Soft Brexit leader Jezza is accused of raising the white flag on Global Britain to bend the knee to Brussels' red tape
JEREMY Corbyn is accused of raising the white flag on Brexit as he ruled out new jumbo trade deals with the US and China.
He said he was opposed to pacts with the two biggest economies in the world because it would “risk dragging Britain into a race to the bottom on vital protections and rights at work”.
It came as he completed a Brexit U-turn yesterday by softening the party’s stand and pivoting to keep Britain in an EU customs union.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the plan would reduce Britain to a “colony” of the EU and we would be “unable to take back control of our borders or our trade policy”.
He tweeted: “White flag from Labour before talks even begin.”
Mr Corbyn urged Tory rebels to back his plan and defeat the Government in an upcoming Commons battle to keep Britain within the EU’s trading rules.
We won’t go near anything in Corbyn’s name
TORY REBEL, HEIDI ALLEN
But they snubbed his appeal to work with him to defeat the Government's plans for no customs union with the EU.
Tory MP Heidi Allen said: "We won't go near anything in Corbyn's name."
Another rebel said: "None of us intend to work with Corbyn."
And John Mills, one of Labour’s biggest donors, said: “I think it’s going to be very difficult to be in - what in fact will be the customs union...without being in the single market. I think the two are in the end inextricably bound together. ”
Mr Mills, who met EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier in Brussels last week, also predicted the EU would reject Labour’s demand to leave the single market but stay in the EU customs union.
He signalled this could lead to Mr Corbyn softening his Brexit stance further by capitulating to demands from pro-EU Labour MPs to back staying in the single market.
And on Monday, leading Labour Europhile Chris Leslie pounced on Mr Corbyn’s softened stance by declaring: “Jeremy Corbyn’s speech is not the end of Labour’s debate on Europe.”
The Labour leader’s plan, welcomed by the Europhile Confederation of British Industry – a group publicly opposed to his radical re-nationalisation programme, would leave Britain tied to EU rules and bar us from striking our own free trade deals.
In a speech at Coventry University, Mr Corbyn said Labour would seek to negotiate a “new and comprehensive” customs union with Brussels to keep tariff-free trade and avoid the return of a hard border in Northern Ireland.
But even Brussels mocked his bid for opt-outs as “red velvet cake-ism” — a reference to his leftie credentials and its cherry-picking nature.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will today warn that staying in an EU customs union would be akin to “trying to negotiate with one arm tied behind our back”.
And he will say that it would be a “complete sell-out of Britain’s national interests”.
