Labour conference live: Rayner promises major rent reform in optimistic speech as party battles freebies row
Angela Rayner tells Labour members: ‘You entrusted us with the task of change and we will not forget it’
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Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner looked like she was holding back tears as she took to the stage at Labour party conference.
Members rapturously welcomed her to the stage and she told them that it was “the honour of my life” to be in government.
“You entrusted us with the task of change and we will not forget it,” she said in a direct to voters.
In an optimistic speech, Ms Rayner sketched out her plans to tackle damp and mouldy homes, build more social housing, devolve more power out of Westminster and increase workers’ rights.
Her speech came after she was forced to defend the government over freebies accepted by senior ministers.
Ms Rayner told the BBC on Sunday morning that gifts and donations were “a factor in our political life”, adding: “All MPs do it”.
She said she had accepted donations to help her stand as deputy leader and that she had not broken any rules by accepting a free New York holiday stay last year from donor Lord Alli.
Speakers on Sunday will in clude foreign secretary David Lammy, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones and Leader of the Commons Lucy Powell.
The Independent’s political team will be reporting throughout the week from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Angela Rayner defends Labour government over donations row saying ‘all MPs do it’
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‘Out of touch’ Starmer failing to deliver change in Scotland, says Flynn
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has said that Labour is failing to deliver the change it promised voters in Scotland at the UK general election.
Speaking before Labour’s party conference starts on Sunday, Mr Flynn said Sir Keir Starmer has shown he is “completely out of touch” with people north of the border by imposing further austerity.
He said the SNP is ready to work with Labour to “deliver the step change people in Scotland deserve”.
Sir Keir has faced criticism over his Government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments and this week was caught up in a row over clothing donations.
Mr Flynn said: “The Labour Party has only been in office for three months but it is already plummeting in the polls as a result of breaking so many promises to voters.
“Sir Keir Starmer has shown he is completely out of touch with people in Scotland by imposing billions of pounds of austerity cuts on pensioners, low income families and public services, while milking the system for all its worth to get £100,000 of designer clothes and freebies for himself.”
He described this as “shockingly bad judgment” and said the Labour government is “failing to deliver the change it promised voters in Scotland”.
On Friday, it emerged that the Prime Minister and his most senior ministers will no longer accept donations to pay for their clothes.
Mr Flynn said: “Governments are defined by the choices they make. The Labour Party’s political choice to cut the winter fuel payment for 860,000 Scottish pensioners, push thousands of Scottish children into poverty with the two child benefit cap, and to continue Tory cuts to public services stains its reputation and shows its election promises were worthless.
“The SNP wants to work with Labour to deliver the step change people in Scotland deserve. That means an end to austerity and real investment to improve our NHS, boost household incomes, deliver affordable homes, and build a strong economy that works for ordinary families.”
He added: “The time for warm words is over and patience is fast running out. People in Scotland want to see real change now.”
Labour doubles down on pensioner winter fuel cuts
Keir Starmer’s top team is unapologetic about the cut to the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners as the party chair warned “we have to get the money from somewhere” on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
Rising star in the cabinet Ellie Reeves, who is due to open the conference on Sunday, has insisted the government shouldn’t “paper over the cracks” as she admitted she understood that the party would face a wave of emotion if pensioners die this winter in cold homes.
Her warning, in an exclusive interview with The Independent, comes as Sir Keir prepares to square up again to the left of the party trying to embarrass him by demanding the reversal of the winter fuel cut.
Political editor David Maddox reports:
Labour doubles down on winter fuel cuts: ‘Money has got to come from somewhere’
Exclusive: Labour chair Ellie Reeves speaks to The Independent about taking on Momentum, why change was needed to win the election, keeping pensioner winter fuel cuts and the need to build more prisons
Feel-good factor of Labour’s landslide win in July’s general election already begins to wear off
The feel-good factor of Labour’s landslide win in July’s general election has already begun to wear off, as Sir Keir Starmer battles a backlash over donations of clothing to him and his wife and damaging briefing revealing splits within his No 10 operation.
There is also lingering anger over the decision to strip winter fuel payments from about 10 million pensioners, with union calls at conference to reverse the move.
With the Labour conference taking place against a backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters also gathered on Liverpool’s waterfront to coincide with the start of the party’s event.
The prime minister arrived with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and was met by a small group of cheering activists ahead of the formal start of the conference on Sunday.
He said the conference would show “how we’re fixing the foundations and rebuilding our country”.
Sir Keir said the gathering was “our biggest conference ever and the first one in 15 years with Labour in government”, adding “change has started”.
