Labour conference conference - live updates: John McDonnell plans to nationalise key services as Jon Ashworth calls for £500m NHS cash injection
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Your support makes all the difference.John McDonnell has been outlining Labour's plans for widespread nationalisation of services - including the scrapping of the Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) and moves to bring existing deals back "in house".
The Shadow Chancellor made the announcement during his keynote speech at the party's annual conference in Brighton.
Mr McDonnell confirmed that Labour would nationalise water, rail and energy industries, as well as bringing Royal Mail back under public control.
Elsewhere, the party's National Executive Committee published a statement on its Brexit position after criticism that the issue will not be properly debated at the conference.
Delegates will now be given the opportunity to discuss the current policy but there will be no vote on contentious issues such as whether the UK should remain in the EU's single market.
The truce between Labour's warring factions seems to have held in Brighton so far, but it is clear that a debate over the party’s Brexit policy is looming behind the scenes. One Labour MP, Heidi Alexander, said the failure to fully debate Brexit made the party a "laughing stock".
Earlier in the conference, Jeremy Corbyn suggested he was ready to “listen” to party members who want the UK to stay in the single market. It came after 30 senior figures, including Labour MPs, signed an open letter calling for the party leadership to commit to full and permanent membership of the single market after Britain’s exit from the European Union.
The Shadow Chancellor reiterates Labour's call for the Government to secure the rights of EU citizens post-Brexit.
He says: "We demand that the rights of EU citizens in this country are fully protected, just as we wish to secure the rights of UK citizens in other EU countries."
More from John McDonnell on nationalising major industries. He said: "Ours will only become an economy for the many, if we significantly broaden ownership. That means supporting entrepreneurs, small businesses, the genuinely self-employed and massively expanding worker control and the co-operative sector."
New announcement from the Shadow Chancellor. He says Labour will bringing existing Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts back under state control.
The party has already pledged not to create any new PFI deals but in his speech in Brighton the Shadow Chancellor went further, announcing to party members that existing contracts will be brought back under state control.
Mr McDonnell told cheering activists that the use of PFI is a "scandal" that has resulted in "huge, long-term costs for tax payers, whilst handing out enormous profits for some companies".
Here are John McDonnell's full quotes on phasing out PFI contracts.
"The scandal of the Private Finance Initiative, launched by John Major, has resulted in huge, long-term costs for tax payers, whilst handing out enormous profits for some companies. Profits which are coming out of the budgets of our public services.
Over the next few decades, nearly two hundred billion is scheduled to be paid out of public sector budgets in PFI deals. In the NHS alone, £831m in pre-tax profits have been made over the past six years. As early as 2002 this Conference regretted the use of PFI.
Jeremy Corbyn has made it clear that, under his leadership, never again will this waste of taxpayer money be used to subsidise the profits of shareholders, often based in offshore tax havens. The Government could intervene immediately to ensure that companies in tax havens can’t own shares in PFI companies, and their profits aren’t hidden from HMRC.
We’ll put an end to this scandal and reduce the cost to the taxpayers. How? We have already pledged that there will be no new PFI deals signed by us. But we will go further. I can tell you today, it’s what you’ve been calling for. We’ll bring existing PFI contracts back in-house."
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), responding to John McDonnell's speech, called Labour's economic policy "the wrong plan at the wrong time".
Russell Brand has told Labour members that drugs should be decriminalised, Ashley Cowburn reports.
Speaking at Momentum's alternative conference in Brighton, the comedian called for drugs to be regulated to combat drug addiction in Britain as he recalled his own troubles and “promiscuity of epic proportions”.
Mr Brand appeared alongside the Shadow Health Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, who earlier this year disclosed his own father’s addiction to alcohol.
Mr Ashworth added that drug addiction should be seen as a “public health issue” rather than solely a crime.
Momentum are holding their own conference in Brighton, just around the corner from the official Labour event.
Labour conference - Russell Brand calls for drugs to be decriminalised and regulated to combat addiction: independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
The Independent's Kirsty Major has been following the Momentum conference, titled "The World Transformed".
She says the festival shows that the left of the party are on the path to victory in 2022.
Read more here.
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