Jeremy Corbyn has been told to ‘get a grip’ after he walked out of cross-party Brexit talks last night when Chuka Umunna showed up.
The Labour leader was said to have walked away when Umunna – one of eight Labour MPs to quit the party join the new Independent Group – arrived with former Tory Anna Soubry.
Umunna said the UK is in a ‘crisis situation’ and the Labour leader was ‘juvenile’ to pull out of a meeting at a time when different political groups should come together to discuss Brexit.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, he said: ‘It’s fairly juvenile behaviour from a leader of opposition when actually I think what people expect us to do at a time of national political crisis is to come together.
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‘Credit to the Prime Minister for bringing together the representatives of all the opposition groups of the House of Commons to try to find a way forward.
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‘It’s unfathomable why Jeremy Corbyn should walk out simply because I was there representing 11 MPs.
‘In fact Anna Soubry, who is one of the group of independent MPs was also with me, and it’s very clear – the prime minister told me herself – was the reason that he decided not to attend is because we were there.’
Labour said the ‘terms’ of the meeting had been ‘broken’ after Theresa May called on all party leaders to discuss a possible delay to Brexit until 30 June.
After the failed meeting, Corbyn turned his fire on the Prime Minister.
‘The Prime Minister has shown tonight she is in complete denial about the scale of the crisis we are facing and unable to offer the leadership the country needs,’ he said.
‘To continue to bring back her damaging and twice rejected deal without significant changes, while threatening a no deal outcome ruled out by MPs, is unacceptable and reckless.’
SNP’s Stewart McDonald compared Corbyn’s refusal to sit down with the Independent Group to the hit teen comedy Mean Girls.
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He tweeted: ‘I mean honestly, nine days until the country he wants to be prime minister of leaves the EU and Jeremy Corbyn has gone full “you can’t sit with us”.
‘This isn’t Mean Girls. Get a grip of your life, man!’
Corbyn was also sharply criticised by the leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable, who was at the meeting.
‘Jeremy Corbyn’s kinder, gentler politics was found wanting this evening as he stomped out of the meeting with the Prime Minister before it began, rather than breathe the same air as Chuka Umunna,’ he wrote on Twitter.
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