A clash of stand-in leaders at prime minister’s questions brought some familiar-sounding exchanges on Wednesday as David Lidington and Emily Thornberry jostled over the government’s plans for Brexit.
With Theresa May in Bahrain, her place was taken by Lidington, the leader of the Commons. Traditionally the stand-in is the deputy prime minister, but May has not appointed anyone to that role.
Facing him was Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, chosen by Labour to take the place of Jeremy Corbyn rather than his number two, Tom Watson.
Thornberry probed Lidington repeatedly over whether or not the government wanted to stay in the EU’s customs union after Brexit.
Lidington said it would go against the national interest to reveal any negotiating plans, and accused Labour of being in “utter denial” over Brexit.
Thornberry said: “Can I ask the leader of the house one central question about this plan: does the government want the UK to remain part of the customs union?”
Lidington kept to May’s usual line, saying only that the government was seeking “the maximum freedom for British companies both to have access to and operate within the single European market”.
He added: “The government has always made it clear that we would seek to give additional clarity about our position at the earliest opportunity.”
Thornberry returned to the same issue for her next two questions, quoting Lidington’s remarks before the referendum – in which he campaigned for remain – that leaving the customs unions would bring chaos to British businesses.
“The question is: does he still agree with himself?” she asked.
Lidington replied: “It can’t have escaped even the honourable lady’s attention that there has been a rather significant referendum since February. That changes the context in which we are having to operate.”
He said it would be “harmful to the national interest for me or other ministers to engage in the sort of detailed exposition of our negotiating position that she is now pressing upon me”.
Asking about the idea of customs checks on the Irish border in the event of a hard Brexit, Thornberry accused Lidington of resorting to the “usual stonewalling”.
She said: “We have a government that is promising to tell us the plan, while refusing to give us answers to the most basic of questions. We have a government promising to give parliament a say, when they’re spending we don’t know how much of taxpayers’ money across the road in the supreme court trying to stop parliament having a say on this.
“In short, we have a government that cannot tell us the plan, because they do not have a plan.”
Lidington responded that Labour were “in a state of utter denial” over Brexit. He added: “We watch them in action. It’s quarrelling like Mutiny on the Bounty as re-shot by the Carry On team.”
