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Brexit: Unison to vote for 'back remain now' motion at Labour conference in blow to Corbyn - live news Brexit: John McDonnell says article 50 should not be revoked without a referendum – live news
(32 minutes later)
From the BBC’s Norman Smith McDonnell says Labour will aim to reduce the full-time working week to 32 hours within the next decade - with no loss of pay.
Am told there will be an attempt to refer NEC Brexit motion back to NEC - cos decision made improperly ( ie by email !) We should work to live, not live to work. Thanks to past Labour governments but mainly thanks to the trade union movement, the average full-time working week fell from nearly 65 hours in the 1860s to 43 hours in the 1970s.
This is from ITV’s Paul Brand. As society got richer, we could spend fewer hours at work. But in recent decades progress has stalled. People in our country today work the longest average full-time hours in Europe apart from Greece and Austria. And since the 1980s the link between increasing productivity matched by expanding free time has been broken. It’s time to put that right.
Jeremy Corbyn under huge pressure this morning. Facing questions on whether his party is about to contradict his own Brexit policy, here he loses patience with media scrum around him. “This is our conference, these are our stalls... your behaviour is totally unacceptable!” pic.twitter.com/vJTWgVP2rx So I can tell you today that the next Labour government will put in place the changes needed to reduce average full-time hours to 32 a week within the next decade. A shorter working week with no loss of pay.
Without having been there, it is hard to know whether Jeremy Corbyn’s complaint, that the journalists who were pushing their way past delegates were being “totally unacceptable”, was fair or not. He seems to have been referring in particular to photographers and TV cameramen and when a large group of them are in a small space all trying to get a shot it can all get a bit rumbustious. A “goatfuck” is the technical description often used. Still, berating journalists often does not go down well - with journalists. And only Corbyn can compress so much passive aggression into the phrase “our friends in the media”. McDonnell says work is not just about wages.
Turning to Brexit, McCluskey urges the conference to back Jeremy Corbyn’s position, which is designed to ensure the party does not alienate leave voters. McCluskey says: Work isn’t just about wages. It’s about freedom from drudgery; having dignity, respect and a voice in the workplace. That means a strong trade union movement and collective bargaining. But also, in the new public services we’re creating, it means management by workers and service users rather than by remote bureaucrats in Whitehall.
Let me say here that Jeremy Corbyn is a thousand times right in trying to speak to our whole country at this time of crisis. In large companies it means a third of directors being elected by workers and a tenth of shares being owned by those workers. It means doubling the size of our cooperative sector, and going further, I hope, in our ambitions.
When we have the Tories dismissing half of our nation. McDonnell says Labour would end in-work poverty.
And the Liberals are writing off the other half . Labour has traditionally been committed to full employment. We have always believed that getting a job should be a means to lift yourself out of poverty. But under the Tories the link between work and escaping poverty has been broken.
It is only Jeremy’s Labour that puts social justice first, that says whether you are ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ matters less than your class. So I commit today that within our first term of office Labour will end in-work poverty.
We should not let anyone define or divide us as leavers or remainers. This is a current pledge. McDonnell explained how Labour would achieve this in a speech in July.
What defines us is that we are socialists. McDonnell says article 50 should not be revoked without a referendum.
And our vision of a better Britain, a better world, is within our grasp. I warn those who would revoke article 50 without a democratic mandate, ask yourselves what message that sends to our people.
And I beg you, comrades, keep your eyes on the prize. An old professor of mine, Bernard Crick, was once asked to define socialism in one sentence. He said socialism is the achievement of equality through democracy.
In a general election campaign people will see that only Labour offers policies to create a better and fairer Britain. Policies to heal our nation. We can’t say to people, “Labour wants you to share in the running of your workplace, your community and your environment, but we don’t trust you to have the final say over Brexit.” Nothing would do more to undermine their faith in democracy in all its forms.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, the biggest union backing Labour, is speaking at the conference now. (There are few people in Labour arguing for article 50 to be revoked without a referendum. This passage seems to be aimed primarily at the Liberal Democrats.)
