Airlines angry over 'risky, crazy' EU-Brexit deadlock

LIVERPOOL: Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses delegates on the final day of the Labour party conference in Liverpool yesterday. —AFP

LIVERPOOL: Opposition Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday presented himself as the man to steer Britain through perilous Brexit negotiations as he pushed his case for a general election. Wrapping up the party's annual conference in Liverpool, Corbyn sought to play down his own party's divisions over Brexit and presented a "radical plan" for government. Corbyn said Labor would support any "sensible deal" for Brexit that Prime Minister Theresa May's government brings back from Brussels but warned that "if you can't negotiate that deal then you need to make a way for a party that can".

He said that an election should be called if parliament fails to approve May's Brexit deal, hours after she told reporters in New York that an election before Britain leaves the EU would "not be in the national interest". If an election is not called, Corbyn said, "all our options are on the table" - a reference to the possibility of advocating a second Brexit referendum. Labor has held back from full-throated backing for a second referendum because many of its supporters voted for Brexit, although younger members and many of the conference delegates have been speaking out in favor of another vote.

Anti-Semitism row

But the 69-year-old leftist devoted much of his speech to what he called "a radical plan to rebuild and transform our country" with social justice and environmental sustainability, and criticism of the government's austerity program. After being criticized for months for his handling of cases of anti-Semitism in the Labor Party, and his own past associations with Palestinian militants, Corbyn also pledged to fight discrimination "with every breath I possess".

"The row over anti-Semitism has caused immense hurt and anxiety in the Jewish community and great dismay in the Labor Party. But I hope we can work together to draw a line under it," he told delegates at the meeting in north-west England. Corbyn used his speech to promise 400,000 jobs in the green-energy sector to meet low-carbon targets. He also announced an expansion of free childcare for poor households.

"Ten years ago this month, the whole edifice of greed-is-good, deregulated financial capitalism... came crashing to earth, with devastating consequences," he said. "The old way of running things isn't working any more." Brexit has loomed large over the four-day party event, causing ructions that the leader was keen to avoid yesterday and delegates responded positively to his anti-austerity message. "Too many people are suffering very, very badly in this country," said Tony Loftus, 70, a former prison officer. Carole Grady, a retiree from Lancashire, said: "Brexit has dominated totally. While this has been going on in the last two years, everything has just been left to rot. "I think we need a general election," she said.

Labor respects referendum

Party delegates voted on Tuesday to support the possibility of a second referendum if May is unable to get a final deal through parliament. But veteran leftist John McDonnell, Labour's main finance spokesman, went off message on Monday, saying the option of staying in the European Union should not be on any ballot paper. The party's Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer hit back, receiving rapturous applause from members when he also veered off script to insist that remaining in the bloc was still on the table, exposing the power struggle behind the veneer of party unity.

Airlines angry

The impasse between Britain and the EU in Brexit negotiations is "crazy" and "risky" for airlines with time running out to ensure cross-Channel flights can continue unimpeded, the world's airline body has warned. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents around 290 airlines, raised the alarm after Britain issued new guidance to spell out a worst-case scenario for aviation in the event that it fails to reach a deal with Brussels.

The guidance "clearly exposes the extreme seriousness of what is at stake and underscores the huge amount of work that would be required to maintain vital air links", IATA chief Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement. The government technical paper stressed that without an overarching Brexit deal, airlines will have to seek two different approvals from each of the rest of the 27 EU members to ensure they have the regulatory framework to fly.

Airlines themselves have warned that their cross-Channel flights may be grounded for lack of insurance if they cannot be sure their pilots' licenses and safety standards are recognized after Britain leaves the EU on March 29. "It is crazy," de Juniac, the former chief of Air France-KLM Group, said in a separate interview with Bloomberg News, warning of the impact now for post-March bookings by passengers. "To think that you could negotiate such technical matters in the last hours on as sensitive a subject as aviation, with the safety issues. "It's totally unprofessional, risky and disrespectful to the passengers who will have bought a ticket."- Agencies