Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn takes part in the first day of the Labour Party Annual Conference 2017 in Brighton, Britain, on Sept. 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
LONDON, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- He took the Glastonbury music festival by storm, and as the main opposition Labour Party invaded Brighton for their annual conference, leader Jeremy Corbyn maintained the attention normally reserved for pop icons.
The most unlikely leader of Labour in its history, the one-time rebel socialist, is now seen as a prime minister in waiting.
As the conference started in the south coast resort the Labour-supporting Sunday Mirror newspaper said Corbyn wanted to stay in office as prime minister for 10 years to implement Labour's agenda if his party is elected to govern.
It's Corbyn's first conference since the snap general election in June which saw Labour win 30 seats and reduce the ruling Conservatives to a minority government. Cornbyn has also seen Labour become the biggest political party in Europe, approaching 600,000 members.
The big issue among delegates in Brighton is Brexit, and Labour's stance on Britain's future in Europe.
As Corbyn was spelling out his vision in media interviews, Keir Starmer, Labour's shadow Brexit secretary was addressing a standing-room only meeting near the main conference hall.
Corbyn said in an interview on the BBC Andrew Marr Show that he was opposed to Britain staying in the EU single market permanently as it could stop Labour implementing its policies.
He said "I think you have to stay in a transitional period as long as necessary.... there has to be a transition. We made that clear."
Corbyn added it was impossible for anyone to place an absolute figure on how long a transition should last, but said it would not be a period of ten years. He also said he expected there to be a lot of movement by people between Britain and Europe after Brexit.
The Sunday Telegraph commented that Corbyn's suggestion of a seemingly open-ended transitional phase during which Britain would still be tightly intertwined with the EU is likely to spark a fierce backlash from Brexiteers.
In her keynote speech in Florence on Friday Prime Minister Theresa May, indicated a two-year transition once Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.
Corbyn's confirmation that he supported Britain eventually withdrawing from the single market and custom's union, came against the backdrop of a plea in the Observer newspaper Sunday from a group of influential Labour politicians calling for the party to commit to full and permanent membership of the EU single market and customs union so the Labour can offer a clear alternative to the governing Conservatives over Brexit.
With some media describing the intervention as a looming mutiny, the letter from the Open Britain campaign group and the Labour Campaign was signed by around 40 people from the Labour movement including MPs, seven British European Parliament MEPs, two serving trade union general secretaries, as well as a number of senior peers and local government leaders.
They said in their open letter: "The supposed benefits of a clean break with the EU are a fantasy. The economic impact of leaving the single market would hit the most vulnerable in our society hardest."
The letter, signed by senior figures in the Labour movement, including former shadow cabinet members Heidi Alexander and Chuka Umunna, say it is "unsustainable to say we are an anti-austerity party" while being in favor of leaving the single market and customs union."
They add: "This would send a powerful message of solidarity to the rest of Europe, and to the millions of EU and UK nationals living in limbo here and across the continent."
Corbyn is expected to give more detail about his approach to Brexit in his keynote conference speech Wednesday.
Conservative Party chairman Patrick McLoughlin, said in a media interview later: "Jeremy Corbyn seems unable to give a straight answer to a simple question, and 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."
