Chaos as Labour rejects Remain position

A bitterly divided Labour rejects a motion that would take it to an election backing Remain.

Keir Starmer, Shadow Secretary of State addresses delegates before the vote. Picture; Getty Images.

A bitterly divided Labour Party has rejected a motion that would have taken it into a general election backing Remain, in a major win for Jeremy Corbyn.

The party had hoped to present an unambiguous policy position on Brexit at its annual party conference on Tuesday, but in the end Mr Corbyn’s position of neutrality prevailed.

A big push from Labour delegates to have the party confirm it was the Remain option was narrowly defeated by a show of hands, followed by a chorus of chants: “Oh Jeremy Corbyn’’.

Amid chaotic scenes and cries of “stitch-up”, a demand for a card count of voters was rejected by the chair, Wendy Nichols.

Despite the furore over the vote, Mr Corbyn has emerged from the Brexit-direction vote with a big boost: crucially his union comrades, who had 50 percent of the vote, backed him and the grassroots movement Momentum, also swung behind his strategies.

It means that, in the event of winning government - either through a vote of no confidence or a general election - Mr Corbyn will have to being manoeuvring for an EU deal within three months of becoming Prime Minister.

He has also promised that, once in power, he would hold a one day party conference to determine the party’s Remain or Leave ticket before a second referendum that he would hold within six months.

Mr Corbyn will try to keep Labour’s Brexit position neutral - and satisfy the Labour Brexiters from the northern industrial heartland of the country until then - although the party is leaking urban votes to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, both of which are firmly pro-Remain.

Technically, Mr Corbyn’s position is that if Labour was in power, the leaders could work out a leave deal with Europe but then campaign against that very deal in the referendum.

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson lashed Mr Corbyn’s “fudge,” saying: “Jeremy Corbyn has again shown a total lack of leadership on Brexit and settled on yet another fudge on the biggest issue facing our country.’’

Len McCluskey, the powerful leader of the Unite union, insisted that Mr Corbyn was treading the right path in not splitting the Labour support base down Brexit lines.

But London’s Labour Mayor, Sadiq Khan immediately disagreed and underscored the fierce divisions in Labour ranks.

He tweeted: ’’I do not believe this decision reflects the views of the overwhelming majority of Labour members who desperately want to stop Brexit. Labour IS a Remain party.’’

Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer argued Labour’s referendum call was needed to break the current deadlock.

“We have to deliver a radical Labour government and give the people the final say on whether we remain in the EU,’’ he told the conference.