Theresa May just kicked the Brexit can right into Corbyn's allotment (by George Galloway)

As Inspector Clouseau once said in the Pink Panther “It’s so obvious that it could not possibly be a trap.”

Delivered in a Peter Sellers type of French accent with his gormless naivety it was perfectly obvious to the cinema audiences that a trap was exactly what it was.

Theresa May's 11th-hour 55th minute conversion to consulting Jeremy Corbyn on the type of Brexit Britain should finally enjoy is so obvious it must be a trap.

Not that Corbyn had any choice but to accept the prime minister's invitation to negotiate with her in the name of “national unity.” Britain IS in a jam, but not one of the famously horticultural allotment-tending leader of the opposition's making. Just days away from the bumpy exit which, even its supporters (like me), cannot deny a WTO departure from the European Union would be, a terror (no exaggeration). Having to hold European Parliamentary elections (in which I would be a candidate), the Brexit camp would sweep with a huge majority, adding a new complication to the prime minister (and the leader of the opposition's) pickle. This, and an increasingly belligerent Brussels elite shrilly insulting us, something had to be done.

The most obvious way to “break the logjam” in a Remain dominated parliament determined to frustrate both the PM and the Referendum result would be a new general election. That nobody in power or the power's chorus-line in the national media is demanding one is the hidden secret in this affair.

 They cannot hold a general election because, in all likelihood, the man they have traduced for four long years as a “Marxist,” a “communist,” a “Czech spy,” a “Russian agent,” and a “Putin apologist,” would likely win it.

This, despite a tsunami of bad press of unprecedented ferocity, not a few blunders by Corbyn himself, and chasm opening up to the right of both major parties which nationalist and even fascist street gangs are busily exploiting over the perceived failure of both parties to deliver the Brexit 17.4 million people voted for.

Only months ago, both Tory and Labour were regularly polling above 40 percent in opinion polls and neck and neck. Today, they are still neck and neck but both are down in the low 30 percent. 

Theresa May has kicked the can into Corbyn's allotment alright, the question is if he picks it up, will he be left carrying the can?

Corbyn will seek to negotiate a “softer Brexit” with the PM. But millions of people think the PM's Brexit is already way too soft. Equally millions of people don't want a Brexit at all, and they were already blaming Corbyn (widely suspected to be a Brexiteer at heart) just as much as they were blaming the government for the fact we were leaving the EU at all. Force a softer Brexit and alienate the 5 million Labour voters who chose Brexit without getting much (if any at all) credit from the ardent Remainers. That, for Mr Corbyn, is the question.

And all of this has to be completed this week!

One Independence Day, as the sun rose on the Britain which had just voted to leave the EU and join the world, in a video which can still be viewed on YouTube, I stood on my roof and to camera, called for the government (at that hour still led by David Cameron - remember him?) to bring Jeremy Corbyn in immediately to a national negotiating team, to bring the Brexit ship into harbour. It was the right advice then. I'm not at all sure it is the best advice now...

If all this is risky for Corbyn, it has the potential to break the Conservative party in two. This morning, the backlash has begun within the Conservatives with the resignation of a hitherto obscure minister at the Welsh Office – in Tory terms the equivalent of the Soviet-era power station in Ulan Bator. Most of the Tory big beasts long ago resigned from the cabinet. Only the numbers can tell now – if, in the course of the day, ministers begin quitting in numbers Mrs May is done.

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