Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Labour conference backs Brexit neutrality at a general election, voting against motion to back Remain in a new referendum… Labour‘s annual conference has voted to reject a bid to commit the party to campaigning for Remain in any future EU referendum. The result bolsters the position of leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose proposal to promise a referendum but wait until after the general election to decide which side to back was passed overwhelmingly. And it marks a formidable setback to anti-Brexit campaigners who had hoped to secure Labour support in the fight for Remain. There was anger after the crucial vote which took place amid chaotic scenes at the Brighton gathering, as disputes broke out over whether the vote by a show of hands had been passed or not. One Labour Remainer said: “It was the grassroots against the party machine and the machine won.” National Executive Committee official Wendy Nichols, who was chairing the session, admitted she had initially thought the vote was in favour of Remain, but was told by general secretary Jennie Formby that delegates had in fact voted against. She resisted angry demands for a card vote to get a precise measure of the balance of opinion. – Independent Chaos as Labour members cry foul over vote rejecting Remain position – Telegraph (£) Jeremy Corbyn holds off Labour Party policy shift to Remain – Politico …which leaves Sir Keir Starmer ‘disappointed’… Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer said he is “disappointed” the party had not voted to back Remain in any future second referendum, but insisted it is “obvious” members would eventually back staying in the EU. Speaking to Politico London Playbook at the Labour Party conference, Starmer said he would have liked to have seen the party go further in its stance, but hailed “progress” over the past 12 months in shifting Labour’s stance to backing a second referendum in all circumstances. Earlier on Monday Labour members voted against a motion that would have seen the party commit to backing Remain in a second vote, despite calls from Starmer and other shadow Cabinet figures for the party to wholeheartedly back staying in the EU. – Politico > WATCH: Sir Keir Starmer’s speech at Labour Party Conference …while Emily Thornberry says Labour must become the party of Remain nonetheless Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, told conference that Labour should become the party of Remain and “strive day and night, whatever it takes, to keep Britain in the EU”. She addressed delegates in Brighton as it emerged that Mr Corbyn could be forced to back remaining in the EU after two unions broke rank. The Labour leader is attempting to get backing for a neutral Brexit strategy that would delay a decision on the party’s position until after an election. He had been relying on the trade union bloc to help to force his position through and vote down a motion calling for the party to “energetically” campaign to Remain. However, Unison, the biggest union, and Usdaw, the retail and distribution workers union, will now back the Remain motion and vote against Mr Corbyn’s Brexit strategy. This follows a furious row over the failure to hold a meeting of Labour’s ruling body, the national executive committee (NEC), to draw up the motion. – The Times (£) Frustrated Boris Johnson clashes with EU leaders in New York as he demands they compromise to reach a Brexit deal… Boris Johnson clashed with EU leaders last night as he demanded they must start to compromise if a Brexit deal is to be reached. The PM met a series of Europe’s powerbrokers in the margins of a UN Summit in New York. It emerged Boris is growing frustrated with Brussels’ stand as he pushes to replace the controversial Irish backstop. While he has shifted the UK’s position to propose an all-Ireland zone for food and livestock, the EU is refusing to reciprocate on a new arrangement for customs on the border. A No10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister emphasised that in order to secure a deal we will now need to see movement and flexibility from the EU”. – The Sun …with Donald Tusk saying he and Johnson failed to make a breakthrough in latest talks… European Council president Donald Tusk tonight said Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to make a Brexit breakthrough following talks in New York. He tweeted: “No breakthrough. No breakdown. No time to lose.” After Mr Johnson told Mr Tusk that the UK needs to see “movement and flexibility” from the EU to reach a deal, PA reported sources as saying there were “big gaps in substance”. The source said: “The EU will need realistic, operational proposals in legal form.” – Evening Standard No Brexit breakthrough for Boris Johnson after meeting in New York – Metro …and Michel Barnier calls Johnson’s backstop solution ‘unacceptable’… Michel Barnier has described Boris Johnson’s solution for replacing the Irish backstop as “unacceptable” as the EU’s chief negotiator gave his most downbeat assessment yet of the chances of striking a Brexit deal by 31 October. Standing alongside the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas following a meeting in Berlin, Barnier said the UK government’s position had to change for there to be any hope of success. The British prime minister had declared on his way to New York for the UN general assembly that he was “cautiously optimistic” he could persuade key EU leaders to accept his