May and Corbyn set out opposing EU 'no deal' stances

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would walk away from divorce talks with the European Union without a deal if she had to, but her rival in next week's election, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, said he would make sure an agreement was reached if he won power.

Britons will go to the polls in a vote for a general election on 8 June, that will see either May, from the centre-right Conservatives, or Corbyn of the leftist Labour Party, be the UK’s Prime Minister during negotiations with Brussels for an exit deal that will define the country's trade and diplomatic ties with the EU.

The Conservative leader insisted that she had got her way in previous negotiations and repeatedly stressed her belief that “no deal is better than a bad deal”.

May’s suggestion that she would not accept a “deal at any price” came before a speech on Tuesday in which she will argue that failure to make a success of Brexit poses a threat to the NHS, public services, welfare payments, jobs and prosperity.

However, when asked whether he would contemplate a scenario where Britain failed to strike an arrangement with the rest of the bloc, Corbyn said: "There's going to be a deal."

"We will make sure there is a deal."

May is expected to win comfortably, but her party's lead in opinion polls has narrowed sharply in the last week, calling into question her decision to call the unscheduled election seeking a strong endorsement of her Brexit strategy.

One poll published on Tuesday showed her lead had been cut to 6 percentage points from 9 points a week ago and 18 points two weeks ago as voters reacted badly to the Conservatives' manifesto.

The two party leaders' differences on how to handle talks with Brussels came to the fore on Monday during the main televised event of the campaign, in which they separately fielded questions from the public and were then interviewed.