Britain’s main opposition Labour Party says it is still opposed to a European Union withdrawal agreement that the government will submit to the parliament early next month, with leader Jeremy Corbyn calling the deal the same as those previously rejected by lawmakers on three occasions.
Corbyn told the BBC in an interview aired on Sunday that despite nearly two months of negotiations with the government to break the political standoff over Berxit, his party would block Prime Minister Theresa May’s fourth attempt to go through the parliament with her Withdrawal Agreement Bill legislation in early June.
“We haven’t seen whatever the new bill is going to be yet but nothing I’ve heard leads me to believe it is fundamentally any different from the previous bill that has been put forward,” said Corbyn, adding, “so as of now we are not supporting it.”
The remarks come as May is desperately seeking to gain the approval of the parliament for the controversial Brexit agreement she signed with the EU in November. The deal was defeated by the House of Commons for a third time in early April, prompting the EU to delay the Brexit deadline until the end of October. The defeats also forced May to start talks with the Labour to find a way through the deadlock.However, Corbyn and the Labour, who favor closer relations with the EU after Brexit, have insisted during the talks with the government that any withdrawal mechanism offered to the parliament should have an option for a second Brexit referendum.
May has repeatedly rejected Labour’s condition, saying her government should first deliver on the results of the first Berxit referendum in June 2016 in which Britons voted 52-48 to leave the EU.