BRIGHTON: Britain’s main opposition Labour Party was torn by infighting on Sunday as it tried to forge a coherent Brexit strategy that could reverse polls indicating a likely election drubbing.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s moment of truth at the annual party conference comes with Britain facing the grim prospect of ending its 46-year involvement in the European Union on October 31 without a plan for future trade.

Yet the same bitter disagreements over Europe that saw Boris Johnson’s right-wing Conservatives lose their working majority — and make a general election appear inevitable — are also fraying Labour on the left.

The 119-year-old party’s support base consists of cosmopolitan city-dwelling europhiles and traditional working-class communities that rejected Brussels in the 2016 referendum.

Polls show these views have become even more entrenched today — a polarisation that further complicates Corbyn’s bid to find a unifying stance.

The strongly anti-European Brexit Party and the unapologetically pro-EU Liberal Democrats are eroding Labour’s support on both flanks.

Two polls published over the weekend showed Labour losing to Johnson’s party by between seven and 15 percentage points. One put it in an effective dead heat with the Liberal Democrats for second place.

Senior Labour officials reportedly approved a draft Brexit policy on Sunday that would see Britain remain in a much closer economic alliance with Europe than provided by former prime minister Theresa May’s now-discarded deal.

Labour would then stage a second referendum in which voters would be given the choice of either backing the new agreement or staying in the EU.

The text reported by UK television was expected to be voted on at the full conference meeting on Monday evening.

Corbyn had earlier given every indication that Labour will stay neutral on the defining issue of British politics.

The draft text said the party would decide whether to campaign for its own Brexit agreement only after it takes power in general elections.

“It is right that the party shall only campaign in such a referendum through a one-day special conference, following the election of a Labour government,” the reported text said.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2019