Corbyn would be 'alone and naked' in Brexit talks, May claims
The PM says "I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not," as she keeps the focus of her campaign on who should oversee Brexit.
Tuesday 30 May 2017 17:55, UK
Jeremy Corbyn would find himself "alone and naked" in Brexit negotiations if he becomes Prime Minister, Theresa May has claimed.
Mrs May launched a strongly-worded assault on the Labour leader's fitness to run the country, insisting he has no plan for getting Britain out of the European Union.
The PM said that Mr Corbyn's performance on the Sky News/Channel 4 programme The Battle For Number 10 showed "I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not".
Mrs May's speech in Wolverhampton comes amid reports campaign chief Sir Lynton Crosby has told her to refocus the campaign on the choice of who should oversee Brexit, after a number of polls showed Labour narrowing the gap.
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Turning her fire directly on her rival for Downing Street, Mrs May said: "He is simply not ready to govern and not prepared to lead."
Looking back at the Labour leader's performance when questioned by broadcaster Jeremy Paxman and a studio audience, Mrs May said: "He is not prepared to use the nuclear deterrent.
"He is not prepared to take action against terrorists. He is not prepared to give the police the powers they need to keep us safe.
"He is not prepared to take a single difficult decision for the good of our economy. He is not prepared to answer questions about his long track record of supporting people who want to harm and even attack our country.
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"And with Brexit negotiations due to begin only 11 days after polling day, he is not prepared for those negotiations."
She added: "But I am prepared - prepared to take the difficult decisions that leadership demands. Prepared to do what is necessary to protect and defend our country. Prepared to go into the negotiating chamber with the EU just 11 days after polling day.
"I am prepared. I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not."
Evoking the memory of Labour's Nye Bevan, who once pleaded with colleagues not to send a foreign secretary "naked into the conference chamber" - Mrs May said: "Last night showed that Jeremy Corbyn's minders can put him in a smart blue suit for an interview with Jeremy Paxman, but with his position on Brexit he will find himself alone and naked in the negotiating chamber of the European Union."
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To raucous laughter from the audience of supporters, she added: "Now, I know that's an image that doesn't bear thinking about, but actually this is very serious."
Mrs May said she would be ready "from day one" to work on a new "deep and special relationship" with the EU, a contrast to Mr Corbyn, who she said had "no plan for Brexit".
She laid into the Labour leader's stance on Brexit, claiming he had first made a "reckless" call for Article 50 to be triggered immediately, then "lurched chaotically from half-baked plan to half-baked plan", adopting seven different approaches to severing ties with Brussels, Mrs May said.
Now she said he was promising to rip up the Government's Brexit white paper and bin its Great Repeal Bill, setting back the negotiation process further.
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Mrs May warned: "There will be no time to waste, no way of stalling, no way of asking Europe to hang on while we figure out what to do.
"The Europeans are ready to go and are determined to fight for a deal that works for them.
"This is not time for a weak government and a weak leader to be making it up as they go along, particularly not when that leader has shown poor judgement and weak leadership throughout the process so far."
And the PM said Mr Corbyn's decision to rule out walking out of Brexit talks without a deal "means being willing to accept any deal, however bad, signing up to any bill, however vast, accepting any terms, however unreasonable".