Key points
Jeremy Corbyn kicked off a very noisy PMQs this week by paying tribute to Patricia Hollis, the Labour peer who died this week.
He then asked Theresa May, given that she did not mention either Chequers in her conference speech or in the Commons on Monday, did it mean the Chequers plan was dead. May, who joined the Hollis tribute, replied: “The answer is no.”
Corbyn said Penny Mordaunt and Esther McVey had both refused to back Chequers. Maybe she could share a pizza with them and sort it out.
A backstop is required to ensure there is no hard border in Ireland if a comprehensive free trade deal cannot be signed before the end of 2020. Theresa May has proposed to the EU that the whole of the UK would remain in the customs union after Brexit, but Brussels has said it needs more time to evaluate the proposal.
As a result, the EU insists on having its own backstop - the backstop to the backstop - which would mean Northern Ireland would remain in the single market and customs union in the absence of a free trade deal, prompting fierce objections from Conservative hard Brexiters and the DUP, which props up her government.
That prompted May to propose a country-wide alternative in which the whole of the UK would remain in parts of the customs union after Brexit.
“The EU still requires a ‘backstop to the backstop’ – effectively an insurance policy for the insurance policy. And they want this to be the Northern Ireland-only solution that they had previously proposed,” May told MPs.
Raising the stakes, the prime minister said the EU’s insistence amounted to a threat to the constitution of the UK: “We have been clear that we cannot agree to anything that threatens the integrity of our United Kingdom,” she added.
Corbyn’s next question referred to reports that Philip Hammond believes the UK may still have to pay most of a £39bn Brexit “divorce bill” if there is no deal. May said the UK honoured its obligations. But nothing was agreed until everything was agreed.
Corbyn asked May to confirm that the joint report she signed with the EU committed the UK to an Irish backstop without a time limit.
May said the UK had said the backstop was to bridge the gap between the end of the implementation period and the future relationship coming into force. Corbyn said May signed an agreement with no time limit attached. Did she still stand by that?
He said the car industry was clear it needed a new customs union to ensure continued investment in manufacturing. Jobs were at risk. Why wouldn’t May back a customs union to back jobs?
May said the frictionless trade carmakers wanted was at the heart of her plan. Her plan would deliver on the referendum decision. Labour would not do that. It wanted a second referendum.
Corbyn said Jaguar Land Rover was holding off investment until it knew what would happen. He said the public accounts committee said last week the Department of Health could not guarantee the supply of medicines after Brexit.
May said Corbyn was talking about a no-deal scenario. The Department of Health was preparing for this.
Corbyn said, according to the BMA the UK was woefully underprepared for this. The Tories had spent two years arguing with themselves over it. They were still bickering. They were too weak and too divided to protect jobs or the economy. So May had a choice. She could continue to put the Tory party first. Or she could put the interests of the country first.
May said Corbyn had said nothing about the unemployment figures out this week. She listed government achievements: scrapping the cap on council spending on homes, freezing fuel duty, low unemployment, wages rising. Labour could play politics; the Conservatives delivered for the people.
Snap verdict
It was a creditable performance from Corbyn but, with one exception, his questions did not really put May under much pressure, and it is hard to see either of them deserving credit for a resounding victory.
Corbyn focused all his questions on Brexit, but he asked about six, quite separate topics and, although all his questions were pertinent (and shorter than usual, it sounded to me, which was welcome), May brushed them aside fairly easily.
If you can’t get past the shield with the first question, you need a well-directed follow-up, but Corbyn has never been good at these and so this was an exchange marked by lost opportunities.
May claimed Chequers was still policy. So can she promise MPs that she will only sign a deal that preserves all its elements? Or is she even willing to say the word out loud?
And May says nothing is agreed on the Brexit bill until everything is agreed. So can she assure Tory Brexiters that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the UK will pay nothing? (She can’t, because the UK would pay up, but she is loth to say so with Jacob Rees-Mogg in the room.)
Corbyn’s best moment came when he asked May why she signed up to the Irish backstop in the December joint report agreed between the EU and the UK without insisting on a time limit. This is an excellent question because the only honest answer (“we were up against a deadline and we didn’t think it through”) won’t wash, and May sounded a little panicky as she waffled her way through her rather feeble answer. Six questions on this would have had her floundering badly. But Corbyn never pressed the point, and so May got off more lightly than she deserved.
Memorable lines
When Corbyn refers to Mordaunt and McVey’s doubts about Chequers, he gets in a dig about Brexiter MPs meeting for a pizza to discuss May’s plan:
Maybe she could share a pizza with them and see if they can sort it out.
Theresa May:
There will be no second referendum. The people voted and the government is delivering on that.
The SNP’s Ian Blackford on May’s upcoming Brussels trip to secure a deal:
We will act as a responsible opposition. The enemy is behind her.
