Jeremy Corbyn begins his first party conference as Labour leader today vowing to carry on even if his MPs try to oust him.
Advertisement
The new Labour leadership has changed the way “contemporary” conference motions are picked, extending the discussions to eight topics chosen by all delegates at the conference in Brighton.
Defence spokesman Brendan O’Hara said: “The pressure will be on the Labour Party to clarify their position and whether or not they support their leader and whether they will work with the SNP in opposing spending £100 billion on Trident’s replacement”.
“Our party has helped to bring about a substantially better Northern Ireland, but now is the time to move forward, tackling numerous outstanding issues arising from the different traditions and competing narratives, as well as legacy issues around victims, mental health, economic insecurity and poverty”.
Mr Corbyn’s arrival in Brighton, ahead of the formal start of the conference tomorrow, came as shadow chancellor John McDonnell sought to reassure voters that Labour is not a “deficit denier”, while also offering a different approach to balancing the budget from the Conservatives.
“We are going to come to an accommodation of some sort”, he told BBC television.
‘This is a weapon of mass destruction!’
This was Jeremy Corbyn’s big moment, his first appearance on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show (having pulled out of an appearance two weeks ago on the morning after he became Labour leader).
Jeremy Corbyn has defended reaching out to Republicans at the height of the troubles by insisting he “wanted the violence to stop”.
He said: “I hope to persuade them that a nuclear-free world is a good thing, that fulfilling our obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and promoting a nuclear weapons convention is a good thing”. They are all signed up to multilateral disarmament, by the way.
Mr Smith was also quizzed on whether Labour now supported scrapping the benefits cap. “Defense and security has been an issue that the Labour Party has been very, very keen to keep mainstream, certainly since the 1980s”. Parliament is due to decide next year how to replace the aging Trident system. “Let us make it clear that Labour will never make the same mistake again, will never flout the United Nations and worldwide law”.
Britain’s Labour Party has chose to leave the country’s nuclear weapons alone.
“If people don’t know what the position of the Labour Party is then we are not going to look like a party of government“.
It’s a setback for left-winger Corbyn, who wants the party to consider policies long considered off the political agenda, from nationalizing industry to diverging on foreign policy from the U.S.
The Parliamentary Labour Party can trigger a leadership contest if 20% of them – 46 of the 232 Labour MPs – unite behind an alternative candidate.
Advertisement
The subjects chosen for debate were austerity and public services, Europe, mental health, the refugee crisis, the BBC licence fee, employment rights, housing and the NHS.
