Brexit: Jeremy Corbyn challenges Theresa May to recall parliament early over critical vote on deal

Exclusive: In an interview with The Independent, the Labour leader claims the PM and allies are attempting to run down the clock, offering MPs the ‘choice of the devil or the deep blue sea’

Jeremy Corbyn has challenged Theresa May to cut short the Christmas recess and recall parliament early in the new year in order to bring forward a critical vote on the Brexit deal.

In an interview with The Independent, the Labour leader said he believed the prime minister and her allies were engaged in a “cynical manoeuvre” to run down the clock and offer MPs the “choice of the devil or the deep blue sea”.

His remarks come as the Commons prepares to vote on the UK-EU deal in the week beginning 14 January – in what is being billed as the most significant moment in parliament for a generation.

With just 91 days remaining until Britain formally leaves the European Union, Mr Corbyn also reiterated it is a matter of “when, not if” Labour attempts to force a general election by tabling a motion of no confidence in the government, which he signalled will come in the aftermath of Ms May’s deal failing to receive MPs’ backing.

But he refused to be drawn on whether a Labour government would seek to extend Article 50, given that just weeks would remain for any renegotiation of Britain’s exit from the bloc, and claimed: “Lots of things are possible, the EU has longform on reopening and extending negotiations, but let’s not jump too many hoops when we haven’t arrived at them.”

Speaking in his constituency office in Islington, north London, ahead of Christmas Day, he poured scorn on the prime minister’s decision earlier this month to pull a vote on the deal in the face of near-certain defeat and instead begin a last-ditch attempt to seek assurances from the EU to assuage Brexiteers’ concerns over the contentious issue of the Irish backstop.

Pressed on whether he believed Ms May should now recall parliament a week early, on 2 January, the Labour leader replied: “Well it is in her hands to recall parliament. I want us to have a vote as soon as possible, that’s what I’ve been saying for the past two weeks, and if that means recalling parliament to have the vote let’s have it.

“But it looks to me the government has once again reneged on that and tried to put it back another week. We need to have that vote so a decision of parliament can be made. What I suspect is that it’s a completely cynical manoeuvre to run down the clock and offer MPs the choice of the devil or the deep blue sea.”

The House was last recalled during the EU referendum campaign in June 2016 to pay tributes to the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox. This was the 29th recall during a recess period since 1948. Other issues MPs have been ordered back to Westminster over included a debate over the use of chemical weapons in Syria in 2013, and the riots in London and other English cities in 2011.

In order for parliament to be recalled, the speaker of the Commons, John Bercow, must receive a formal request from the government which he would then consider and make a judgement on.

As it stands, MPs will return on 7 January after a two week Christmas recess, but the prime minister has already summoned her cabinet a week earlier on 2 January to discuss no-deal preparations.

Mr Corbyn added that the government should not have gone into recess without a vote on the deal: “The prime minister and the Tory chief whip agreed the timetable motion, we agreed the timetable motion which was a five day debate, and it was put at that time at that week to ensure the select committees could have a chance over a week to comment on the agreement before it was put to parliament.

“I agreed with... I thought that was a sensible way of doing it. You would have the process in the EU, you had Theresa May agreeing it with the EU, you then had a short gap, about a week, in which everyone could analyse it and consider it and then come back to the House for a five day debate and then a vote.”

He continued: “Three days into that they, the government, unilaterally pulled it and that shows the weakness of the system in the House of Commons where essentially the government holds the aces because they control the programme.

“I said this to the parliamentary Labour Party and it was seen as a slightly odd thing to say – I said, actually, for a party that wants to go into government, I want to see the House of Commons stronger than it is, not weaker than it is, because governments should be held to account by the parliament.”

But Labour itself is not without its own internal battles over Brexit. Asked to pinpoint the most difficult moment of 2018, Mr Corbyn said it was “bringing the party together over attitudes towards Brexit and the European Union”.

He said the unanimity achieved at party conference was designed to bring both leavers and remainers together on two things: “The direction of social and economic policy by the Labour Party, and the other is of course the relationship with the European Union.”

