* Vote was latest challenge to Corbyn on Brexit
* Party members sought pro-EU stance for election run
* Depth of feeling was clear in chaotic scenes (Adds results of vote)
By Elizabeth Piper and William James
BRIGHTON, England, Sept 23 (Reuters) - British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn won support for his Brexit strategy on Monday, fighting off a challenge by members who wanted him to immediately back remaining in the European Union before any election.
The vote at his party's annual conference in the English seaside resort of Brighton was the latest outburst of dissent over Corbyn's Brexit approach, overshadowing party officials' attempts to present Labour as a government in waiting.
To howls of protest from pro-EU members and cheers from Corbyn supporters, the chairwoman of the conference said the bid to force Corbyn to change tack on Brexit had failed -- chaotic scenes that underlined Labour's divisions over Brexit.
Instead, members fell into line and backed Corbyn's stance to first try to win an election, renegotiate the Brexit deal and then hold a special conference to decide the party's stance - either to leave with a deal or remain - in a second referendum.
With Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisting that Britain will leave the EU on an Oct. 31 deadline, Labour, like the governing Conservatives, is struggling to agree strategy on Brexit, increasing the uncertainty over Britain's biggest foreign and trade policy shift in more than 40 years.
Corbyn, an instinctive leftist critic of the EU, has been under renewed pressure from party members and even some of his top team to unequivocally endorse remaining in the EU, and their rebellion had forced a vote between the two options.
The depth of feeling over Brexit was on show at conference, with even some members of his top team saying Corbyn should decide Labour's position now, rather than wait for an election that is widely expected to be held by the end of the year.
Some members argued with the chairwoman's decision to say that their bid had failed, suggesting that a simple showing of hands was not an accurate way to take a decision.
But Corbyn's team breathed a sigh of relief that his position had been left intact.
"So @jeremycorbyn Brexit position triumphed at @UKLabour conference this afternoon," his home affairs policy chief, Diane Abbott, said on Twitter. "The message is, despite the chatter from commentators, the party is determined to unite behind its leader."
DIVISION
More than three years after Britain voted to leave the EU, both parties are still deeply divided, leaving parliament deadlocked and heightening uncertainty over when, how and even whether Brexit will happen.