He starts with an attack on the Liberal Democrats. McDonnell turns to Brexit.
Austerity thrust on us by the Tories and their Liberal Democrat partners. We aim to trust the people in having the final say on Brexit. A deal or remain. Some of you will know I have said I will campaign for remain. But let me make it clear that I profoundly respect those who support a genuine alternative.
Jo Swinson doesn’t like Jeremy and the Labour party apparently, well, the feeling’s mutual. In our debates today I want us to demonstrate in the respect we show each other and how we bring our party together just how we can also bring the country together again.
Her Party gave us austerity and destroyed our communities. McDonnell says politics is going through a period of “profound insecurity”.
She voted in favour of every attack on our welfare state. My fear, though, is that as a result of the behaviour, language and cynical opportunism of some politicians on the right, we have entered a period of profound insecurity and risk to our democratic system.
And we won’t forget that. We have seen before in our history what kind of forces can be unleashed by politicians who have a total disregard for the truth in their ruthless pursuit of power for power’s sake … politicians who attack the very institutions and practices, no matter how flawed, that protect and uphold our democracy, parliament, the courts and the rule of law. The best antidote to those who attack our democratic rules and institutions is more democracy itself.
She reminds us that you can never trust a Liberal Democrat. McDonnell praises a friend who almost became leader of the Labour party by accident - Jeremy Corbyn.
Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, addressed the conference this morning. He is in the ‘back remain now’ camp on Brexit, as he made clear in a TV interview yesterday, but he largely avoided the topic in his speech. Instead he focused on domestic policy, making two proposals. And what makes me so proud of him is that no matter what smears and personal attacks by the gutter press. He always continue to embody the kinder, gentler politics he advocates.
Leonard said a Labour government would give the Scottish parliament power over employment law. He said: McDonnell says he thinks Labour MPs should be supporting the unions, in parliament and on the picket line.
I am proud that our party will go into government with a new determination to shift power closer to the people. We will extend democracy not just at the ballot box, but in every workplace and in every community. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is delivering his speech now.
And so let me be crystal clear, this democratic renewal , this redistribution of power we seek, this is not simply about parliaments and the members elected to them. It is about strong local government. It is about redressing the imbalance of power between tenant and landlord, between worker and owner, between citizen and state, between women and men. He starts by paying tribute to all the members of his team, including Anneliese Dodds, who he says has found the “magic money tree” in the Cayman Islands and is digging it up and bringing it home. She has been working on tax avoidance.
So the next Labour government will deliver a new Scotland Act, that will provide for the devolution of employment law with a UK wide floor. Tom Watson thinks Jon Lansman, who tabled the motion at Labour’s national executive committee without warning on Friday night in an attempt to abolish Watson’s deputy leader post, is not the best person to complain about NEC processes being abused. (See 10.37am.)
He said councils should be able to buy land for housing at existing use value. Irony is not dead. https://t.co/5NZz591J9R
There is a housing emergency in Scotland and the price of land lies at the centre of it. So when we launch our housing commission report in the next few weeks, it will make radical recommendations which tackle the excess profits of property developers. Including a proposal to introduce a new law giving local councils, housing associations and housing co-operatives the right to acquire land at an existing use value. Ahead of the Brexit vote this afternoon Labour pro-remain campaigners are flagging up some figures from a poll conducted for the People’s Vote campaign. It found that 72% of Labour leave voters said they would definitely not vote Conservative, and 48% said they would definitely not vote for the Brexit party. But only 14% of Labour remain voters said they would definitely not vote Lib Dems. Labour remainers think this shows that the fear of Labour losing millions of voters to leave parties is exaggerated; they claim the real risk is from Labour losing remain votes to the Lib Dems and the Greens.
Good housing policy has always been at the core of Labour party values. It is where we came from. And under the Scottish Labour government that I lead, housing will become a national priority again.
