Labour conference live: Pressure on Starmer as he faces union vote to reverse ‘cruel’ winter fuel payments cut
Prime minister hit by motion from angry unions to reverse plans to cut winter fuel allowance
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Sir Keir Starmer is facing a vote from unions to reverse the controversial cut to the winter fuel payments.
A motion will be debated today during Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool which is expected to receive strong support from unions.
Unite and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will put forward the motion. General secretary Sharon Graham described the policy as “cruel” and has called on the prime minister to admit he made a “misstep”.
The vote calls for means testing of the winter fuel allowance to be reversed and for an end to fiscal rules which prevent borrowing to invest, as well as the introduction of a wealth tax.
The prime minister said in his conference speech on Tuesday that he understood concern over the winter fuel allowance but stressed that stabilising the economy was the first step of a long-term plan, adding: “Every pensioner will be better off with Labour.”
Sir Keir has now left the conference to join world leaders at the United Nations with a promise to deliver “global leadership” as the Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out conflict and the bloody war in Ukraine grinds on.
The Independent’s political team will be reporting live throughout the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
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Yes, ‘Superman’ Starmer made a slip of the tongue – but it didn’t take away from a banger of a speech
Keir Starmer’s speech may have been light on policy – but answered (some) questions
UK nationals told to leave Lebanon immediately as 700 troops sent to Cyprus
Starmer plans to meet with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump before US election
Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to meet both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump before November’s US presidential election.
The prime minister is in New York for the UN General Assembly and it is unclear whether he will be able to meet the two White House rivals on this trip.
But he told reporters travelling with him: “As far as the candidates are concerned, look, if possible, it would be very good to meet both of them at some stage before the election. We’ll just have to see what’s possible.
“But I’m going for the General Assembly. I don’t doubt that a lot of time is going to be spent on the Middle East and Ukraine”
He said “it will be really important for us to have the conversations with our allies about the situation in both of those areas”.
Starmer heads to UN as Middle East tensions rise and Ukraine war rages
Sir Keir Starmer will make his United Nations debut as prime minister with a promise to deliver “global leadership” as the Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out conflict and the bloody war in Ukraine grinds on.
The prime minister’s two-day visit to New York comes as Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire across the Lebanon border and while Ukraine continues to push for permission to use UK and US-supplied missiles to strike at targets within Russia.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky is in the US lobbying for support, although so far US president Joe Biden has resisted calls for American missiles to be targeted at airbases and other facilities in Russia.
Without a shift in the US position, a breakthrough on the issue would appear unlikely in New York.
Sir Keir will use his speech at the UN General Assembly, the annual gathering of leaders, to set out how the UK will step up to play its part, guided by the rule of law, in a world dominated by conflict – notably in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.
In his speech, due to take place on Thursday, he will say: “We are returning the UK to responsible global leadership. This is the moment to reassert fundamental principles and our willingness to defend them. To recommit to the UN, to internationalism, to the rule of law.
“Because I know that this matters to the British people. War, poverty and climate change all rebound on us at home. They make us less secure, they harm our economy, and they create migration flows on an unprecedented scale.
“The British people are safer and more prosperous when we work internationally to solve these problems, instead of merely trying to manage their effects.
“So, the responsible global leadership that we will pursue is undeniably in our self-interest.”
Labour considering ban on smoking outside pubs
Health secretary Wes Streeting has confirmed Labour is considering a ban on smoking outside pubs.
He told Sky News: “We definitely want to see smoking phased out in our country, we committed to that in our manifesto.
“We want to make sure this generation of children are the healthiest generation that ever lived and therefore they will never be able to legally buy cigarettes.
“We are looking at a range of other measures to also help people who are currently smoking to quit, and also to deal with the scourge of second-hand smoke and passive smoking, which is also harmful. We’ll be setting out our proposals on that shortly.”
Asked if he will ban smoking outside pubs, he said: “Look, that’s one of the measures that I’m considering, and I’m up for a national debate on this issue.
“We have got to do two things – reform the health service, but also reform public health, because we might be living longer, but we’re becoming sicker sooner and there is a heavy price being paid for that in our economy, our public finances and in our own health.”
Keir made a slip of the tongue… but it was still a banger of a speech
The PM was so statesmanlike that he even managed to make sausages sound like an extra policy commitment. This was Starmer’s day, writes Joe Murphy:
‘Superman’ Starmer made a slip of the tongue – but it was still a banger of a speech
The PM was so statesmanlike that he even managed to make sausages sound like an extra policy commitment. This was Starmer’s day, writes Joe Murphy
What was announced in Starmer’s Labour conference speech?
