Labour has dodged a vote on whether to water down Brexit amid fears it would highlight massive splits in the party.
Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn have scotched an effort to force a vote on keeping the UK in the EU single market and customs union.
The issue will still be debated by delegates tomorrow – but the scale of the rift will not be crystalised in figures.
The manoeuvre came as Jeremy Corbyn fought to contain divisions, repeatedly avoiding questions about whether free movement should go and how long the transition period should be.
But Europhile MPs voiced fury at being denied a vote on Brexit policy – saying it made a mockery of the leader’s claims to be democratising the party.
Backbencher Neil Coyle said: ‘The thin veneer of facade of commitment to a “members” conference’ exposed for the bull it always was. Speak up only if you already agree.’
The desperate flannelling, in an interview to kick off the Labour conference in Brighton this morning, came as Labour faced a huge split on Brexit.
Some 30 MPs have signed a letter demanding that the UK stays in the single market and there is pressure for a vote to be held by delegates this week.
Pro-EU demonstrators also marched outside the conference venue today, calling for Labour to reverse the result of the historic referendum.
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured on the stage at Labour conference today) is fighting to contain divisions on Brexit
Pro-EU protesters gathered outside the Labour conference today urging Mr Corbyn to reverse the result of the historic referendum
Europhile Labour MPs voiced fury at the decision to dodge having a vote on Brexit policy
Mr Corbyn’s performance today was so evasive that at one point a frustrated Andrew Marr asked the veteran left-winger: ‘What’s happened to you that you cannot answer my questions?’
Mr Corbyn said he agreed with the government that a transition deal was needed after March 2019 for the UK to adjust to life outside the EU.
But pressed on whether he thought the two-year timescale set out by Theresa May was right, he merely said: ‘It is impossible for anyone to put an absolute timescale on that.’
The comments will alarm Brexiteers who are already concerned that the outcome of the historic referendum last year is being subverted.
Repeatedly grilled on whether free movement should stay after we leave the EU, Mr Corbyn again dodged.
Labour is deeply divided on the issue, with many MPs calling for Britain to stay in the EU and avoid any tougher restrictions on flows.
Despite Labour’s election manifesto pledging to end free movement, Mr Corbyn said he ‘understood’ where those in his party supporting keeping the rules were coming from.
‘A lot of people are going to come and work here,’ he said. ‘We have to recognise that in the future we are going to need people to work in Europe, and people from Europe are going to need to work here. There’s going to be a lot of movement.’
But confusingly he also insisted Britain could not stay in the single market because it stopped the government pumping state aid into struggling industries – a touchstone left wing policy.
Mrs May used a crucial speech in Florence on Friday to make a series of concessions to the EU in a bid to unblock talks.
The Europhile demonstrators waved European flags and chanted slogans calling for the UK to stay in the bloc
The Labour leader desperately dodged when pressed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show today over whether loose immigration rules should be maintained after we formally leave the EU
Mr Corbyn said he ‘understood’ where those in his party supporting free movement were coming from
The PM said the UK was ready to cover the huge hole left in Brussels’ finances for another two years after we formally leave in 2019 – contributing potentially another 20 billion euros – and meet other liabilities that could total tens of billions more.
She also said the European court could help enforce the rights of EU nationals – easing back a previous red line – and admitted that bringing in tougher immigration measures would take time, raising the possibility that free movement rules could essentially stay in place for longer.
But Mrs May said in return for the ‘generous’ offer the UK must have full access to the single market during a two-year ‘transition’ period.
Setting out her vision for a post-Brexit future, she also ruled out existing models for trade arrangements such as Norway’s, saying: ‘We can do better than that.’
She suggested the final deal should be ‘bespoke’, but could be a much looser affiliation similar to that sealed with Canada.
Mr Johnson praised the speech as ‘positive, optimistic and dynamic’. But he had thrown the Cabinet into chaos the previous week with a bombshell article seen as an attempt to push the PM into a harder stance on Brexit.
He even made an apparent resignation threat to maximise his leverage, before backing off on the eve of the speech.
Today it was claimed Mr Johnson is drawing a red line on accepting any more regulations from Brussels during the transition period.
Mr Corbyn also vacillated when he was challenged over threats by his union allies to hold illegal strikes to force the government into awarding public sector workers big pay rises.
He refused to criticise the prospect, and criticised laws that insist strikes cannot only be called if there is a 50 per cent turnout in union ballots.
Asked if he would be on the picket lines with strikers, Mr Corbyn said: ‘I will be supporting those workers in getting a decent pay rise.’
But he would not say whether he supported the across-the-board 5 per cent hikes being demanded by unions – which would cost the public purse around £10billion a year.
The government has already announced it is easing the 1 per cent cap on public sector pay rises, but says any increases must be balanced against the need to tackle the still-significant deficit.
A small group of anti-Brexit campaigners waving pro EU flags, accused those who led the Leave campaign of being ‘fascists’.
They gathered across the street from the Labour Party conference hall and chanted into a microphone: ‘Opposition do your job, don’t appease the Fascist mob.’
Leading the chants was Judith Weisener, an NHS worker from London.
She told the the Mail Online: ‘I don’t think we are calling all people who voted Brexit fascists.
‘We are calling those fascists who are leading Brexit and lying to people.’
Challenged over who this was, she added: ‘Farage, who is an outright racist xenophobe, the EDL, and the Tory Party to the extent they play into that xenophobic agenda.
‘And to the extent they ignore parliamentary process and parliamentary democracy.
Mr Corbyn is kicking off the Labour conference in Brighton this morning
‘That’s what makes me the most angry, we have got a parliamentary democracy and they are trying to ignore that.
‘Put those two things together and you are on the road to fascism.’
Conservative party chairman Patrick McLoughlin said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn seems unable to give a straight answer to a simple question. Today he refused to commit to controlling migration from the EU and he refused to condemn illegal strikes.
‘Jeremy Corbyn is once again showing he is unfit to govern. He would backtrack on Brexit and fail to take the balanced approach on the economy that this country needs – and it would be ordinary working people that pay the price.’