From HuffPost’s Paul Waugh
Poss key development on Brexit. @PeoplesMomentum national coordinating group (NCG) met this am and is recommending CLPs vote *for* NEC delay statement.Came too late for leaflets but electronic message sent.With vote tight, now AnotherEuropeIsPossible group whip could be crucial
These are from my colleague Rowena Mason.
Big decision from Momentum - it has decided to back leadership/NEC statement on Brexit and not the remain motion. But Jon Lansman did not agree with that. Decided at a phone meeting this morning.
I hear Corbyn’s office was putting pressure on members of Momentum national coordinating group to back LOTO position - signs of panic about the vote now, especially after Unison decision to support remain motion
This is from PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield.
Labour number-crunchers reckon the Remain motion will pass if three-quarters of Momentum members vote for it later. Jon Lansman has told them to vote with their consciences.
These are from Jon Lansman, the founder of Momentum and a member of Labour’s national executive committee.
1/2 I'm completely supportive of Jeremy's leadership but I’m incredibly disappointed with the process by which today’s NEC statement on Brexit was produced. There was no meeting, no discussion, no consultation with the membership
2/2 On one of the biggest issues of the day, this is a travesty. Across the membership there are many different views on Brexit, and on conference floor members should feel free to vote with their conscience
These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
1. Unison is going to OPPOSE the NEC's wait + see Brexit position, then SUPPORT motion 13, and ABSTAIN on motion 14 - in other words, a huge union is breaking with Corbyn's position on Brexit today and wants to push the party to back Remain immediately
2. Might sound like gobbledygook, but it matters a lot - this shifts the balance of the votes and makes it more likely that conference, which is king, decides today to back Remain now - Corbyn has said on the record he'll abide by what is decided here
3. So the conference votes late this afternoon are massively important - Unison's decision is pretty straightforwardly down to a belief that Labour is more likely to win the election with a clear position
4. It's another difficult moment for party leadership - very significant that the biggest union is going against Corbyn's position
The fact that Unison, which controls a sizeable chunk of the union vote at conference, is going to vote against the NEC motion and in favour of composite 13 (see 10.10am), means that there is now a greater chance than we thought this morning that the conference could unequivocally come down in favour of committing to remain now.
In Brighton we’ve been given a bit more information from party officials about the process for the Brexit voting this afternoon. Here are the key points.
Three separate Brexit proposals are being put to the vote. They are:
1) The NEC statement, saying: “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.”
2) Composite 13 on Brexit. This is the “back remain now” one. It says:
Labour must reflect the overwhelming view of its members and voters, who want to stay in the EU. Labour will therefore campaign energetically for a public vote and to stay in the EU in that referendum, while recognising the rights of those members who want to argue another view.
3) Composite 14 on Brexit. This is the composite motion backing the leadership position although, unlike the NEC statement, it does not say explicitly that the decision on the party’s stance in a referendum should be postponed. It just says Jeremy Corbyn has made the way forward “abundantly clear” by backing a public vote.
Labour accepts that all three motions could be passed - even though the NEC statement and composite 13 are contradictory.
Today’s votes will not automatically determine Labour’s position at the next election, officials admit. The decision as to what goes into the manifesto will be taken nearer the time at a clause V meeting, where the NEC, the shadow cabinet and union leaders will agree the text of the document.
If there are card votes, then results should be announced at some point int the evening - although it is not clear exactly when.
Yesterday Jeremy Corbyn told Andrew Marr he would “go along with whatever decision the party comes to” regarding Brexit. If the conference passes contradictory motions, that might not be straightforward.
Here is the more detailed conference agenda for the day.
10am: Conference opens, with a report from Harry Donaldson, chair of the conference arrangements committee
10.10am: Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, speaks.
10.20am: Work, pensions and equality debate.
11.10am: Economy debate starts. Five composite motions are being debated, covering industrial strategy, insourcing, working hours, employment rights and the Royal Mail. And John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is winding up.
12.25pm: International debate, including the national executive committee statement on Brexit.
12.35pm: Voting on the morning’s business.
