Jeremy Corbyn will seek to increase pressure on Theresa May in parliament next week in a bid to prevent the Tories running down the clock on Brexit.
As the prime minister urged EU leaders to offer fresh concessions in Brussels on Thursday, senior Labour sources stressed the party was determined to “turn up the heat” at home.
May’s spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday that “there will be no meaningful vote before Christmas”, while the prime minister negotiates with her EU counterparts.
But Labour fears May will only be able to win cosmetic changes to the backstop – and that she will use the ongoing talks as an excuse to avoid testing the will of parliament.
“There must be no more dither and delay, or attempts to run down the clock in an attempt to deny parliament alternative options,” Corbyn said on Thursday.
“People and businesses need certainty. The prime minister should put her deal before parliament next week in our country’s interest,” he said, adding that there was “no time to waste”.
The Labour leader has held meetings with the shadow Brexit secretary, Sir Keir Starmer, who has been pressing for the party to table a motion of no confidence in the government before parliament rises for a Christmas break next Thursday.
That option has not been ruled out – depending on the reaction of Conservative backbenchers and the DUP when May reports back to MPs from the European council meeting on Monday.
But the party is also studying alternative, less drastic options, including tabling an urgent question on the government’s no-deal preparations; and demanding a three-hour emergency debate to allow parliament to set out its expectations for the latest negotiations over the backstop.
It could also demand a full parliamentary debate of regulations readying the financial services sector for a no-deal Brexit, which are currently due to be considered in a committee.
“Essentially we can throw the parliamentary kitchen sink at them,” said another senior Labour source, “with all the trimmings”.
Some shadow ministers are more sceptical about calling a no-confidence vote early, fearing it would only unite the Conservatives behind May. One told the Guardian: “We’ve got to wait until January now.”
But Corbyn is keen to keep up attacks on the government, amid pressure from grassroots activists to fight Brexit – and there is nothing to stop the party tabling subsequent motions if it loses.
Conservative MPs have been warned by the chief whip, Julian Smith, not to absent themselves from parliament next week, because the government must be “alive to opposition tactics in the run-up to the recess”.
Wednesday’s confidence vote on May’s leadership among her Conservative colleagues followed a dramatic seven days, in which the government lost three successive votes in the House of Commons and was forced to publish its legal advice on the Brexit backstop.
Labour has repeatedly used parliamentary devices – including the arcane process known as a “humble address” – to put the government on the back foot over Brexit and demand information.
Ministers have become increasingly irritated at what they see as the Speaker, John Bercow’s tendency to indulge such tactics.
Referring to reports Bercow had told students he voted remain in the 2016 referendum, the leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom said earlier this week: “He’s made his views on Brexit on the record, and the problem with that of course is that the chair’s impartiality is absolutely essential.”
The Liberal Democrats on Thursday demanded that the Christmas recess – due to last until 7 January – be cancelled in order to allow parliament to debate Brexit options.
The Lib Dem MP Tom Brake said: “At a time of so much uncertainty caused by this Brexit mess, it is an insult to the British people that Theresa May is happy for MPs to go on holiday without voting on the biggest issue in generations. People deserve better, and the Liberal Democrats demand better.
“Liberal Democrats do not believe parliament should rise for the Christmas recess until Theresa May does what the people expect and gives MPs a vote on her deal.”
