Labour conference live: Rayner gets choked up during speech before receiving second standing ovation

Labour conference kicks off in Liverpool with theme ‘change begins’

Angela Rayner tears up as she opens Labour conference as deputy prime minister

An emotional Angela Rayner told attendees at the Labour party conference that she gets “choked up” at the support she has received before she was given her second standing ovation of the event.

Ms Rayner said she gets “a bit choked up and emotional” about how far she has come to be deputy prime minister.

She was speaking at a fringe event on Saturday afternoon after giving her conference speech earlier in the day, receiving a standing ovation at the end of both.

Ms Rayner told the Local Government Association: “I wouldn’t be standing today as deputy prime minister without the nurture and the support that I had, both as a child through local government services, but then as a union rep and as a person who worked within local government.”

The deputy prime minister opened the conference earlier with an optimistic speech, sketching out her plans to tackle damp and mouldy homes, build more social housing, devolve more power out of Westminster and increase workers’ rights.

Meanwhile, foreign secretary David Lammy used his speech to proclaimed “Britain is back” on the world stage after a decade of Tory government.

The Independent’s political team will be reporting throughout the week from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

Key Points

• Angela Rayner gets ‘choked up’ as she says she would not be deputy PM without the support she has received
• Analysis: Rayner gives Labour members some much needed socialist optimism
• Foreign secretary David Lammy: ‘Britain is back'
• Angela Rayner defends Labour against freebie allegations
• Sir Keir facing criticism over Spurs football freebie
• Bridget Phillipson defends 40th birthday ‘work event’ paid for by donor

[21 September 2024 15:01 · Holly Bancroft]

Labour conference to promise ‘chaos’ of Tory rule never to be repeated

Labour will tell members next week that change has “begun” and that the “chaos” of Tory rule must never be repeated.

Labour’s party conference begins in Liverpool on Sunday and, according to The Times, the conference slogan will be “change begins”.

Despite a positive offering at conference, there are signs things are not going well behind the scenes. One cabinet minister told the paper that the Downing Street operation was a “complete circus” and another said they were “extremely worried” about the impact of several weeks of negative press on the government’s approval ratings.

One senior Labour figure told The Times that the government needed to get a grip on bad headlines about donations for clothes and special advisor pay.

They said: “They just need to get a grip. We’re going into conference and all Keir is going to get asked about is taking freebies and infighting in Downing Street.”

Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s head of political strategy, has reportedly told the cabinet that conference week is “politically vital” for Labour. “The country has never needed renewal more,” he was reported as saying.

[21 September 2024 14:03 · Holly Bancroft]

Diane Abbott suggests the Labour party is ‘in the pocket of millionaires’

Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott has suggested on social media platform X that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party has “changed into an organisation whose leaders are in the pocket of millionaires”.

Ms Abbott tweeted a picture of Sir Keir on Saturday with the caption: “Ellie Reeves MP says ‘Labour’s GE victory was only possible because under Keir’s leadership we changed the party’ Changed it into an organisation whose leaders are in the pocket of millionaires?”

Ms Abbott, who was suspended from the party last year, had the Labour whip restored before the general election.

Sir Keir and other senior leaders within the Labour party have been facing criticism over accepting thousands of pounds in donations for clothes. Sir Keir, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves have all pledged to no longer take donations for clothing.

[21 September 2024 13:37 · Holly Bancroft]

Nigel Farage wraps up Reform conference saying: ‘There is nothing we cannot achieve'

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said that he has set out the “building blocks” that will help grow the party into a nation-wide election force.

He described Reform’s party conference as a “resounding success for this party”. In his closing address on Sunday, he added: “The first thing I think we’ve learnt, is we’ve learnt about organisation... there is a limit to what the leadership team and the management structure can give you. Yes of course we can bring the ideas, we can make the news, we can dominate social media... and we can bring together conferences like this. But that only takes us so far.”

Speaking about giving away his ownership of Reform, Mr Farage said he had given power to the members to grow the movement.

He reiterated the need for planning and professionalism to grow the party in different areas of the country, and establish campaigning groups and infrastructure in every area.

Mr Farage promised that the “sky is the limit for this party”, adding: “There is nothing we cannot achieve”.

He claimed the conference had been the “most joyous gathering of a political party, I reckon, that has ever happened in modern history”.

He said the key take away message from the conference was “optimism”.

[21 September 2024 13:02 · Holly Bancroft]

Unite union will try to force vote on winter fuel allowance at Labour conference

The union Unite will try to force a vote on reversing the government’s cuts to winter fuel allowance at the party’s conference.

The conference, which is being held in Liverpool, will start tomorrow. Unite has submitted a motion calling for “a vision where pensioners are not the first to face a new wave of cuts”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been under increasing pressure to scrap the plan to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has defended the move saying that “tough decisions” were necessary to stabilise the economy and boost growth. While the Unite vote will be politically inconvenient, it will not be binding.

Sir Keir is expected to meet with union general secretaries today in an effort to persuade them not to side against him on the fuel allowance vote.