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Corbyn Tells Critics He Won't Quit If MPs Revolt

Jeremy Corbyn begins his first party conference as Labour leader today vowing to carry on even if his MPs try to oust him.

Defying critics such as Peter Mandelson and other leading Blairites who want to remove him, he insists he will not quit or be forced out.

"There is a democratic process in the party and that can be operated at any time," he tells The Observer.

"But am I going to resign? No. Of course not. No. No. I will carry on."

He also claims he could see himself as Prime Minister in five years' time, declaring: "I think about the issues, the opportunities and the responsibilities that go with that, of course."

Besides attacks from opponents of his left-wing policies, Mr Corbyn faces the prospect of defeat on Trident this week and is under fire over his failure to promote women to top jobs.

After he held a crunch meeting with senior trade union leaders in Brighton, it emerged that some of Britain's biggest unions will vote to keep Trident to protect their members' jobs.

Speaking on Sky News, GMB leader Paul Kenny announced: "We won't be supporting the scrapping of Trident for a whole variety of reasons, not least of which nobody can come up with how we're going to deal with the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people who rely on that defence industry's jobs."

And in a blunt attack on the anti-nuclear stance of the left-wing Labour leader and his supporters, Mr Kenny said: "People need to get real - this is not coffee bar politics. This is the real world."

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A senior Unite source told Sky News after the meeting with Mr Corbyn: "We'll have to see what emerges from the priorities ballot and compositing. But don’t expect us to be on the wrong side of members' jobs."

In a move to curb the influence of the big unions, a review of the way Labour makes policies is to be launched today in an effort to involve the members and supporters who swept Mr Corbyn to the leadership.

The review will be announced by shadow cabinet minister Angela Eagle, who chairs Labour’s National Policy Forum, and will also look at the "use of technology" in the policy-making process.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said the leader wanted to hear the views of grassroots activists and the supporters who paid £3 to take part in the election.

"We see Jeremy's election as the party telling us they want more open and democratic politics," the spokesman said. "We are launching a review of how we make policy and how we can make it more inclusive."

Earlier, Mr Corbyn faced criticism from the party's former interim leader Harriet Harman over his appointment of men to the senior positions of shadow chancellor and shadow home secretary.

Addressing the Labour women’s conference, Mr Corbyn praised Ms Harman’s record in campaigning for equality and defended his appointments, pointing out that his shadow cabinet had 16 women and 15 men.

But he dodged her criticism of his choice of John McDonnell as shadow chancellor and Andy Burnham as shadow home secretary, although his spokesman told Sky News Mr Corbyn wants to work with women, the party and the national executive to improve the representation of women across the party.

Earlier, Mr McDonnell, in his first major policy interview, surprised many in the party by saying he would support the "fiscal charter " on cutting the deficit proposed by Chancellor George Osborne in his July Budget.