Now Mr Corbyn is facing demands from anti-Brexit activists within the party to convene an emergency conference to reevaluate the party’s strategy in the coming weeks – ahead of any vote – but the Labour leader said he did not “at this stage see the need for a special conference”.

“A special conference would take some time to organise anyway,” he added. “I think we do have the agreement of conference on the overall position, and we do have a very large and representative national executive. But obviously if the national executive wanted to hold a special conference they would say so, but I have not had any indications of that from members.”

In the interview, Mr Corbyn also claimed he was “totally” ready for any snap election, saying the party had already selected candidates in all of its marginal seats.

One path towards a general election would be through tabling a motion of no confidence in the government. If it passed and a new government attracting the support of a majority of the House cannot be formed within 14 days, parliament is dissolved and a vote triggered.

Pressed on whether Labour intends to make such a move in the coming weeks, Mr Corbyn said: “We’ve made clear it’s a question of when not if we do a vote of no confidence in the government, and obviously we do at a time when their confidence is the lowest ever, which I suspect will be after they’ve lost the vote.”

He would not be “tied to a date”, but said if Ms May loses the vote “we will obviously make our views clear in the House”.

“I’m not certain what the result would be,” he added. “We would obviously put a case of no confidence with the government at an appropriate time.”

But if Mr Corbyn’s wish of forcing a snap election fails to come to fruition, the next vote is scheduled for May 2022 – and the prime minister has already said on the record she will hand over the keys to No 10 to one of her Tory colleagues before that vote.

If he remains in post as Labour leader, Mr Corbyn will be facing his third prime minister as Labour leader. He chose not to name who his preferred challenger would be when Ms May resigns, however, and said he did not want to “ruin somebody’s chances by naming a favourite”.

Asked whether he ever felt sorry for the prime minister – an emotion expressed by the former Labour leader Tony Blair – Mr Corbyn said: “At a human level I have great interest in other people and I often feel sympathy for the positions people have got themselves into.

“But then I also look at her cabinet, look at the decisions they are making, look at the way in which universal credit impacts on the poorest, look at the levels of poverty around this country, and I feel angry and disgusted that we are just tolerating the institutionalisation of food banks, begging, rough sleeping in this country.

“No, it’s a symptom of a deep malaise of 10 years of frozen wages and lack of investment.”

Due to the unremitting sense of crisis at the top of the government and a prime minister struggling to retain any degree of authority, one of the criticisms often levelled at Mr Corbyn is that Labour should now be at least 10 points ahead in the opinion polls. Instead, the party is often on a level pegging with the Conservatives.

When questioned on this, Mr Corbyn replied: “I wish we had even more support than we do have, but we have fought many election campaigns, many local election campaigns, and we did win councils that people said would be very difficult to win back.

“I would also say, generally speaking, the only time that the majority of the media have given us anything like a fair hearing was during the election campaign, and rapidly after the election campaign they reverted to type and we’ve had unremitting hostility from most of the media ever since then, and we continue to have it.”

Referring to an incident in the Commons last week when he was accused of calling the prime minister a “stupid woman” – he later denied this, saying he said “stupid people” – Mr Corbyn said Labour’s strength was getting out its message through social media.

Following the bustup in the chamber, the Islington North MP said a video produced by his team the following day, which also criticised the media, received half a million views in just a few hours.

But before he intends to build on the party’s social media output and daily campaign work, Mr Corbyn said he will bring in the new year with his wife, Laura Alvarez.

“I don’t drink so there’s not much celebration in that sense,” he said. “We will enjoy the new year, Laura and I. We look forward to a new year. And I always make sure in my own life that I work very hard at my job – and I do a lot of travelling and working and I love being a constituency MP – but I also make sure I have other things to do. So I read, I do my allotment, and I do various things at home. At the moment I am reading TM Devine’s History of Scotland and it’s fascinating.

“Probably a quiet New Year’s Eve unless my sons come round.”