Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged Britain on Thursday to look beyond Brexit and vote for his opposition party’s fight against austerity at this month’s European election, a poll he blamed on the government’s “complete failure” to leave the European Union.
“WE WANT TO BRING UK BACK TOGETHER”
Launching Labour’s campaign, Corbyn, whose party is also deeply divided over how or whether Britain should leave the EU, argued that binary positions on Brexit would do little to heal the country’s rifts, something he said was allowing the growth of the far right. But while saying the election should not be seen through the prism of Brexit, he gave little hope that talks with the government on finding a deal to get Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal through parliament, were progressing quickly.
Instead, he was clear he much preferred an election to a second referendum, risking fuelling anger from several lawmakers in his party who say the only way to break the Brexit impasse is to turn once again to the people to decide.
But Corbyn said a second referendum could be the kind of “healing process” the country needed. “It is Labour that wants to bring our country back together,” he told dozens of students and supporters at a university in the southeastern county of Kent, parts of which voted to leave the EU at the 2016 referendum.
“So whether you voted leave or remain in 2016, I urge you to vote Labour, the party that is determined to bring the many together and take on the entrenched power of the few.”