Britain’s Labour fails to challenge May on Brexit

Britain’s exit from the bloc, or Brexit, did not even make it onto the official agenda of the Labour party’s conference in Liverpool, where lawmakers were more concerned with whether Labour will survive in the future. 

For May, who campaigned quietly for Britain to stay in the European Union before the June referendum, it means she will be able to drive the talks without much interference from the Labour Opposition. 

But she may face a stronger challenge from those in her Conservative Party who are pressing for a hard Brexit, or a clean break with the EU and its single market. 

Seema Malhotra, a former Labour treasury spokeswoman, told an event at the conference that she feared Labour had all but handed control to the Conservatives on Brexit. 

“We have to insert ourselves into that debate because otherwise it runs the risk now of becoming another blue on blue debate, with ‘leave means leave’ and others who are Eurosceptic driving Theresa May to the right,” she told a conference event, referring to the colour that represents the Conservatives. 

She said Labour must try to keep “the best of what we have in the European Union, not just because it’s good for Britain, but because it’s good for Europe and it’s good for the world as well”.