Theresa May is trying to taint Jeremy Corbyn with the Brexit blood – but there is a way he can avoid her trap

The Labour leader will have to tread carefully. He might have to resist the temptation to play politics to engineer the general election he understandably covets

When the Conservatives ensured their Liberal Democrat partners shared the blame for the coalition’s spending cuts, Lib Dem ministers admitted they were “dipping our hands in the blood”.

The same motive in part explains Theresa May’s surprise olive branch to Jeremy Corbyn on Brexit. Yes, she needs Labour votes to get it over the line. But if she fails to reach a compromise with the Labour leader in their talks starting this afternoon, the Tories have the option of reverting to type and accusing Corbyn of wrecking Brexit.

Indeed, that was their strategy until May decided at yesterday’s marathon cabinet meeting to give up on hardline Eurosceptics and the Democratic Unionist Party, and instead reach across the aisle. As one minister told me on Monday: “If there’s a general election, we are going to hang round Corbyn’s neck that he blocked Brexit.”

So while the prime minister’s move is welcome, it is also a trap. She wants to dip Corbyn’s hands in the Brexit blood, the very outcome he has long tried to avoid. Labour’s mantra has been: “let the Tories own their mess.”

May’s attempt to seek a cross-party consensus is long overdue. She twice rejected pleas by Labour’s Yvette Cooper to do so, on becoming prime minister and a year later after losing her overall majority, when many of us knew instantly that a soft Brexit was inevitable.

But something has now changed, and a soft Brexit looms. After kicking the can to the end of the road and beyond, May has come to the final fork and, for once, veered left rather than right.

The Eurosceptics are spitting blood but have only themselves to blame. They rejected the hardest Brexit they we going to get in May’s deal, and will probably now have to live with a customs union. To describe May’s move as a gamble is an understatement: only 37 Tory MPs voted for a customs union on Monday, with 236 voting against.

We can expect blood-curdling threats from the outmanoeuvred European Research Group to bring May’s government crashing down. Some hardliners might dangle Corbyn the carrot of backing him if he tables a no confidence motion. Suddenly he is Mr Popular among the Tories who have spent the last four years attacking him as an unreconstructed Marxist who would bankrupt Britain.

Corbyn will have to tread carefully. He might have to resist the temptation to play politics to engineer the general election he understandably covets. What if Eurosceptics toppled May and then installed one of their own in the 14-day cooling off period under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, avoiding an election?

Corbyn got it right last night when he recognised “my responsibility to represent the people who supported Labour in the last election and the people who didn’t support Labour but nevertheless want certainty and security for their own future”. May has handed him a much-needed opportunity to enhance his credibility and standing with voters; he should take it.

In his talks with May, Corbyn should seek what he whipped his MPs to support on Monday – membership of the single market, a permanent customs union and a confirmatory Final Say referendum. I’m not sure he will push a public vote even though it is Labour policy. He is open to a referendum on May’s withdrawal agreement and to prevent a no-deal exit. But Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, and Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, go further, backing a Final Say vote on any deal, including on the party’s plan for a customs union.

I doubt May and Corbyn will reach a consensus. It would be out of character for two such tribal politicians. But they might agree on options to be put to MPs in the second phase of May’s plan.

Her televised statement last night implied she would accept the will of the Commons, but she left herself some wiggle room, saying “the government stands ready to abide by the decision of the House”. That stopped short of saying she would implement whatever MPs decided. Perhaps she has not given up hope of bringing back her unloved deal one last time, and that the Eurosceptics swallow it to prevent soft Brexit or no Brexit.

Despite May’s welcome move to avoid a no-deal departure on 12 April, her proposal risks a no-deal exit on 22 May, at the end of the extension she hopes to win from the EU. The timetable is very tight and a longer delay might well be needed.

Corbyn and MPs should also use their new muscle to lock in any soft Brexit agreement though legislation. Without that, there is a real danger Eurosceptics will rip up such a deal in the negotiations on a long-term UK-EU trade deal. May’s successor, probably the most Eurosceptic candidate on offer to Tory members, will probably have promised them a harder version of Brexit.

May won’t be around for these negotiations. Indeed, after unexpectedly cuddling up to Corbyn, her already short shelf-life has surely got even shorter.