The development comes after May announced that she would reschedule the vote on her Brexit plan for the week of January 14 — less than 80 days before Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29.
It was originally set to take place on December 11, but May delayed the vote after it became clear she would lose by a significant margin.
Corbyn said it was “unacceptable” to make members of Parliament wait until January for the vote.
“The Prime Minister has obdurately refused to ensure a vote took place on the date she agreed, she refuses to allow a vote to take place this week and is now, I assume, thinking the vote will be on January 14 — almost a month away,” Corbyn told the Commons.
He said the motion was based on the Prime Minister’s “failure to allow the House of Commons to have a meaningful vote straight away on the Withdrawal Agreement and framework for future relationships between the UK and European Union.”
The motion — directed specifically at May as opposed to the government as a whole — is not necessarily legally binding but will only increase pressure on the Prime Minister.
It is now up to the government to schedule debate and a vote once the motion of no confidence has been officially moved — which one Labour MP says will take place Tuesday evening.
The official Twitter account of Labour’s Whips’ Office wrote: “The Government must now make time to debate this — if they don’t it’s clear they believe she does not retain confidence of (the) House of Commons.”
Corbyn: May is leading UK into a national crisis
Corbyn’s no confidence motion comes after he accused May of leading the UK into a “national crisis” on Monday as she ignored pleas to abandon her widely criticized Brexit deal.
“I know this is not everyone’s perfect deal. It is a compromise,” May said. “But if we let the perfect be the enemy of the good, we risk leaving the EU with no deal.”
Corbyn accused the Prime Minister of “cynically running down the clock” until the UK leaves the EU by offering lawmakers “her deal or no deal.” He added that May had been the architect of leading the UK into a “national crisis.”
“A responsible prime minister would, for the good of this country, have put the deal before the House this week, so we can move on from this Government’s disastrous negotiations,” Corbyn told the House of Commons.
“It’s clear the Prime Minister has failed to renegotiate her deal, failed to get any meaningful reassurances — there is no excuse for any more dither or delay.”
As pressure for a new vote grew inside and outside a bitterly divided Westminster, May dismissed calls to change course and firmly rejected holding a second Brexit referendum. She said doing so would be a betrayal of the British people.
“Let us not break faith with the British people by trying to stage another referendum, another vote, which would do irreparable damage to our politics. Because it would say to millions who trusted in our democracy that our democracy does not deliver,” she told the Commons.
May also ignored calls from MPs to hold the parliamentary vote sooner, and described claims that a better Brexit agreement could be reached as “fiction.”
“I know there are a range of very strongly held personal views on this issue across the House and I respect all of them,” May said.
“But expressing our personal views is not what we are here to do. We asked the British people to take this decision.”
The Prime Minister abruptly called off a vote on her Brexit plan last week after it became clear it would be defeated. She was then forced to fend off a leadership challenge from rebellious Tory MPs. The challenge failed, but left her weakened politically.
At a European Union summit in Brussels, May failed to secure guarantees that would satisfy her Brexit critics.
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