Jeremy Corbyn is coming under increasing pressure to put Labour at the forefront of the campaign against a Tory hard Brexit.

As the Labour leader received a rapturous reception from party members gathering in Brighton, he fended off demands from senior Labour figures to do whatever it takes to resist a hard Brexit.

Corbyn flashed his Eurosceptic credentials by saying Labour needed to be careful not to give up powers inside the single market which they will need in government to deploy state support for industry.

He added: “We need to look very carefully at the terms of our trade relationship because at the moment, we are a part of the single market and that has within it restrictions on state aid and state spending.”

The move came after 30 MPs and MEPs called on him to lead a Labour drive to keep Britain in the single market and customs union.

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Cracks in Labour's Brexit position are starting to appear

The cracks in Labour’s Brexit position were revealed after Corbyn-supporting delegates voted to debate other issues today – avoiding a potentially divisive clash over Europe.

Brexit lost out in the conference vote after the left-wing Momentum leadership asked members to push for votes on housing, social care, the NHS and rail instead.

But Richard Angell, of the centrist pressure group Progress, slated Momentum’s “shameful tactics”.

He added that they were trying to stop members “democratically discussing Brexit, let alone committing the party to staying in the single market permanently and debating the important principles of freedom of movement.

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“This is clearly Momentum using a ‘stitch and fix’ to avoid Jeremy Corbyn’s blushes.”

Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer, who backs moves to strengthen Labour’s stance, said yesterday he hoped an election would put Labour in power before the UK’s transition out of the EU.

He added: “We are the grown-ups in the room, we stand ready to take charge of the negotiations.” Starmer said the Government’s progress in talks had got “stuck” in the first phase and the “penny has dropped” that a deal will not be struck by the time Britain leaves the EU in 2019.

Starmer added: “I’m hoping there will be an election before these negotiations are over so we can take over and fight for the relationship with Europe we believe in.”

Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer wants to see the party's stance on Brexit strengthened

He said Labour would push for a strong transitional period before setting out their priorities for the final deal – including “retaining the benefits” of single market membership. He added: “How we achieve that is secondary to the fact that we do achieve it.”

Starmer has previously said that under a Labour government, Britain would remain in the single market and the customs union for a period of two to four years after Brexit.

But signatories to a letter in the Observer, including Ian Murray MP, and former shadow cabinet members Chuka Umunna and Heidi Alexander, said the party should go further to protect jobs and workers’ rights.

The letter warned leaving the single market would “hit the most vulnerable in our society hardest”.

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they said: “At our conference this week, Labour should commit to staying in the single market and customs union – ruling out no options for how to achieve this – and to working with sister parties and others across Europe to improve workers’ rights, boost trade union membership and put an end to the exploitation of workers, not freedom of movement.”

In a BBC interview Corbyn said he wanted to ensure “tariff-free access to the European market”.

But he added that being in the EU brought pressures “to privatise rail and other services”, saying: “We need to be careful about the powers we need as a national government.”

Corbyn said a transitional period should last “as long as necessary” as he questioned Theresa May’s suggestion it should be two years.

Asked whether it could last as long as a decade he said, “no, I don’t think so,” but added: “I think it’s impossible for anyone to put an absolute figure on that.”