proposals for the Irish border. Johnson wants to find agreement on a deal ahead of an EU summit on 17 October that he can put to parliament in order for the UK to leave the bloc at the end of the month. – Guardian …amidst calls in Northern Ireland for the UK to agree a ‘human rights backstop’ The UK government is being urged to agree to a “human rights backstop” in Northern Ireland to ensure “invisible” rights protected in the Good Friday agreement are guaranteed in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Northern Ireland and Ireland’s human rights commissioners are calling for a bill of rights or a guarantee that the EU charter of fundamental rights will remain in effect in Northern Ireland. These rights are already enshrined in Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement but will be shredded in a no-deal scenario. “They only apply to Northern Ireland. If we leave without a deal all those safeguards fall away,” says Les Allamby, chief commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. – Guardian Jean-Claude Juncker says he regrets the EU’s non-involvement in the 2016 Brexit referendum Even as Great Britain rollicks around with its prime minister Boris Johnson keen to for a no-deal Brexit, European Union Commission president has laid out the ground rules vis-à-vis the same. Speaking with Sky News, as quoted by Reuters, Jean-Claude Juncker said that if a no-deal Brexit were to happen, the border will be created between Ireland, and Northern Ireland, in the United Kingdom. He also emphasised his confidence that Britain would leave the European Union, as designated. Juncker said, “I’m convinced that Brexit will happen”. He added, “Yes … We have to make sure that the interests of the European Union and of the internal market will be preserved”. Currently, Britain is set to exit the EU on 31st October. It has been widely reported that in the eventuality of no deal being struck between the EU and Great Britain, the latter would face acute shortages of food shortages and there could also be civil problems. Juncker who is set to leave his position on 31st October 2019 also said that the EU Commission was asked to stay out of the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016. According to him, asking the EU Commission to abstain from getting involved in the process was the then Prime Minister David Cameron’s perspective. “We at the Commission decided not to intervene, at the request of David Cameron, and that was a big mistake,” he said. – Financial World Boris Johnson will surge to election victory if he secures a no-deal Brexit, says poll… If the UK leaves the European Union without a deal on October 31, 37 percent of Britons would vote for the Conservative Party in a general election. The Labour Party is the second favourite among voters with 26 percent backing Jeremy Corbyn’s party. While 18 percent said they would vote for the the Liberal Democrats, the Brexit Party and the Green Party secured a mere six percent each. The result will be a major boost to Boris Johnson who remains caught in a deadlock with European leaders over the controversial Irish backstop to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. – Express …while he promises Tories he will not make a pact with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party Boris Johnson has insisted there will be no election pact with Nigel Farage just days after Jacob Rees-Mogg said Brexiteers “owe him a great debt”. On Monday night, the Prime Minister said the Conservative Party will contest the election in every seat as he brushed off suggestions the Tories need the Brexit Party’s support in order to win. Mr Farage has offered a non-aggression pact to the Prime Minister if he signs up fully to a no-deal departure from the EU and the Conservatives stand aside in more than 80 seats. However, Mr Johnson on Monday night rejected the idea and said he will go to the country “as Conservatives and not in an alliance or a pact, or a coupon deal”. Asked if the Tories will contest every seat, Mr Johnson said: “Of course.” – Telegraph (£) Johnson seeks to woo US business with low-tax vision Boris Johnson will on Tuesday set out a vision of Britain as a low-tax, more lightly regulated economy on the edge of Europe, in a provocative post-Brexit pitch to US and Canadian business leaders to invest in the UK. The British prime minister will intensify concerns in Berlin and Paris about how he appears set on diverging from the EU economic model, raising the prospect of future trade barriers being erected between the UK and its biggest market. This month German chancellor Angela Merkel said Britain would become “an economic competitor on our own doorstep” after Brexit while France and other EU countries have warned they would impose tariffs on the UK if it did not engage in “fair competition”. – FT (£) Johnson hints at major reforms to tax and industry post-Brexit – Guardian Supreme Court to give Parliament prorogation ruling this morning The highest court in the UK is set to make a historic ruling on whether Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks was lawful. Ministers say the suspension, or prorogation, is not a court matter, but critics argue it was intended to limit scrutiny of the PM’s Brexit plans. If the judgement – due at 10:30 BST – goes against Mr Johnson, Parliament could be reconvened immediately. The government has said it will “abide by the ruling” of the Supreme Court. But Mr Johnson – who is in New York for a UN climate