Britain’s opposition Labour Party will vote to decide its Brexit strategy on Monday, with leader Jeremy Corbyn heading for a showdown with his members over whether the party should back staying in the European Union.
The vote at its annual conference in the English seaside resort of Brighton is the latest challenge to Corbyn over Brexit, a row that has overshadowed party officials’ attempts to present Labour as a government in waiting.
With Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisting that Britain will leave the EU on an Oct. 31 deadline, Labour, like the ruling Conservatives, is struggling to agree strategy on Brexit, increasing the uncertainty over Britain’s biggest foreign and trade policy shift in more than 40 years.
Leftist Corbyn, an instinctive critic of the EU, has been under renewed pressure from party members and even some of his top team to unequivocally back remaining in the EU and their rebellion forced a vote between two options on Monday.
The party will vote at about 1700 GMT on whether Labour should be neutral before a new election, which is widely expected to come by the end of the year, or whether the party should declare a so-called “remain” stance now.
Corbyn has said Labour should first try to win an election, renegotiate the Brexit deal and then hold a special conference to decide the party’s stance in a second referendum. But he has promised to be guided by his party on Brexit.
Corbyn’s finance policy chief, John McDonnell, backed the Labour leader’s approach, and played down the idea that the party was divided.
“We are working together as a party to make sure that people have a choice and that people will decide,” McDonnell told Sky News. “That means having another referendum in which the people will be able to decide between a sensible option in terms of ‘leave’ and making sure they also have the option of ‘remain’.”
Asked about the anger over Corbyn’s stance and the suggestion that pro-EU members will force the party to a more explicit position, he told the BBC: “Do not mistake democracy for division. It isn’t, what we are seeing is an honest debate.”
DIVISION
More than three years after Britain voted to leave the EU, both parties are still deeply divided, leaving parliament deadlocked and heightening uncertainty over when, how and even whether Brexit will happen.
Corbyn has been criticized over what some describe as a vague stance on Brexit, with some in his party saying the lack of clarity has driven away Labour supporters, lowering the likelihood of any election victory.
According to a new opinion poll on Monday, more than half of voters who backed Britain’s opposition Labour Party at a 2017 election think it is now time for Corbyn to stand down, an opinion poll showed on Monday.
Brexit rows have hurt Corbyn’s leadership, and on Monday even some of his closest allies said his plan to force through his idea was “a travesty”.
Ally Jon Lansman, whose leftist Momentum movement was created to support Corbyn, urged Labour members “to vote with their conscience”, and the country’s biggest union, Unison, was planning to back the ‘remain’ stance because it was worried ambiguity could hurt the party’s election chances.
So far Corbyn has struck a neutral stance, saying on Sunday it was more important to hold the party together by embracing its “remainers” and those who want to leave the bloc.Britain’s Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn applauds after the speech of Labour party MP and Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott (not pictured) during the Labour Party annual conference in Brighton, Britain September 22, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
Asked whether Labour would campaign to remain in the EU or to leave with a deal, Corbyn said he would hold a special conference to determine his stance after an election, pledging to be guided by his party.
“I am leading the party, I am proud to lead the party, I am proud of the democracy of the party and of course I will go along with whatever decision the party comes to,” Corbyn said.
Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Angus MacSwan
BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) –