Sir Keir Starmer’s address to the 2024 Labour Party Conference saw him promise to rebuild Britain “brick by brick” after fourteen years of Tory government, telling conference delegates his government will create a “Britain that belongs to you”.
But what exactly was announced? We look at the key developments from the prime minister’s speech below.
Everything that was announced in Starmer’s Labour conference speech
From a Hillsborough law to new legislation to tackle benefit fraud, what exactly was announced in Sir Keir Starmer’s speech to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool?
Streeting: NHS waiting lists will be 'demonstrably lower’
NHS waiting lists will be “demonstrably lower” by the next general election, health secretary Wes Streeting has said.
He told Sky News: “By the next general election, waiting lists will be demonstrably lower because I know that’s how I will be judged, how the Prime Minister will be judged, how the government will be judged – people will judge us by our actions, not just our words ultimately.
“Look at what I did as the Health and Social Care Secretary within my first weeks in office: I took action to implement the junk food ad ban targeted kids; took action to employ 1,000 more GPs onto the front lines because they found themselves bizarrely unemployed at the same time as patients are unable to find a GP, so that’s making a real impact as those GPs get onto the front line and, of course, took action within three weeks to do something the Conservatives failed to do in 18 months, which was to end the junior doctors dispute.”
It comes as the UK and Welsh governments are to collaborate to ensure access to everything from operations to dentists.
More than seven million people are currently waiting for treatment and Mr Streeting previously said that waiting lists need to be “millions lower” in the next five years.
Watch: Starmer mistakenly calls for ‘return of the sausages’
Starmer mistakenly calls for ‘return of sausages’ in major Labour conference speech
Sir Keir Starmer mistakenly called for the “return of the sausages” in a major speech at Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, 24 September. The prime minister was calling for restraint and de-escalation between Lebanon and Israel, a ceasefire in Gaza, and the return of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 as well as “a recognised Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.” However, he accidentally said “sausages” before quickly correcting himself to say “hostages” instead.
PM suggests £20,000 donation was for ‘son to study for GCSEs’
Sir Keir Starmer has suggested he accepted £20,000 in donations for accommodation because his son needed somewhere to revise for his GCSEs while his family home was besieged by journalists during the election campaign.
The prime minister defended his decision to take gifts from Labour peer Lord Alli amid criticism of the arrangement, saying he was “not going to apologise for not doing anything wrong” and the freebies did not “cost the taxpayer a penny”.
But Sir Keir signalled he could continue to accept hospitality from donors, saying that it was a matter of “judgment” for individual MPs whether they receive certain kinds of donations.
In a series of broadcast interviews following his speech to the Labour Party annual conference, he also said the transition to Downing Street had been “really difficult” for his two children, who were previously raised in North London.
Asked about the donations, Sir Keir said that around £20,000 he had declared from Lord Alli for unspecified accommodation was for his teenager to study for exams in a “peaceful” atmosphere while the then-Labour leader was overwhelmed with media attention in the run-up to the election.
“My boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs. I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“We have lots of journalists outside our house where we live and I’m not complaining about that, that’s fine.
“But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life – I promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying.
“Somebody then offered me accommodation where we could do that. I took that up and it was the right thing to do.”
Labour unveils plan to shut women’s prisons amid overcrowding crisis
Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has set out plans to slash the number of women going to jail and ultimately close women’s prisons amid an overcrowding crisis.
She unveiled a new body, the women’s justice board, which will have the “ultimate ambition of having fewer women’s prisons” – potentially allowing them to be converted to male or mixed jails.
The prison population in England and Wales hit a record new high a fortnight ago, with 88,521 people behind bars – but there are just 3,440 women in jail.
More than half – 55 per cent – are victims of domestic abuse, while two-thirds have committed non-violent offences. Ministers want to improve services like community support and residential women’s centres to provide an alternative to prison.
Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has the full story below:
Justice Secretary unveils plan to shut women’s prisons amid overcrowding crisis
‘Around two-thirds did not commit a violent crime yet are sent to prisons desperate for places’
Streeting insists pensioners ‘will be better off this winter than they were last winter’
Wes Streeting, who is doing the morning media round, has repeated claims made by Sir Keir Starmer that pensioners will be better off under the Labour Party.
The health secretary has defended plans to means test the winter fuel payment, which will scrap the benefit from millions of pensioners.
He told Sky News: “The Conservatives left a £22bn hole in the public finances. They weren’t straight with the British people ahead of the general election.
“They were spending like there was no tomorrow, because I think they were assuming that for the Conservative government, there was no tomorrow.
“They were spending recklessly, hoping that would carry them through the general election. And now this Labour government is picking up the pieces.”
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