conference – has refused to rule out seeking to prorogue Parliament for a second time if the ruling goes against him. – BBC News Asa Bennett: After the last referendum, do Labour Remainers really want Jeremy Corbyn on their side? Emily Thornberry thinks the Liberal Democrats “have gotten kind of Taliban” for embracing the idea of stopping Brexit altogether if they get into power by revoking Article 50, but the Shadow Foreign Secretary and her comrades have been demonstrating their own Remainer fundamentalism. Despite persuading Jeremy Corbyn to make clear his interest in a “public vote” means without doubt a referendum, and to ignore the concerns of union chiefs like Len McCluskey about Remain being on the ballot paper, Labour’s Remainers are still not satisfied. They now want to bring the Labour leader to heel after he suggested that he might stay neutral in a future referendum, setting himself up as a wannabe Harold Wilson by prioritising party unity and staying out of the fray. His position is understandable, as around a third of Labourites voted to leave the EU, although you would be forgiven for wondering if they had all been driven out by the riotous Labour Remainers. – Asa Bennett for the Telegraph (£) Tom Harris: At last we know what Jeremy Corbyn thinks of Brexit: whatever Labour members tell him to think At some point today we will at last know what the Labour Party thinks about Brexit. More importantly, we will know what Jeremy Corbyn, the man who wants to be our next prime minister, believes about the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union. If Corbyn is to be believed, he is merely a servant of the party, a cipher with no agency other than as the person despatched by conference to tell the world what the hive mind of Labour conference believes. Presumably, then, he had no settled view on whether to abolish private schools and seize their property until yesterday, when delegates adopted that policy. Precisely three and a half years after the nation supported leaving the EU, following a campaign in which Corbyn played a crucial role in the Remain campaign, he will finally be informed what he thinks of this whole Brexit malarkey. – Tom Harris for the Telegraph (£) Robert Peston: How Jeremy Corbyn stitched up Labour’s Brexit vote Labour’s leadership may have failed in the “drive by shooting” of Tom Watson (using his colourful words) but they have totally stitched up NEC and conference Brexit votes – by making sure their supporters were largely in the room, and keeping out those pesky Remainers. None of this should come as a surprise. But it was still awe-inspiring to watch in action. The point is that for the past 24 hours, all the attention has been on which way the big unions would vote. And when Unison turned against Corbyn’s Brexit neutrality it looked as if the Remainers might just squeak a victory. But in the end the unions’ position was irrelevant. Because the conference votes were done by a show of hands. And guess what? There just weren’t many Remainers on the conference floor. I wonder how that happened? It’s a bit like how two crucial 8am NEC meetings were cancelled and requests for emailed submissions on the Brexit policy were made at around midnight on the prior evenings, making it almost impossible for Corbyn’s critics to get their act together. – ITV News Rosa Prince: As Remainers take control, even ‘dead cats’ won’t help an outfoxed Jeremy Corbyn It couldn’t have been more of a dead cat had it sported whiskers and a pungent aroma – and they thought it might just do the trick. As Jeremy Corbyn prepared to face the most difficult Conference of his four years in office, with activists, MPs and his own shadow cabinet allies in open mutiny over his Brexit stance, news broke of an audacious bid to oust his troublesome deputy, Tom Watson. The move by Jon Lansman, head of Momentum, Mr Corbyn’s Praetorian Guard, took not only Mr Watson by surprise – he was 250 miles from the conference in Brighton, visiting his teenage son in Manchester – but even, it was claimed, the Leader himself. “These kinds of things happen in Venezuela, they shouldn’t be happening in the United Kingdom,” Mr Watson protested on Radio 4’s Today Programme. – Rosa Prince for the Telegraph (£) The Sun: Labour’s ‘neutral’ Brexit policy is a mad blueprint for the destruction of our economy — it is a historic error Every sane person should be horror-struck by the rabid lunacy of what Labour is now seriously proposing. It is a mad blueprint for the destruction of our economy and hundreds of thousands of jobs. We hope one group in particular was watching it closely. Because if former Tories such as Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond get their way, and thwart Brexit before October 31, then they will be to blame for John McDonnell’s teenage Marxist fantasies becoming terrifyingly real. Boris Johnson would probably win an election if he delivers Brexit on time. If not, Corbyn may well do so despite setting all-time records for unpopularity and with his new “neutral” Brexit policy a display of staggering cowardice. – The Sun says Brexit in Brief After this day of chaos, Labour are in a bigger mess over Brexit than ever – Michael Deacon for the Telegraph (£) Labour says no to Remain. It was the shabbiest spectacle I’ve ever seen – Tom Peck for the Independent British in U-turn over Franco-German ‘alliance for multilateralism’ – Guardian Stuart Wheeler: ‘I worry that Boris will allow a very soft Brexit’ – Telegraph (£)