UK's Labor Party wrapped up final talk before Brexit

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Britain's Labor opposition has wrapped up its annual Party conference Wednesday, the last before Brexit Day when at the end of March next year the UK leaves the European Union.

Not surprisingly Brexit dominated the conference. However, the Party leadership proved coy about whether a Labor government would allow a second referendum Brexit vote to include the option to remain in the European Union.

Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn confirmed in his keynote conference speech that he would almost certainly vote down UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plans as part of a strategy to trigger a General Election.

Further, Corbyn told thousands of adoring delegates, many chanting his name that he and his party's 257 Members of Parliament would vote against a 'No Deal' Brexit.

But the Labor leader made no direct reference to the staging of another EU referendum to stay in the European Union - a hot issue which dominated the four-day conference.

Britain's Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn waves to delegates after giving his keynote speech on the final day of the Labor party conference in Liverpool, England on September 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

In a direct appeal to the Prime Minister, Corbyn outlined a settlement Labor would back, involving the UK staying in a customs union with the EU and protection of workers' rights and environmental standards.

Speaking from the stage in Liverpool, in the UK's northwest, he said: "Let me also reach out to the Prime Minister, you see I reach out to everybody, who is currently apparently doing the negotiations."

"Brexit is about the future of our country and our vital interests. It is not about leadership squabbles or parliamentary posturing."

"I say this to her in all sincerity and helpfulness: if you deliver a deal that includes a customs union and no hard border in Ireland, if you protect jobs, people's rights at work and environmental and consumer standards - then we will support that sensible deal."

"A deal that would be backed by most of businesses in the world and trade unions."

"But if you can't negotiate that deal then you need to make way for a party that can and will."

The Parliamentary arithmetic is such that triggering a General Election may not be in Corbyn's gift. If he fails, he said he'd call for a People's Vote.

Jeremy Corbyn gestures on his arrival at the convention hall in Liverpool, England on September 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

However, there was no promise that the People's Vote - effectively a second Brexit referendum - would give voters the opportunity of going for the chance to remain in the EU.

That task was left to Corbyn's Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer when delegates voted to keep all options on the table - including a pledge to remain.

To thunderous and prolonged applause Starmer told the conference he said 'no one is ruling out Remain as an option.' It effectively leaves open a chance that two years of Brexit negotiations could all have been for nothing.

Starmer was acutely aware that the overwhelming majority of those in the conference hall were in favor of a second chance to overturn Brexit. A recent poll from the polling organization YouGov indicated nearly nine out of 10 Labor Party members favored a new poll.

However, for Starmer to make that promise involved him dramatically going off script. The speech cleared by the Labor leadership did not refer to the option of remaining in the EU. The Labor Opposition claims it would get an improved Brexit deal from the European Union because, in the words of the Party's Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell, the 'atmosphere would be better.'

The shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, said Wednesday that it would take a miracle for Labor to support a deal brought back by May from Brussels.

So, with six months to go before Britain is due to depart the European Union, there remains little agreement among the country's political parties or, indeed, even among members of Theresa May's ruling Conservatives.

Following the Opposition Labor Conference, officials in Brussels are reportedly intensifying their preparations for a no-deal Brexit.