Jeremy Corbyn plays it cool as Labour divisions mount

Jeremy Corbyn has played down talk of divisions at Labour’s top table after one of his senior aides announced his resignation.

In a private memo regarding his departure, Andrew Fisher reportedly referred to colleagues having a “lack of human decency” and issuing a “blizzard of lies”.

In what The Sunday Times describes as a “caustic” message, Fisher reportedly wrote: “I no longer have faith we will succeed.”

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Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr, Corbyn said Fisher’s words came because he was “extremely distressed at that point about whatever was going on in discussions within the office,” and added: “I would have thought similar memos fly around the BBC pretty much every day.”

He said that he had a “very convivial” coffee with Fisher and other members of his team on Sunday morning, and described his outgoing aide as “a great colleague, a great friend”.

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After paying further tribute to Fisher, who worked on the party's manifesto, he said: “We get along absolutely very well and he’s promised that whatever happens in the future he will be working with me on policy issues.”

The controversy around Fisher followed hot on the heels of another embarrassing party row concerning Tom Watson, in which a bid to oust the party’s deputy leader failed.

Corbyn claimed he had not been aware that his ally Jon Lansman was going to request a vote at Labour’s national executive committee meeting on Friday calling for the post of deputy leader to be abolished.

“I was not aware that the particular motion was going to be moved at that time, but I knew there were people discussing options,” he insisted. “I’m not all-seeing and all-knowing – I’d love to be.”

Watson, meanwhile, was in a defiant mood after the attempt to oust him failed. Speaking at a fringe rally at the conference, the deputy leader said: “We are a remain party. We are a European Party. We are an internationalist party.”

Straying further from Corbyn’s line that the party leadership would stay neutral if there were a second referendum, Watson added: “By backing a people's vote, by backing remain, I am sure we can deliver the Labour government the people of this country so badly need.”

Earlier, Corbyn had said that although most Labour supporters voted to remain, the party must respect the result of the Brexit referendum and do more to understand why people voted to leave.

Divisions over Brexit “threaten to plunge Labour party conference into chaos”, The Observer says, adding that there has been speculation that Corbyn might buckle under the pressure.

However, when Marr put it to Corbyn that he might stand down as Labour leader in the next year or so he dismissed this as “wishful thinking”. The 70-year-old also insisted that, if he were elected as prime minister, he would serve five years, adding: “Why wouldn't I?”