Jeremy Corbyn finally admits Brexit WOULD go ahead if Labour won a snap election
The opposition leader said he would go to Brussels and 'negotiate' if he was Prime Minister
JEREMY Corbyn has finally admitted that Brexit would go ahead if Labour was to win a snap election in the New Year.
The opposition leader said he would go to Brussels and "negotiate" a better deal if he was Prime Minister.
In an interview with the , Corbyn also hit out at EU laws on state aid which he said blocked investment.
Asked about a second referendum, which is favoured by many of his MPs and Labour supporters, he added: "It would be a matter for the party to decide what the policy would be.
"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."
Labour passed a motion at its party conference in Liverpool in September that it would seek a general election as its first choice, but left open the option of supporting a second referendum.
Corbyn and other opposition frontbenchers have claimed that were Labour to replace May's Government by some means, they would be able to go back to Brussels to renegotiate her deal.
But Corbyn's remarks were attacked by Labour MPs who believe he should swing the party behind a second referendum that would give people a chance to stay in the EU.
Labour's former shadow business minister Chuka Umunna said the interview was "deeply depressing and disappointing".
Writing on Facebook he said: "Brexit is essentially a project of the hard right of British politics who want to turn Britain into a lightly regulated, offshore tax haven for the super rich, devoid of proper protections for workers, and one which seeks to dump the blame for the UK's problems on immigrants.
"Labour should stop pretending there is 'good' Brexit deal and we should certainly not be sponsoring this project because Brexit is the problem - it solves nothing."
Ilford North Labour MP Wes Streeting, a critic of Corbyn, added: "Why peddle this myth that Labour would be able to renegotiate a Brexit deal at this 11th hour?
"How would Labour's Brexit be any better than remaining in the EU?
"Our members and voters are overwhelmingly pro-European. This lets them, and our country, down."
The SNP also attacked Mr Corbyn, with Westminster leader Ian Blackford calling him "the midwife to the delivery of the Tory's Brexit plans".
Blackford said: "Jeremy Corbyn has finally come off the fence he's been sat on for the past two years.
"But unfathomably he's come down on the same side as Theresa May.
"The Labour party is incapable of providing opposition to the worst UK government that most people can remember."
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Lib Dem leader Vince Cable added that Corbyn "refuses once again to take the blinkers off".
He added: "He is ignoring the concerns of his own supporters and the economic damage experts warn Brexit will do to the UK economy.
"On Brexit, you simply cannot put a cigarette paper between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn."
CORB MOST UNPOPULAR
Jeremy Corbyn is the most unpopular opposition leader in nearly 40 years, says an Ipsos Mori poll.
The Labour chief was rated below Iain Duncan Smith, William Hague and Neil Kinnock after 28 months in the job.
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