Recap: Watch as Starmer defends accepting free Arsenal tickets
Starmer promises to protect public services from future austerity cuts
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to protect public services from swingeing cuts, as he made a bid to move on from rows over donations and strife at No 10, after arriving at the Labour Party conference.
The Prime Minister said his Government was not “going down the road of austerity”, like that pursued by David Cameron’s administration.
It may signal that the Treasury has found new ways to free up funds, after the halt on spending to address a £22bn black hole in the public finances announced not long after Labour came to power.
David Lynch reports:
Starmer promises to protect public services from future austerity cuts
The Prime Minsiter said his Government was not ‘going down the road of austerity’, in a possible signal of future money for public services.
Starmer wants Government to be compared with Labour’s post-war administration
Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted his Government to be compared with Clement Attlee’s transformational post-war administration.
The 1945 Labour government set up the NHS and helped rebuild the UK after the devastation of the Second World War.
The Prime Minister told Labour activists he wanted his plans for the country to be viewed with the same sense of pride.
He also joked that since entering No 10 he had bonded with Larry the cat because they both had experience “chasing pests out of Downing Street”.
At a reception at the Labour conference in Liverpool he said: “In less than 14 weeks, we’ve achieved more than the Tories did in 14 years. We’ve ended the strikes in the NHS so our doctors are back in the surgeries, carrying out operations, getting waiting lists down.
“We’ve set up a national wealth fund to get the investment we need into our country. We have launched GB Energy, that publicly owned company.
“We talked about this for years, now we are doing it, to generate the next generation of clean power.
“We have begun to end no-fault evictions.
“We’ve reformed planning, we’ve got rid of the ban on onshore wind, we are moving ahead with solar.
“Buses across the country will be better regulated, with fares and routes regulated by local people and railways are coming back into public ownership.”
He added that Labour had a “10-year plan for the NHS so we get it back on its feet and fit for the future so that people will, in years to come, look back with the same pride at the 2024 Labour Government as they do the 1945 Labour government”.
The Government was also carrying out “the biggest levelling-up of workers’ rights in a generation”.
Drones seized by police for breaching Labour Party conference restrictions
Drones have been seized by police after they were flown in breach of airspace restrictions during the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Merseyside Police said they seized three drones on Saturday after a temporary airspace restriction covering much of Liverpool city centre was put in place.
The restriction means it is an offence for any unmanned aircraft to fly below 2,000 ft above sea level in the specified area between 10pm on September 20 and 5am on September 26, without the explicit permission of Merseyside Police.
In a post on social media, Merseyside Police said: “We seized three drones in Liverpool today, Saturday 21 September, as they were being flown in breach of restrictions put in place for the duration of the Labour Party conference taking place in the city this week.”
Drone users flying inside the restricted airspace that have not been granted permission could be prosecuted, as well as have their equipment seized and confiscated, police said.
Chief Inspector Iain Wyke, of protective security operations at Merseyside Police, said: “Our policing plans for the Labour Party conference are extensive and take into consideration land, sea and air.
“These airspace restrictions, like other security measures we will have in place such as road closures or patrols on the River Mersey, are aimed at keeping delegates and the wider public safe.”
He added: “Specialist resources, made up of Merseyside Police officers and officers from regional and national teams, including air support, will be in place for the duration of the conference.”
Anyone who wants to seek consideration to fly a drone in the restricted area must obtain permission from Merseyside Police by emailing drone.exemptions@merseyside.police.uk.
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”.
John Rentoul writes:
Keir Starmer had a plan to win the election, but no plan for government
The prime minister has made a disappointing start, and will find it hard to recover, writes John Rentoul
In pictures: Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner arriving ahead of Labour conference
Starmer’s approval rating drops to lowest ever ahead of Labour conference
Sir Keir Starmer’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest ever ahead of his party’s first conference since coming into power, a new poll has revealed.
The prime minister’s net approval rating has plunged even further to -26 per cent, with a majority now disapproving of the way he is handling his job, according to Opinium’s lastest poll.
On the eve of the Labour Party Conference, which begins in Liverpool on Sunday, the research showed Sir Keir’s score is down 13 points from -13 a fortnight ago, standing at his lowest ever by 12 points.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has an almost equally low approval rating of -25 per cent.
By contrast, Rishi Sunak’s approval ratings have risen 5 points to -25 per cent, which has been stable for most of the post-election period, and Ed Davey’s ratings are relatively stable at +3 per cent.
Almost half of the public now have a more negative view of Starmer (45 per cent) and Labour (45 per cent) since they came into office.
Labour continues to lead on most issue areas, but has almost lost its lead on the economy, standing at only +1, down from +10 in July.
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