Labour conference live: Reeves to vow ‘no return to austerity’ as unions debate ‘new deal for working people’

Chancellor to pledge government’s autumn Budget statement will be used to ‘rebuild Britain’ in speech

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

The chancellor is set to join the prime minister in vowing there will be “no return to austerity” when she gives her speech at the Labour Conference.

Speaking at the event on Monday, Rachel Reeves is to pledge that the government’s autumn Budget statement will be used to “rebuild Britain” and deliver on the change Labour offered at the election, as ministers seek to move out from under the shadow of a row about donations.

Her speech will come after Sir Keir Starmer vowed Labour would not return to an austerity agenda to deal with public spending pressures, with Ms Reeves set to join him.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner was the first major speaker on Sunday with an optimistic speech on new rights for workers and renters.

On Monday, the unions will debate how the Labour government will deliver a “new deal for working people”.

Leaders including the RMT’s Mick Lynch and Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigade Union will grill transport minister Lord Hendy and potentially also business minister Justin Madders.

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

Key Points

• Reeves to vow ‘no return to austerity’ during Labour’s conference
• Chancellor not ruling out capital gains tax rises
• Reeves defends acceptance of £7,500 of clothing donations
• Rachel Reeves says there is ‘no end to what we can achieve’
• Foreign secretary David Lammy: ‘Britain is back'

[23 September 2024 06:00 · Tara Cobham]

Reeves pledges investment to ‘rebuild Britain’ will feature in Budget

The Government’s autumn Budget statement will be used to “rebuild Britain” and deliver on the change Labour offered at the election, Rachel Reeves is to pledge.

The Chancellor will make her speech at the Labour Party conference on Monday as ministers seek to move out from under the shadow of a row about donations.

After weeks of warning about a poor economic legacy left by the Conservative government, Ms Reeves is also expected to signal a path towards further public investment, which she will claim is the “solution” to the UK’s growth problem.

The Chancellor’s speech comes after Sir Keir Starmer vowed Labour would not return to an austerity agenda to deal with public spending pressures.

Ms Reeves will insist economic stability is “the crucial foundation on which all our ambitions will be built”, as she seeks to justify to Labour members the spending restrictions which are aimed at filling a £22 billion “black hole” in public finances.

Labour top brass is braced for a clash with the unions over one of these measures: the cut to winter fuel payments for most pensioners.

But Ms Reeves will join Sir Keir in maintaining “there will be no return to austerity” in an appeal to the Labour movement.

“Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services – and for investment and growth too,” the Chancellor will say.

She is expected to add: “We must deal with the Tory legacy and that means tough decisions. But we won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain. So it will be a budget with real ambition. A budget to fix the foundations. A budget to deliver the change we promised. A budget to rebuild Britain.”

In a signal of Labour keeping its manifesto commitments, Ms Reeves will promise not to raise national insurance, income tax and VAT. She will also say corporation tax is to remain at its “current level for the duration of this Parliament”.

[23 September 2024 05:00 · Ryan Coogan]

Angela Rayner’s Queen of the North act is tiring – but it works for me

I never know quite where I stand when it comes to Angela Rayner. On the one hand she’s a witty, well-informed paragon of working-class excellence, whose presence in Downing Street is a testament to both her own perseverance and the notion that in the UK, hard work reaps vast rewards no matter your background.

On the other… well, she does say a lot of really weird stuff, doesn’t she?

The deputy PM kicked off proceedings at the first day of the Labour conference in Liverpool today with an optimistic, at times emotional speech on housing, worker’s rights, and the party’s vision for the future.

Read more here:

[23 September 2024 04:00 · Tara Cobham]

Watch: Angela Rayner shown public reaction to Labour donations row on live TV

[23 September 2024 03:00 · John Rentoul]

Keir Starmer had a plan to win the election, but no plan for government

Nobody had high expectations of this Labour government. That could have been one of its strengths: that people would accept it had taken over at a time when the public finances were in a bad way, and so any small improvement would be a welcome relief, earning generous approval from the voters.

But I am afraid Keir Starmer has blown it. He has taken people’s low expectations and said, in effect, that they were not low enough. It has become an established view – already – that the government has made a bad start, which means that a lot of the coverage of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, starting this weekend, will be organised around the question: can he turn things around?

That such a question is being asked at this early stage is almost a guarantee that the answer is “No”.

Read more here:

[23 September 2024 02:00 · Tara Cobham]

Watch: Rayner mocks Badenoch as doing ‘side deals with Daleks’ over David Tennant row

[23 September 2024 01:00 · Tara Cobham]

Rayner strikes chord with Labour members in tub-thumping speech

Angela Rayner may have floundered on the BBC while talking about gifts from wealthy donors, but her opening speech to the Labour conference injected some life into what was threatening to be a despondent affair.

Dark clouds gathering over Liverpool as activists arrived symbolised a sense of foreboding about the state of the new government.

The party is still less than three months on from the exhilaration of its massive election victory over the Tories.

Political editor David Maddox reports:

[23 September 2024 00:00 · Tara Cobham]

In pictures: First day of Labour Party Conference

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner looks on during the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool (EPA)

Ellie Reeves (left), Labour MP for Lewisham West and East Dulwich, reacts with her sister, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, on Sunday (Getty Images)

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy speaks on stage (REUTERS)

[22 September 2024 23:49 · Tara Cobham]

Watch: Starmer jokes he and Larry the cat have both spent 14 years ‘chasing pests’ out of No 10

[22 September 2024 23:00 · Editorial]

The housing crisis demands actions, not words, from Angela Rayner

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, has a good understanding of the challenge facing her. “Over-promising and under-delivering has been a curse for politicians,” she said on Saturday, “because people have become disillusioned with that, and frustrated, and don’t see politics as a vehicle of change. That’s why we’ve now got to deliver.”

She opens Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool on Sunday with a speech that promises to begin the work of change. There is, sadly, little danger of her “over-promising” on this occasion. While the rhetoric of ensuring that “homes are decent, warm, and safe” is welcome enough, the detail is lacking, and time is already marching on.

In the advance publicity for her speech, her plans to fix the housing crisis seem to have progressed disappointingly slowly since the election. The Independent applauds her announcement that Awaab’s Law will be “brought forward” this autumn. This is a measure to try to deal with some of the terrible conditions in rented housing, which was introduced by the previous government but never made it to the statute book.

Read more here:

[22 September 2024 22:47 · Tara Cobham]

Streeting jokes Gray ‘shot JFK’ and ‘no one should be paid more than PM’

Wes Streeting has joked that Sue Gray had “shot JFK” and “no one should be paid more than the prime minister” amid controversy over the Labour chief of staff’s salary.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Labour Together think tank at the party conference in Liverpool, the Health Secretary said: “I want to welcome the BBC’s conviction that no one should be paid more than the prime minister, that no one should receive hospitality, and that we should judge performance on social media mentions.

“Be careful what we wish for, comrades.”

He added: It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Sue Gray is hiding Lord Lucan and shot JFK… I don’t know how we’re going to recover from this, frankly.”

Wes Streeting has joked that Sue Gray had ‘shot JFK’ and ‘no one should be paid more than the prime minister’ amid controversy over the Labour chief of staff’s salary (PA Wire)