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Jeremy Corbyn faces EU questions as unions toughen stance Falconer to quit shadow cabinet if Labour backs EU exit
(about 2 hours later)
Jeremy Corbyn has faced questions from his own MPs over his stance on the EU ahead of the UK's in/out referendum. A member of Jeremy Corbyn's new shadow cabinet has threatened to quit if the Labour leader campaigns for the UK to leave the European Union.
The new Labour leader, who is now addressing the TUC in Brighton, has in the past been seen as a Eurosceptic. Lord Falconer said he believed the UK should remain a member "come what may" and his position would be "impossible" if Labour's leadership said otherwise.
He has signalled he will support a vote to stay in but said David Cameron must not be given a "blank cheque" in talks. Mr Corbyn has said David Cameron should not have a "blank cheque" in his negotiations ahead of a referendum.
Ahead of his TUC speech leading unions warned they will vote for a UK exit from the EU if workers' rights are weakened by the PM's EU renegotiations. Unions warn they may argue for an "Out" vote if workers rights are eroded.
The congress is expected to pass a TUC General Council Statement that says: "We are issuing a warning to the prime minister: you will lose our members' votes to stay in the EU by worsening workers' rights. Mr Corbyn, who has taken a Eurosceptic stance in the past, has faced questions from his own MPs over his stance on the EU ahead of referendum due by 2017.
"Both the prime minister and the CBI should note that should he succeed in further undermining British workers' rights, pressure to put TUC resources and support in the referendum behind a vote to leave the European Union will intensify dramatically." He has signalled he will support a vote to stay in but warned David Cameron must not be given a "free hand" in talks and indicated Labour should only support the "right changes" in areas such as social and employment rights.
Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn had earlier attempted to calm fears among many Labour MPs that Mr Corbyn could campaign for Britain to leave the EU, insisting the new Labour leader had told him "we will stay to fight together for a better Europe". New shadow chancellor John McDonnell has reinforced this message, by saying it is "fairly reasonable" for the opposition to see what package the prime minister secures before determining its position.
But Mr Corbyn appeared to suggest he would not back an "in" vote at any cost, with Labour MPs saying the changes Mr Cameron agreed to social and employment protections had to be "right ones". "At the moment it's trying to get a good Europe, trying to get a Europe that serves all our interests, and I think we can do that," he said on Monday.
But Lord Falconer said he could not support any equivocation about the UK's future in Europe.
"If the Labour Party adopts a position which says we might leave the EU and might argue against it then of course my position would become impossible at that point," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One. "But that's not the current position."
The Labour peer said he could envisage "no circumstances" in which it would be beneficial for the UK to leave the EU.
"My view is we should stay in the European Union come what may. So whatever the result of the negotiations, I believe that Britain would be so damaged by leaving the European Union - or indeed saying it's going to leave the European Union - that we should stay."
'Bulwark of support'
Mr Corbyn did not mention the issue of Europe during his speech to the TUC Congress on Tuesday.
The congress is expected to pass a TUC General Council Statement later that says: "We are issuing a warning to the prime minister: you will lose our members' votes to stay in the EU by worsening workers' rights."
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Shadow business secretary Angela Eagle said it was too early to say how the party would campaign. Over the past 20 years, Labour MPs openly calling for Britain to leave the EU have been on the fringes of the party but one of their number, Kate Hoey, said the situation was changing and there were members of the shadow cabinet who would quit if "fundamental reform" was not achieved.
She told BBC 2's Newsnight: "That has got to be the aim but we are not going to, before we even know what the prime minister is going to come back with, know precisely how we are going to be campaigning." "The dam has opened and we can now have proper debate with people being listened to on all side," she told BBC News.
Labour MP and former home secretary Alan Johnson has been lined up to lead Labour's campaign to stay in the EU in the referendum, which is expected before the end of 2017. The leader of the UK's largest union Unite, Len McCluskey, said the union movement had been a "bulwark" of support for the European Union but he was "nervous" about the prime minister's negotiating strategy and what it meant for rights to public holidays, rest breaks and limits on working hours.
Shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer said he could not remain in the shadow cabinet if the leadership decided to campaign to quit the EU. "We support, on balance, staying in Europe and that key question of on balance is based on the social charter," he said. "We hope the prime minister takes a step back from that and we will remain a pro-European union."
"If the Labour Party adopts a position which says we might leave the EU and might argue against it then of course my position would become impossible at that point," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One. "But that's not the current position." But the BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith said there was a serious prospect of the union movement "switching sides" on the issue.
'White poppy' Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn has attempted to calm fears among many Labour MPs on the issue, insisting that Labour "has always been committed to not walking away, but staying in to work together for a better Europe".
When he addresses trade union delegates in Brighton later, Mr Corbyn is expected to say he will take the fight to the government over welfare cuts and other austerity measures, describing them as "a political choice not an economic necessity". A number of former shadow ministers have refused to serve under Mr Corbyn since his election, citing his views on the economy, defence and Britain's place in the world.
"They call us deficit deniers," he is expected to say. "But then they spend billions cutting taxes for the richest families or for the most profitable businesses. Chuka Umunna ruled out joining the shadow cabinet after claiming he had not received the assurances he was seeking from Mr Corbyn on Britain's continued membership of the EU.
"What they are is poverty deniers: Ignoring the growing queues at food banks. Ignoring the growing housing crisis. Cutting tax credits when child poverty rose by half a million under the last government to over four million."
Earlier on Tuesday, he attended a service at St Paul's Cathedral to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain., his first official ceremonial engagement as opposition leader.
The new leader faced murmurs of "hostility and concern" from some MPs at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party after he refused to rule out wearing a white poppy on Remembrance Sunday, one of those present said.
"The point he made was that he had not decided what he would do this year. He went on to say why people wear white poppies," said Labour MP Simon Danczuk.
"He should wear a red one in memory of members of the armed forces who have given their lives. It is one day in the year that it's important not to focus on other issues."
Capitalism 'failing'
Mr Corbyn has previously worn both red and white poppies together on his lapel when laying a wreath at the war memorial in Islington as a local MP, the London Evening Standard reported.
A Labour Party spokeswoman confirmed later that Mr Corbyn, who is chairman of the Stop the War coalition, would wear a red poppy on Remembrance Sunday.
According to the Stop The War coalition, wearing a white poppy is a "respectful way to put peace at the heart of remembering those who died in war".
Meanwhile Chancellor George Osborne has said the appointment of John McDonnell as shadow chancellor broke decades of economic consensus.
"Far from celebrating this turmoil, for me, as chancellor, this means going back to first principles and winning again the arguments made by both Conservative and previous Labour governments alike," he wrote in the Times.
"As the whole Labour Party shifts left, abandoning the centre ground, it abandons the working people of this country, including millions who voted Labour but do not support the ideas of the party's new leadership," added Mr Osborne.
In his first TV interview on Monday, Mr McDonnell said capitalism was "failing" and he wanted to "transform it". He told Channel 4 News he believed the role of shadow chancellor was "to put forward an alternative to what's happening at the moment".
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