal - risk the UK’s control of its own laws.
But the Labour leader said: “We’ve done trade deals in the last few weeks and months with other countries, including Japan, where you simply agree terms.
“All of the issues that are in play now are the issues that have been there throughout.
“The idea that the PM hasn’t got a strategy for dealing with it I think will come as a surprise to many people.”
