As the next round of Brexit talks get under way amid few signs of a breakthrough, and with the main party conferences behind us, this week we look at what is known about where the two main parties stand on the big Brexit issues, and how far their positions might, or might have to, shift

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What did we learn from the conferences in Brighton and Manchester?

The Labour conference on the south coast voted to back the party’s official position on Brexit – but only after many of its MPs criticised the decision not to debate the issue at all.

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said Labour wanted “a new, progressive partnership with the EU” that mirrored single market benefits, and that remaining in a customs union was “a possible end destination for Labour”.



But he was unclear about whether this should be done by negotiating a new bespoke deal, or extending an off-the-shelf one. He also said he believed a Brexit deal could be achieved that was as good as being in the EU. “No rash, ideological red lines,” he said.

The Conservatives came into their conference with Theresa May’s Florence speech ringing in their ears: its concessions on citizens’ rights and the European court of justice; its promise that no EU member state would lose out financially as a result of Brexit during the current budget period; its acknowledgement that a two-year, status-quo transition period would be necessary; and its faintly desperate call on the EU27 to be “flexible and creative”.



But delegates were equally aware that May’s rebellious foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, had just given an interview to the Sun setting out his own personal Brexit red lines, at least two of which appeared to undermine the prime minister’s position, and that for all the protestations of unity, the cabinet is deeply, perhaps fatally, divided on almost all things Brexit.

May made little mention of Brexit in her tragicomic, mishap-strewn conference speech, while the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg talked of Brexit in terms of Agincourt and Trafalgar and swore Britain has “nothing to lose from a no-deal”. The loudest cheers came for those like him promising the hardest possible, cliff-edge Brexit.



May delivered little further clarity in her Commons statement on Monday beyond saying Britain was leaving the EU but still wanted a “dynamic, creative and unique” partnership, and – somewhat provocatively – that the ball was now in the EU’s court.

So where are we? Do Britain’s two main political parties know what they want from Brexit? If not, then why not? And what might be coming down the pipeline in the next few weeks and months that might force them both to grasp the nettle and finally get off their respective fences?

With Jon Henley to throw some bright light on the Brexit murk are the Guardian’s Brexit policy editor, Dan Roberts, and political editor Heather Stewart.