The youth wing of the Labour Party, Young Labour, has today wholly abandoned the principles of internationalism which had been a major part of the party’s platform for decades, by calling for unilateral withdrawal from NATO, scrapping freedom of movement, and voting against a motion calling for a two-state solution in the Middle East.

The motion to unilaterally withdraw from NATO called the organisation – widely credited with maintaining peace in Europe for decades – “the lynchpin and institutional expression of American imperialism”, while noting that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were also in favour of withdrawal.

The move to scrap freedom of movement will also come as a major concern to Labour voters, many of whom backed Labour in June because of their perceived “softer” stance on Brexit. This manoeuvre by the youth wing, however, joins with the efforts by the main party to promote the hardest Brexit possible, with Labour and the Tories having an unwritten pact to vote to drag Britain out of the single market, risking millions of jobs and billions of pounds from the British economy.

An internal Liberal Democrat source said that the motions at Young Labour conference demonstrated that Labour “had truly abandoned any pretence of being an internationalist party.”

“With Labour at all levels – including their young members – now having abandoned international principles by calling for unilateral withdrawal from NATO and an end to freedom of movement from the EU, it is clear that the Liberal Democrats are the only party of open internationalism left in British politics.”