JEREMY Corbyn has warned that Boris Johnson is cosying up to billionaire hedge-fund managers who want a “bankers’ Brexit” as he made clear he was open to other means besides a Commons no-confidence vote to stop a “no-deal crash-out”.
Ahead of today’s meeting at Westminster with other opposition leaders to produce a strategy to block a no-deal Brexit, the Labour leader condemned the Prime Minister’s “reckless rush” towards Britain leaving the EU without a deal, which would leave the country “at the mercy of Donald Trump and US corporations”.
He said: “The Tories are going out with their begging bowl to billionaire hedge-funders to raise cash for an autumn general election. The chaos and uncertainty caused by a no-deal Brexit is a potential goldmine for speculators betting against the pound.
“They will use the crisis to push through policies that benefit them and hurt everyone else as they have since 2010. They will aim to reduce the power of workers, protections for consumers, the tax bills of bankers, the richest and big corporations, as well as the regulations that are supposed to stop them abusing their power.”
Writing in The Independent, Mr Corbyn argued that a no-deal Brexit was “really a Trump deal Brexit”.
He went on: “It won't return sovereignty, it will put us at the mercy of Trump and the big US corporations dying to get their teeth into our NHS, sound the death knell for our steel industry and strip back our food standards and animal welfare protections.”
While he restated the need for a general election as the simplest and most democratic way to stop a no-deal, he did not rule out other options to stop such an outcome.
“I'll discuss all these options with the leaders of other opposition parties. I hope we can come to a good working arrangement and bring on board others across parliament who see the danger of a no-deal crash-out.”
Mr Corbyn believes he can bring together a Commons majority to win a no-confidence vote and bring down the Johnson government. However, others disagree. Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, believes the Labour leader is too divisive a figure and would not attract the necessary support from Conservative rebels and Independents. She has suggested Commons veterans Ken Clarke, the former Tory Chancellor, and Harriet Harman, the former Deputy Labour leader, as parliamentarians who could attract the necessary cross-party support to end the PM’s tenure.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, has made clear his preference is for MPs to repeat the exercise successfully carried out in the spring, where they took control of the Commons agenda to force through a parliamentary bill to get the Government to seek an extension to Brexit.
Noting how Mr Johnson had no mandate for a no-deal Brexit, the Highland MP said: "He needs to be stopped and I'm appealing to parliamentarians this week to recognise the responsibility collectively that we've all got that when we get back to Parliament next week, we have to move fast.
"We are up against a Government that are prepared to crash the bus and they must be stopped."
Mr Blackford said the SNP would be ready to work with anyone in order to avert a no-deal scenario.
"We need to bury our differences and we need to recognise the challenge that we face from someone that's prepared to take us out of the European Union on a no-deal basis.
"We all need to work together, that's what the public would expect from us. It's about protecting the interests of all our constituents from Brexit," he added.
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