Jeremy Corbyn has called for the House of Commons to be recalled early from its Christmas break to allow MPs to vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
Parliament is not due to reconvene until Monday 6 January, with the postponed vote on the prime minister’s deal expected to take place in the week after that.
In an interview with the i newspaper, Corbyn suggested May should bring MPs back early. “Well, it is in her hands to recall parliament. I want us to have a vote as soon as possible, that’s what I’ve been saying for the past two weeks, and if that means recalling parliament to have the vote let’s have it,” he said.
He accused May of a “completely cynical manoeuvre” to “run down the clock and offer MPs the choice of the devil or the deep blue sea”.
Before parliament’s Christmas recess, Corbyn did not join those MPs, including the Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and Conservative Justine Greening, calling for recess to be cancelled or curtailed so the vote could go ahead.
And he has continued to resist intense pressure from Labour activists to shift the party’s position towards backing a second Brexit referendum.
Corbyn sparked a backlash this month by restating in a Guardian interview that the party’s position was to seek to go back to Brussels and renegotiate a better Brexit deal, rather than try to overturn the result of the 2016 referendum.
