Labour conference - LIVE: Corbyn tells Theresa May his MPs will vote with government if she secures soft Brexit deal
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Jeremy Corbyn has told Theresa May that Labour will support her if she abandons her Chequers plan and agrees to a softer Brexit.
He said his party would vote for a "sensible" deal that kept the UK in a customs union with the EU and guaranteed jobs and workers' rights.
The Labour leader also used his keynote speech to the party's annual conference in Liverpool to promise to fight antisemitism "with every breath I possess".
He told the Jewish community: "We are your ally."
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John McDonnell went out and tried to define what that referendum would ask (there would be no remain option he said) - that was a misrepresentation of the policy Starmer had agreed...
....as a result McDonnell was pushed to back down and Starmer had to set the record straight, which he did in his speech declaring “nobody is ruling out remain”, that speech also set out what everyone thought they knew - May’s deal was v unlikely to meet Starmer’s tests..but...
That left the whole Labour position feeling more remainy than they intended it to be, risking Labour leaver anger and accusations that the party is trying to wreck Brexit, which Corbyn and Len McCluskey believe won’t go down well in Labour Brexit heartlands...so...
...firstly Corbyn’s speech - while staying in the parameters of a test needing to be met - is a message to Labour leavers that the party is not trying to wreck Brexit....
...the party wants to come out of conference saying ‘look, we’ve got these tests that need to be met, and they’re tough because we care about it, but we’re reasonable, if you’re deal is good we’ll back it because that’ll keep a lot of our voters happy’...
...Corbyn’s speech also gives the party a shield of sorts from Tory attacks that they are trying to go against the “will of the people”...
...the Conservatives are already launching these attacks on social media...Corbyn’s speech allows them to say - “we’ve said well back Brexit as long your deal is good enough”....
....it also throws some of the pressure back on to May, because they know Tory Beexiteers get mad about the idea of the PM using Lamour support to get her deal through....
....But essentially this is all political positioning, the reality is that Labour’s actual position is based on Starmer’s six tests - they are impossible to meet unless May stays in the single market, which she won’t AND SO....
....despite Corbyn’s offer (it’ll be written up as an ultimatum or olive branch in tomorrow’s papers), Labour is still *almost definitely* going to vote against May’s deal. That’s all folks.
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