2.15pm: The international debate continues. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, is due open the debate, and Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, is due to close it. As well as the two Brexit composites, composite motions on Yemen, an ethical foreign policy and human rights for the Uighurs are also being debated.
5.20pm: Voting on the afternoon’s business. If there are card votes, as is almost certain for the Brexit motions, counting the card votes could take an hour or so.
John McDonnell was giving interviews this morning to promote Labour’s key overnight announcement, a £6bn a year pledge to introduce free personal care. The Labour announcement is here, and my colleague Patrick Butler’s story about it is here.
Labour to announce it would reverse austerity cuts to adult social care
On the Today programme this morning Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the tax and spending thinktank, said that Labour’s personal care offer was “less generous” than it sounded. He explained:
It’s actually rather less generous than it appears. That’s to achieve the same level of social care that we get at the moment, just for more people. So it’s not returning the system to where it was in 2010 which would cost an additional £6bn because it’s been restricted so much. You really do have to have quite severe needs to get that social care.
And secondly it’s not going to save many people from the catastrophic cost that you can face if you go into residential care because it’s not going to cover the cost of the accommodation and so on that you get there. So, whilst its expensive, it is nevertheless a relatively limited offer.
Asked about the overall credibility of Labour’s spending plans, Johnson sounded sceptical. He said that at the last election Labour was proposing spending increases worth around £70bn a year, and tax increases worth around £50bn a year. But Johnson said he thought Labour would only raise about £30bn to £40bn from its tax plans. And he said, in practice, Labour might have ended up spending more. He said the current Tory government is increasing health spending by more than Labour proposed, and that in reality a Labour government would have been spending more than it planned on health too. He went on:
We are looking at such a big set of changes in terms of what they were saying a couple of years ago it is really not so much a question of does it all add up fiscally, it’s a question of is it actually deliverable, either in terms of the level of tax increases or deliverable in terms of particularly the very large levels of investment spending they are suggesting.
Labour will build a national network of charging points for electric vehicles at a cost of £3.6bn to kickstart its planned “green industrial revolution” if elected, the party has announced this morning. My colleagues Fiona Harvey and Matthew Taylor have the full story here.
Labour to commit to big increase in charging points for electric cars
And here is Labour’s news release about the announcement.
The GMB union will not be supporting the pro-remain composite in the debate this afternoon, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.
Tim Roache is the GMB’s general secretary.
GMB’s @Tim_Roache makes clear they won’t be supporting the remainy composite today: “what we’re saying is, we negotiate a deal, then we assess whether it’s better than what we already have.” Says that’s not the same as being neutral.
McDonnell says it would not be responsible for Labour to back a no-deal Brexit.
Q: The NEC wanted to hold a meeting on this yesterday, but it did not go ahead.
McDonnell says he is not on the NEC. He says he has been told the first meeting over-ran, which is why a second one did not go ahead.
Q: I’ve been told Jon Lansman consulted the leader’s office before he pushed for the deputy leader’s post to be removed.
McDonnell says Jeremy Corbyn has denied knowing about the Lansman motion.
He says he supports the idea of having two deputy leaders.
Q: Andrew Fisher’s resignation shows all is not well with the party.
McDonnell says everyone has a bad day at the office. He says he hopes that Fisher will stay on.
Sometimes you can have a bad day in the office, sometimes your colleagues can drive you up the wall. He’s staying until after the election at the end of the year and, if I have anything to do with it - this is just a message to Andrew - I’m going to persuade you to stay.
Q: But his criticisms were strong.
McDonnell says everyone gets angry with their work colleagues from time to time. People lose their tempers. He is sure that this happens at the BBC too, he says.
Not since John Humphrys has left, Martha Kearney, the Today presenter, jokes.
And that’s it.
McDonnell explains the leadership position again.
Labour would negotiate a new Brexit deal, then have a special conference where it would decide its position in that referendum.
He says it is hard for people to decide their view when they don’t know what the deal will say.
