Brexit news: Labour votes against backing Remain in new referendum, as Boris Johnson denies misusing public funds
The latest developments as they happened
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Your support makes all the difference.Labour‘s annual conference has rejected a motion calling for the party to oppose Brexit in all circumstances.
Delegates at the gathering in Brighton voted down a plan that would have seen the party support Remain in any future referendum. They instead backed a proposal from the party leadership that will see Labour delay deciding its position until after a general election.
The decision – which was based on a show of hands – proved highly controversial, with some observers suggesting it was a “stitch up”.
However others were pleased with the approval of the leader’s stance on Brexit, and around half of the delegates began chanting “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn”.
Elsewhere, Boris Johnson is facing a probe into allegations he failed to declare potential conflicts of interest as London mayor over the allocation of public money to an American businesswoman.
Officials at City Hall and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport are looking into Mr Johnson’s ties with Jennifer Arcuri, with MPs calling for the PM to quit if claims are substantiated.
Mr Johnson initially refused to answer questions about the allegations before eventually insisting that “everything was done with complete propriety”.
The prime minister went on to meet European Council president Donald Tusk at the UN General Assembly in New York. Mr Tusk later tweeted that there had been “no breakthrough”.
It came as Mr Johnson awaited Tuesday’s ruling by the Supreme Court on whether his decision to shut down parliament was unlawful or not.
See below for our coverage of events as they happened
Boris Johnson has blamed Iran for the missile strike on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and stands ready to join Donald Trump in offering military help to the kingdom.
“We will be following that very closely and clearly, if we are asked, either by the Saudis or by the Americans, to have a role, then we will consider in what way we could be useful,” he told reporters.
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has more.
Labour is calling on the cabinet secretary to investigate Johnson’s alleged misuse of public funds (the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is already investigating the claims).
Jon Trickett MP, Labour’s shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, has had more to say about Boris Johnson’s refusal to answer questions about allegations of abuse of power.
“With Boris Johnson refusing to answer questions about these allegations of serious conflicts of interest, abuse of power and misuse of public funds, the cabinet secretary should launch an investigation,” said Trickett.
“Despite what his life of privilege has led him to believe, Johnson is not above the law and cannot duck and dodge responsibility. This is a matter of the integrity of the prime minister, who appears to think he can get away with anything.”
The unions had been expected to support the leadership’s “compromise” wait-and-see position on Brexit, but reports suggest Unison has broken with the leadership and decided to back a motion by pro-EU Remainer members instead.
Remember that Jeremy Corbyn told Andrew Marr at the weekend that he would “go along with whatever decision the party comes to” at this week’s conference.
Tom Watson has called on Labour to stop its “silly factional shenanigans”.
But he has been heckled by Jeremy Corbyn fans at a West Midlands regional conference reception.
Incidentally, ITV’s Robert Peston reported that Tom Watson jeered at Jon Lansman – the Momentum founder and NEC member who by all accounts tried and failed to oust Watson as deputy leader as the conference kicked off.
More infighting in Brighton.
Momentum founder and NEC member Jon Lansman says he is unhappy with the process that led to the NEC statement set to go before the conference later.
The NEC statement says: “The NEC believes it is right that the party shall only decide how to campaign in [a referendum on Brexit] - through a one-day special conference, following the election of a Labour government.”
It’s not quite clear what it is Lansman is unhappy with – but the upshot of his disappointment is that he wants members to vote with their conscience.
NEW: Unison, the UK's biggest union, is to support this afternoon's motion calling for Labour to back Remain.
We understand that Jon Lansman's anger (see below) comes after Momentum's executive committee decided this morning that it would not back a motion calling for Labour to endorse Remain, and will instead tell its delegates to vote for a much more neutral motion proposed by Labour's NEC.
The key question now is do those delegates pay any attention? The vote on the pro-Remain motion was already expected to be very close, and this raises a real prospect that it may not pass.
GMB and Unite, the other two big trade unions, are holding firm and will not be joining Unite in voting for the pro-Remain motion at Labour conference this afternoon.
With Momentum saying it too will back a more neutral motion, which says the party should not decide to back Remain or Leave in any future referendum until after the next election, anti-Brexit campaigners here have a battle on their hands to try to ensure that their motion passes.
Speaking in the conference hall, Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite union, has urged delegates to back the Labour's leadership's "compromise" motion this afternoon.
He said:
"I implore you, please give Jeremy the support he needs later, so that Prime Minister Corbyn can lead us to a bright new dawn."
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