LABOUR is a party "preparing to go into government", leader Jeremy Corbyn has insisted at the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee.

The veteran left-winger said while his party "didn't quite win" the 2017 snap General Election, they had defied the critics who claimed Labour was "heading for a wipeout".

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Corbyn, speaking on day one of the spring conference, said: "That's not how it turned out.

"With our popular and fully costed manifesto we offered the chance of transformation and hope and confounded those so-called experts."

He added: "Of course I know that we didn't quite win. But conference we are no longer just an opposition. We are a party preparing to go into government.

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"We are ready to put into practice our common sense policies to end austerity, invest in people's futures and radically transform our society so that it works for the many not the few."

With Tory Brexit plans "in chaos", the Labour leader said his party would fight to "put jobs and living standards first" as the UK leaves the European Union.

And he stressed that "retaining the benefits of the customs union and the single market" was vital – saying this would help future Labour governments in Edinburgh and London to "fully implement our socialist programme".

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Corbyn said: "As democratic socialists we respect the result of the referendum.

"But Labour has its own common sense approach in stark contrast to the Tories' extreme and reckless plans for Brexit.

"We would aim to negotiate a new and strong relationship with the single market and a floor under existing rights, standards and protections for workers, consumers and the environment."

But Corbyn said it would be "wrong" for the UK to sign up to a single market deal with the EU that would not be "fully compatible with our radical plans to change Britain's economy".

He insisted: "We are determined to negotiate a deal that gives us full tariff-free access to the single market."

For Britain to have a "jobs first Brexit" he added the deal must be compatible with Labour's plans to nationalise the railways and the postal service, and to end the privatisation of public services.

"We also need to be clear, we could not accept a situation where we were subject to all EU rules and EU law, yet had no say in making those laws," he said.

"That would leave us as mere rule-takers and isn't a tenable position for a democracy."

Corbyn described Labour as an "internationalist party", as he told the conference: "We cannot give in to Tory demands to cut Britain off or SNP demands to cut Scotland off from the rest of the world."

He spoke out against the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, before demanding the UK Government stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia.

He stated: "UK arms supplies to Saudi Arabia have increased sharply since the war began and British military advisers are directly involved in the prosecution of the Saudi bombing campaign which has repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.

"It cannot be right, as I told the Prime Minister on Wednesday, that her government is colluding in what the UN and others say is evidence of war crimes.

"Germany has suspended arms supplies to Saudi Arabia, and so must the British Government. This outrage must end."