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Brexit can’t be stopped, according to U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel, extracts of which were published today, Corbyn was asked if he would stop Brexit if he could because the U.K. is so divided.
“We can’t stop it,” he said. “The referendum took place. Article 50 has been triggered. What we can do is recognize the reasons why people voted Leave.”
“I think a lot of people have been totally angered by the way in which their communities have been left behind. We had high Leave votes in the most left-behind areas of the country. In a lot of deprived areas, working conditions have deteriorated over the decades, protected by European legislation.”
Corbyn said that if he was prime minister and in charge of the Brexit negotiations, he wouldn’t face the same problems as Theresa May “because we wouldn’t be trying to face towards the deregulated economy of the United States, which the one wing of the Tory Party is trying to do all the time.
“We would want to make a new and comprehensive customs union with the European Union, one that would obviously protect the Irish border — that’s crucial — but also ensure that our supply chains worked in both directions. People voted Leave, or they voted Remain, but nobody voted to lose their job. Nobody voted to reduce their living standards or working conditions.”