Q: But you have. You say you will back remain.
McDonnell accepts the point, but say people will want to see what the deal says.
John McDonnell is on Today now talking about Brexit.
He says he would vote remain in a future referendum.
Q: If you think that, why shouldn’t the party back remain?
McDonnell says people should exercise their own judgement.
Q: But if you, the shadow foreign secretary, the shadow Brexit secretary and most members want the party to back remain, can you still sit on the fence as a party?
McDonnell says this is a democratic proposal.
People have different views, he says.
He rejects claims that the party is in the midst of a civil war.
I smiled when you used the language earlier of civil war and revolt but there isn’t any war in the Labour party. It’s about honest, democratic debate.
People have high emotions on this because they feel it’s important. But that’s not people respecting each other’s views as well. I keep saying: do not mistake democracy for division. It isn’t - what we’re having is an honest debate.
One of the many surprising features about Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader in 2015 was that he managed to get chosen by a party that is overwhelming in favour of EU membership despite, for most of his career, being in favour of the UK being out. Corbyn accepted remain as the party’s position, members adored him for other reasons, and mostly this contradiction has been glossed over. At the last two party conferences Labour used classic procedural ploys to defuse a split on this issue; in 2017 members decided to shelve a proposed debate on Brexit to avoid the need for a row, and last year the party adopted a compromise “all options on the table” composite on a second referendum that satisfied remainers while not actually committing the party to anything.
But this year it looks as though a split can be avoided not longer. As we explain in our overnight story, delegates will be asked to choose between two rival Brexit motions - one setting out Jeremy Corbyn’s preference, which is for the party to postpone deciding whether it will campaign for remain in a second referendum until after the election, and another saying the party should commit to remain now. As our story explains:
[Corbyn’s] proposal to put off the decision until after an election was endorsed by the national executive committee, by 16 votes to 10, after members were asked to send their agreement by email and without a meeting.
“The NEC believes it is right that the party shall only decide how to campaign in such a referendum – through a one-day special conference, following the election of a Labour government,” the statement said.
However, pro-EU activists fought during a lengthy meeting on Sunday night to ensure there would be a vote on the conference floor on Monday on whether Labour should immediately adopt an unequivocally remain position.
More than 50 local parties swung behind a pro-remain motion, while eight backed a more neutral motion closer to the leadership’s position. Both options will now be voted on by delegates, along with the official national executive position, leaving open the possibility that competing motions could pass and cause further confusion over the party’s Brexit policy.
Corbyn on collision course with Labour members over Brexit
At Labour conference trade unions have almost half the votes, and constituency Labour party (CLP) delegates have the other 50%. (A handful of non-union affiliated organisations have the rest.) Members are largely in favour of the “back remain now” approach, but the unions seem to be mostly behind the party leadership.
In a statement last night Michael Chessum, national organiser of Another Europe is Possible, which has been mobilising support for the “back remain now” motion, said that it would “look awful” if Corbyn won today just as a result of the union bloc vote. He said:
Ninety percent of motions to this conference are anti-Brexit, reflecting a membership which is overwhelmingly pro-remain. We are taking a remain position to conference floor, where we are expecting a close vote. Using union bloc votes to defeat the overwhelming majority of members may well not work, and would look awful.
There will be an attempt to turn this into a loyalty test. But those proposing these motions are by and large people, like me, who have spent years fighting for the left inside Labour and backing Corbyn. We want a radical Labour government, and Corbyn in Number 10. The best way of getting there is with clarity on Brexit and a clear message to our members and voters that we are on their side.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is about to discuss this on Today.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.45am: Conference opens. Delegates will debate economic issues.
12pm: John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, speaks.
2pm: Delegates start a debate covering foreign affairs and Brexit.
2.15pm: Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, speaks.
5.10pm: Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, speaks at the end of the debate. At that point delegates will vote although, if there is a card vote, the result will not be announced immediately.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web, although I will focusing almost exclusively on the Labour conference. I plan to publish a summary when I wrap up.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here.
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