Labour 'ready for Government' but avoiding Brexit

Mr Corbyn has avoided a potentially divisive clash over Brexit at conference after delegates agreed not to push the issue to a vote. Credit: PA

By David Wood, Political Correspondent

As the conference season continues, for the Labour party down in Brighton it is a very positive meeting. The party is confident, after much better results in the June election than it had been expecting, and is a far cry from what was happening are year ago, you may remember Jeremy Corbyn was challenged for his leadership and won a second leadership election. It feels like those wounds have now healed but others are already opening up here.

It is all about policy, that's where the problems are specifically the policy around Brexit and whether the UK should stay inside the EU's single market after we leave the European Union.

That would mean that we almost certainly would have to pay vast sums of money for access to the market and continue to allow free movement of EU citizens into the UK and free movement of UK citizens into the other EU nations.

The leadership seems to be saying we will leave the single market but pressure is increasing on Mr Corbyn to change that, but only last night the party's delegates voted not to have a Brexit debate and policy vote at conference.

Instead the agenda here is dominated by domestic issues. In Monday's ITV News West Country we'll hear from the Labour leader and how he plans to win over rural parts of the region. It's clear with seats in Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth he needs to reach out to less urban areas to make any progress as the next election.

One of Mr Corbyn key pledges to put part of the world is to electrify the railways. This will cost more that £2bn which Labour will fund by borrowing money. Jeremy Corbyn says it's worth all of that money because giving the South West better railways will significantly boost the regions economy.

The message from Brighton this week will be that Labour is ready for Government but that message could be undermined by the party's lack of a full debate over Brexit.