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The Labour leader insisted that even if his party won a snap general election in the new year, he would seek to go to Brussels and try to secure a better deal – if possible, in time to allow Brexit to go ahead on 29 March.
“You’d have to go back and negotiate, and see what the timetable would be,” he said.
Corbyn underlined the fact that he cannot set Labour’s policy unilaterally, saying: “I’m not a dictator of the party.” [...]
With the clock running down to 29 March, when Britain is due to leave the EU, a vocal group of Labour MPs – including some in the shadow cabinet – are pushing for the leadership to endorse the idea of a “people’s vote”.
But asked if he could imagine a referendum emerging as a solution if it becomes clear that parliament is deadlocked – as the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, mooted this week – he said: “I think we should vote down this deal; we should then go back to the EU with a discussion about a customs union.”
As to what stance Labour would take if a referendum were held, Corbyn said, “it would be a matter for the party to decide what the policy would be; but my proposal at this moment is that we go forward, trying to get a customs union with the EU, in which we would be able to be proper trading partners.”
And he struck a distinctly Eurosceptic note by again highlighting Labour’s concerns about the state aid rules that form part of the architecture of the single market.
“I think the state aid rules do need to be looked at again, because quite clearly, if you want to regenerate an economy, as we would want to do in government, then I don’t want to be told by somebody else that we can’t use state aid in order to be able to develop industry in this country,” he said.
Neither is he willing to countenance the idea that Labour should support May’s deal, to avoid Britain crashing out with no deal in place at all – a move the prime minister has repeatedly said is in the “national interest”.
“The national interest is for parliament to have a vote on this deal now,” Corbyn said, pointing out that it was May who had pulled the vote, which MPs had agreed to hold on 11 December.
“They reneged on that. And then she suddenly turns round and starts accusing us of playing politics with it. She’s the one that reneged on the deal. Not me.” [...]