CORBYN’S ALL AT SEA
Leader sets sail for showdown with party as confusion and controversy overshadow opening of conference
JEREMY Corbyn is heading for a showdown with his Shadow Cabinet and ordinary party members today as they try to overturn his “wait and see” policy on Brexit.
There was a sombre mood at Labour’s conference in Brighton last night as the party’s national executive committee (NEC) backed Corbyn’s stance.
The Labour leader’s preferred policy is to go into a general election promising that if he becomes prime minister, he would negotiate a better Brexit deal within three months. This deal would then be put to voters in a Leave or Remain referendum within another three months.
The fudge, designed to keep Leave-supporting Labour voters on board, has left senior party figures and grassroots members tearing their hair out.
With trade union block votes behind him, Corbyn is likely to win the crucial conference vote on the party’s Brexit policy today.
But the result could be in the balance, with constituency delegates torn between their commitment to the EU – which 90 per cent of members support – and their loyalty to the left-wing party leader.
Many Labour MPs fear the party will be eclipsed, as it already is in some polls, by Jo Swinson’s Lib Dems and their clear Remain message.
Deputy leader Tom Watson, fresh from escaping an attempted purge by left-wing faction Momentum, yesterday said “the battle for the future of the Labour Party is under way”.
Speaking at a fringe event, he urged Labour moderates to act as the “partisans of pluralism”.
Watson said: “I honestly think that there is a battle for the future of the Labour Party and you are the leaders of the struggle to save it.
“I want you to know how much I personally appreciate your moral courage and your political determination and your collective voice that is holding this party together in a very, very difficult time.”
Earlier, Watson said: “We are a Remain party. We are a European party. We are an internationalist party. That is who we are.
“Not perfect, not pure. But overwhelmingly committed to Britain remaining in Europe and reforming Europe.”
Watson was one of a number of senior Labour figures to defy Corbyn yesterday and come out fighting for a Remain policy.
London mayor Sadiq Khan told a fringe meeting: “We are at a vital crossroads – neutrality is not an option. The party should be unequivocally pro-Remain.
“All Labour MPs should be whipped to campaign for Remain.”
Even normally loyal Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said his party should back Remain in any future referendum.
He said: “The Scottish Labour Party took a decision in the wake of the European election results that we needed to be much clearer, – that we needed much greater clarity about the position that we were taking.”
Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary and a close Corbyn ally, insisted Labour must thrash out its Brexit policy “now”.
She warned the party risked being squeezed at a general election without a clear Remain stance.
Her remarks came after union boss Len McCluskey singled her out as he told members of the Shadow Cabinet to back Corbyn on the party’s policy or “step aside” from their roles.
The Unite general secretary claimed it was “fake news” to suggest he had been involved in the bid to scrap Watson’s deputy leader post at an NEC meeting on Friday night.
Corbyn wants Labour to spend three months after winning an election to negotiate a better Brexit deal with the EU.
Only after that would the party decide which way it would campaign in a second referendum, with the decision taken at a special conference next spring.
The NEC backed his position by 16 votes to 10 yesterday.
But Thornberry said: “Since we’re all here, I can’t see why we can’t make a decision now.”
She and other Shadow Cabinet members said they have seen polling that shows Labour could lose 30 per cent of its Remain voters to the Greens and Lib Dems unless the party was “clear about where we stand on Europe”.
Last night, the party’s composite committee was working to lump together about 90 motions from constituency parties – mostly calling for Labour to back Remain – into one coherent motion for today’s vote.
Earlier, Corbyn pledged to obey Labour members if they force the party to throw its backing behind Remain in a second referendum.
The Labour leader said he would “of course” go along with the decision of party members.
I honestly think there is a battle for the future of the Labour Party TOM WATSON RALLYING MODERATE PARTY MEMBERS