Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, speaking ahead of meetings with the Irish President and Prime Minister and other political leaders in Dublin, said:
“Throughout this summer, our politics will be paralysed and our country’s future put on hold while the Conservatives are locked in internal conflict over their leadership. Jobs and investment will be put at risk in Leave and Remain areas alike.
“The Tory leadership contest will most likely end with a small number of wildly unrepresentative rightwing Conservative activists foisting a No Deal zealot on the country.
“The next Tory leader will be yet another unelected Prime Minister, without the support of the public and with no mandate for whatever form of Brexit he or she supports.
“Since the 2016 referendum, Labour has backed an alternative plan for Brexit that would work for the whole country, protecting jobs and living standards. Brexit has not happened because of the sheer incompetence and infighting of the Conservative Party.
“Labour will work with anyone across party boundaries and do whatever is necessary to stop a disastrous No Deal outcome, which would open the way for a frenzy of deregulation and a race to the bottom in jobs, rights and protections.
“But faced with the threat of No Deal and a Prime Minister with no mandate, the only way out of the Brexit crisis ripping our country apart is now to go back to the people. Let the people decide the country’s future, either in a general election or through a public vote on any deal agreed by parliament.
“For Labour any outcome has to work for our whole country, not just one side of this deliberately inflamed divide.”
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