Brexit: MPs talk ‘absolute nonsense’ while objecting to talks – leader comment

Theresa May should talk to Jeremy Corbyn about Brexit, MPs should be doing everything they possibly can to break the impasse and, most of all, everyone should listen to the experts about the very real dangers of a no-deal Brexit in just over a week’s time.

Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May should be talking about ways to end the Brexit impasse. Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

As MPs finally just about managed to decide something – not to have any more votes designed to find out what kind of Brexit they could actually support – and the Governor of the Bank of England warned of the “alarmingly high” risk of an “accidental disorderly Brexit”, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn held a meeting.

It turned out May’s decision to speak to the Labour leader was the final straw for junior Wales Office minister Nigel Adams, who quit in protest.

A supporter of a “managed no-deal”, Adams complained the meeting meant that the UK would “end up in a customs union”.

In reality, the outcome was much less dramatic. While both sides said the talks had been “constructive”, Corbyn said their conversation had been “inconclusive”, with not “as much change” in May’s stance as he had expected.

If nothing changes, a week tomorrow we will all find out how well the UK will be able to “manage” a no-deal Brexit.

For those readers still listening to experts, Carney said the hard-Brexiteers’ idea that free trade would continue despite a no-deal was “fiction ... absolute nonsense”.