The Labour party said today it had no plans to cancel its party conference in Brighton.

Party officials were responding to speculation the event would be abandoned in the wake of the US terror attacks.

Downing Street also insisted the conference, which begins on September 30, would go ahead.

A Number Ten spokesman said reports the five-day event had already been scrapped were "hogwash."

However MPs, ministers and delegates accept the conference will be muted in the wake of last week's atrocities.

The issues which were set to dominate the conference look certain to be sidelined.

A spokesman for the GMB, the union due to have led the charge against the Government over the greater involvement of the private sector in schools and hospitals, said it was urgently reviewing its plans.

He said: "It's no secret we still have serious disagreements with the Government but there is no belief or appetite that this is the moment to air them."

Michael Jacobs, general secretary of the Fabian Society, said: "I think the decibel level on many debates is going to fall and that will be a good thing."

New Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith has hinted his party's conference, which is scheduled to take place in Blackpool in October, could be abandoned if the crisis caused by the attacks deepens.

He said: "It's too early yet to make any decisions on that.

"Certainly our plans are to go ahead, as I am sure the Government's are. But obviously it depends how things pan out over the next few weeks."

September 18 2001