PMQs verdict: Corbyn leaves May sounding defensive on Brexit

In an even match, the jibe that the PM has an open door but a closed mind stood out

Key points
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn started by mentioning Holocaust Memorial Day and condemning antisemitism and racism.
Corbyn said that, according to the chancellor and the business secretary, say there was a large majority in the Commons against no deal. So would she take it off the table?
May said the way to avoid no deal was to pass a deal, adding that she wanted to talk about how to secure support for a deal. Corbyn had been willing to sit down with Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRA without preconditions. But he would not sit down with May. In this case, he was neither present nor involved.
Corbyn said he did offer to meet May last autumn. While May’s door might be open, her mind was closed. Would May confirm that, if the amendments to stop no deal were passed, she would rule out no deal. May said the amendments did not solve the issue, because they just delayed Brexit.
Corbyn said a no-deal Brexit would cost jobs and undermine living standards. Was May’s government ruling out a customs union with the EU?
May asked what Labour meant by staying in the customs union. She rattled off a series of questions, and said she would like to talk to Corbyn about it. If he would not talk about it, she said, he had not got a clue.
Corbyn said the TUC backed his policy, and the CBI, and the first minsters of Wales and Scotland. He asked could May explain why she was ruling out a customs union and “for once”, could she answer the question.
May said when people spoke about it, they wanted businesses to be able to export to the EU without facing tariffs or rules of origin checks. Her deal allowed that, but also allowed the UK to strike its own trade deals.
Corbyn said Liam Fox could not name one country he had reached a trade deal with. Why was she willing to sell jobs down the river?
May said she wanted a deal that protected jobs. She said Corbyn stood up and delivered phrases but did not know what those phrases meant. And Corbyn had not mentioned the employment figures.
Corbyn said May had not mentioned poverty. The door might be open, but minds were closed, he said. He said a third of her government were at the billionaires’ jamboree at Davos. He said May had ruled out the two issues on which there was a majority in Commons: ruling out no deal, and a customs union.
May asked why Corbyn would not come and talk about it. She said borrowing was at its lowest level for 16 years, the IMF was predicting higher growth than for some other big economies, and the biggest threat to that would be a Labour government.
Snap verdict
A high-scoring, and fairly evenly matched PMQs, in which Corbyn probably had the upper hand, because by the end he sounded more reasonable. He devoted all his questions to Brexit, and mostly focused on challenging May to rule out no deal, and to accept the case for the UK staying in a customs union. On the latter point, May was reasonably clear, restating her opposition to a customs union on the grounds that it would not allow the UK to strike its own trade deals.
On no deal, she was more evasive. Corbyn asked at one point whether she would accept the amendments tabled ahead of next week’s vote, designed to rule out a no-deal Brexit, if they were passed. This is a crucial question, because it is not clear that the amendments will actually have the impact the MPs who have tabled them hope, and May did not address this point at all, beyond saying that extending article 50 did not absolutely rule out no deal because it only postponed the decision point.
The point Corbyn made at the end about May ruling out the two propositions for which there was majority support in the Commons was a strong one. But it was not a clear-cut win for him. Predictably, but not entirely unfairly, May clobbered him in her first response for his decision to boycott her cross-party talks on Brexit by imposing a precondition. (Many people have said he would have been better advised to just turn up, and denounce her inflexibility afterwards.)
May also had a good riff about technical aspects of Labour’s customs union policy, which the party has not been able to address. This attack line was well-founded too. But, overall, she came over as harsh and defensive, confirming the jibe Corbyn made about her having an open door but a closed mind. This was probably the best soundbite of the exchange. It was not really Corbyn’s at all, because Hilary Benn first used this line in the Commons on Monday, but so what? Most viewers won’t have realised, and it worked.
Memorable lines
Theresa May
The right honourable gentleman has been willing to sit down with Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRA without preconditions, yet he won’t meet me to talk about Brexit.
Jeremy Corbyn
The international trade secretary promised 40 trade deals the second after Brexit. This morning he couldn’t name a single one … So why is the prime minister prepared to sell people’s jobs and living standards down the river rather than negotiate a customs union that would be part of a sensible deal for the future.