The leader of the British Labour Party has reiterated his support for a united Ireland at the start of his party's annual conference in Brighton.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Jeremy Corbyn rejected suggestions he had been a supporter of the IRA during the Troubles.

He said he had opposed violence on all sides while seeking a political solution.

Mr Corbyn has faced strong criticism for bringing members of the IRA to the House of Commons in the 1980s.

But he told the programme everyone he met had been former prisoners who had completed their sentences and the goal had been to open dialogue and reach a political solution.

Mr Corbyn said: "Yes, I did make myself very unpopular with some people by a preparedness to reach out to the Republican tradition in Ireland, to say ultimately this war is unwinnable by either side, there is never going to be a military [answer] - therefore there has to be a political dialogue.

"At the same time, secretly, the British government was also engaged in that and then eventually in 1994 we got the first ceasefire."

Mr Corbyn said a united Ireland was for the Irish people to decide - but said that he believed the peace process had brought this closer.

He said: "Quite honestly, the peace process has brought about a huge step forward. There's a lot of cross-border agreement, there's a lot of cross-border institutions.

"You go to Belfast, you go to Dublin, people travel back and forward all the time.

"The governments are in touch with each other, every hour of every day on different issues.

"There is that kind of sense that there is one island of Ireland."