Key points
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn send condolences to the families of those killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
Corbyn says May has talked about her deal v no deal as the only Brexit choice but her deal was finished in Tuesday night’s vote. He says she won’t whip her MPs on no deal. How will she vote? May says she will vote for the government motion, which says the house declines to approve Brexit on 29 March without a withdrawal agreement.
Corbyn asks why May is still ambivalent about a no-deal outcome. May says she wants a deal. Businesses want that too. She says a Corbyn government worries them more than a no-deal Brexit.
Corbyn says the CBI has described no deal as a sledgehammer to the economy. With manufacturing in recession and her deal rejected, he asks when she will accept the need for a customs union. May says the CBI says Labour’s policies would harm living standards. She says Corbyn claims to be in favour of a second referendum but did not even mention it last night.
Corbyn says May’s answer will not reassure people worried about their jobs or food producers in despair. She should back close alignment to the single market now. May says her deal includes tariff-free access to the EU and Corbyn should have read it.
Corbyn says Owen Paterson said during the referendum: “Only a madman would leave the single market.” He asks what she is for, now that her deal has been rejected, and says Labour has the only credible plan.
May says Corbyn talks about opposing no deal but votes to bring it closer. Labour’s plan has been rejected several times by this house. She says she understands the voice of the country. People want to leave the EU, end free movement, have their own trade policy and ensure laws are made in UK courts. Why is Corbyn now against that?
Corbyn says May no longer has the ability to lead. He says MPs need to listen to the country and May needs to show leadership.
May says MPs will vote on no deal on Wednesday, and then on extending article 50 on Thursday if no-deal Brexit is rejected. MPs have to make choices. She says Corbyn does not agree with government policy, or even Labour policy. He has nothing to offer this country.
Snap verdict
Profoundly uninspiring. There are times when a nation is in crisis when parliamentarians rise to the occasion. But there was no sign of that in those PMQs exchanges.
Jeremy Corbyn was absolutely right, of course, when he said that Theresa May’s plan has been decisively rejected, but he did not get very far in challenging May to adopt Labour’s plan and he sounded relatively unengaged considering the seriousness of what’s at stake.
Although he highlighted some of the horrors of a no-deal Brexit, if anything he probably understated the potential problems, and he sounded less passionate about the extent of the mess than he does when he is talking about issues like, say, homelessness or poverty. He restated the case for Labour’s Brexit, but he did not sound like someone poised to drive it through the House of Commons.
But he had a a better case than May who, partly because of her problems with her voice, was literally pitiful. She had a carefully crafted soundbite (“I may not have my own voice but I do understand the voice of the country”), but it was not enough to restore her credibility.
In the past May has frequently accused Corbyn of wanting to stop Brexit (a surprise to those who have actually studied his record.) But, interestingly, today she seemed to have dropped that line of attack, criticising him at one point for not restating his referendum policy yesterday and at another point highlighting his own Eurosceptic credentials.
Memorable lines
Theresa May:
He keeps talking about not wanting no deal but he keeps voting in a way that brings no deal closer. The deal he is proposing has been rejected several times by this house. I may not have my own voice but I do understand the voice of the country.
Jeremy Corbyn:
The prime minister has lost the ability to lead, her deal has failed, this is a rudderless government in the face of a huge national crisis … where the prime minister has so obviously failed, this house needs to listen to the country.
