May blasts Corbyn on Brexit as poll lead narrows

Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday attacked opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn for being unprepared for Brexit, as her Conservative party’s poll lead narrowed further ahead of next week’s election.May said that while she was ready for negotiations set to start 11 days after the June 8 vote, the Labour leader would “find himself alone in the negotiating chamber of the European Union”.Both politicians endured a bruising television grilling on Monday, with May coming under fire from audience members over cuts to public services, including police — an emotive issue following last week’s Manchester bombing.In a speech in Wolverhampton  yesterday, the prime minister sought to pivot the debate back to Brexit. “I am prepared. I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not,” said May.“Prepared to take the difficult decisions that leadership demands. Prepared to do what is necessary to protect and defend our country.“Only one of us has the determination to deliver the will of the people and make Brexit happen. And only one of us has the plan to make Brexit a success.”May’s renewed onslaught on Corbyn’s judgment and character came as polls suggest the Conservatives’ lead is narrowing, amid concerns about the party’s social care policy.There have been reports of splits in the prime minister’s inner circle over the decision to make the controversial policy the centrepiece of the party’s manifesto. Unlike at events in the early days of the campaign, the bright blue backdrop to May’s speech prominently included her party’s name, urging voters to back “Theresa May and the Conservatives”.The prime minister’s speech to Tory activists also touched on many of the running themes of her campaign, renewing the pledge to “put government at the service of ordinary working people”.She repeatedly drove home the idea that she will negotiate on Britain’s behalf during the forthcoming negotiations. “I am prepared; I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn is not.”She described Brexit as the one fundamental, defining issue of the election, and claimed the Labour leader had “lurched chaotically from half-baked plan to half-baked plan”, with seven different Brexit plans in nine months.“Everything depends on and will be defined by the outcome of these next five years,” she said, adding, “this is no time for a weak leader to be making it up as they go along.”When May called the snap election in April, hoping for a stronger mandate for the EU talks, the Conservatives had a lead of more than 20 points over Labour.But this has fallen back in recent weeks since Labour presented its leftist agenda, and after a row over May’s plans for elderly social care that could see many people forced to pay more.A new Survation poll for ITV television put Labour up three points in a week on 37 %, while the Conservatives were unchanged on 43%.The smaller Liberal Democrats were on 8%. May yesterday repeated her Brexit negotiating goals, including withdrawing Britain from Europe’s single market in order to control immigration from the continent, and ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.And she confirmed once again she would rather walk away than accept a bad deal — saying Corbyn’s refusal to do so means “accepting any terms, however unreasonable”.Critics have warned that leaving the EU without a new trade deal in place could cause significant harm to Britain’s economy — a position repeated by Labour after May’s speech.“In this election, it is vital that the government is not given a blank cheque for a chaotic, extreme Brexit that would leave our economy... worse off,” lawmaker Chuka Umunna said.