Jeremy Corbyn 'relaxed' about immigration ahead of keynote Labour conference speech

Ahead of his keynote speech at the Labour conference, Jeremy Corbyn will rule out promising to cut immigration, despite the issue playing a key factor in the result of the EU referendum.

Amid concerns that the party could lose white, working class voters unless Labour addresses immigration Corbyn's spokesman said he was "not concerned about numbers."

The Labour leader will tell his party on Wednesday (28 September): "A Labour government will not offer false promises. We will not sow division or fan the flames of fear. We will instead tackle the real issues of immigration – and make the changes that are needed," the Guardian reported.

Corbyn will hope to unite his party having secured an increased mandate as leader. He is expected to call for an end to "trench warfare" within the party and try to "rebuild trust," the BBC reported.

Shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, dismissed polls suggesting Labour could have fewer than 200 seats for the first time since 1935 and insisted that the party was a "government in waiting".

However a key architect of New Labour, Peter Mandelson, said he hoped for an early general election to remove Corbyn, which polls suggest would see Labour suffer a heavy defeat.

In a sign that opponents of Corbyn are resigned to not being about to oust him as leader before the 2020 election, Mandelson told an audience at the Royal Television Society in London about his view of a snap election.

"Bring it on so we can deal with the awful situation in the Labour party earlier than 2020 {. . .} I get up every day and pray that will be the case."

Earlier, Corbyn had said while he is not a supporter of nuclear weapons, "the position is that Parliament has voted on Trident, the existing party policy was for renewal", he told the BBC.

His comments follow reports that Labour's shadow defence secretary, Clive Lewis, was upset at last-minute changes to his speech about the UK's nuclear missile system, where he told the conference in Liverpool that it was time for Labour to stop "picking at the scab" of its Trident policy.

Corbyn also questioned the British government's policy against Isis, saying: "I am not sure it's working. I think there has to be a political solution, which brings together everyone with the exception of IS to isolate them."