Labour conference live: Why Starmer speech will offer ‘light at end of tunnel’ as fresh benefit cuts row looms
Keir Starmer to deliver key Labour conference speech as plan for crackdown on benefit fraud raises concerns
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Sir Keir Starmer will warn he is making tough decisions towards a “new Britain” and cannot offer “false hope” about the challenges ahead.
He will address Labour delegates in Liverpool today at 2pm in his first party conference speech as prime minister.
But after he privately acknowledged that he needs to lift the spirits of the nation, he will say there is “light at the end of this tunnel”.
Sir Keir is expected to announce plans for new legislation in his keynote, including a “Hillsborough Law” which will introduce a legal duty of candour on public bodies and a new Fraud, Error and Debt Bill which will see welfare fraudsters dealt with faster.
The Labour government has recently faced heavy criticism over its winter fuel allowance cut and gifts accepted by ministers.
Rachel Reeves is understood to be considering cuts to the welfare budget as part of her money-saving Budget to spend more on investment.
If the plan goes ahead, the state benefits budget could be reduced by helping more people get back to work which would lower the bill for income-related sickness benefits and universal credit.
The Independent’s political team will be reporting live throughout the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Keir Starmer promises to revive UK as he dismisses ‘silly’ freebies stories
Cabinet ministers tell Keir Starmer he must immediately remove top civil servant to regain his authority
Starmer accused of ‘silencing pensioners’ after blocking winter fuel payments conference vote
Protester grabbed by neck and thrown out of Labour conference during Rachel Reeves speech
Reeves refuses to guarantee HS2 will reach central London
Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out ending HS2 at Old Oak Common rather than Euston, in central London.
The chancellor was asked whether, after Rishi Sunak cut the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the high speed rail project, she could guarantee it would continue as planned.
But she told LBC it was a “decision we will have to set out in the budget” next month.
“I will look at all those proposals,” Ms Reeves said, leaving open the prospect it could be cut further.
Defence secretary: ‘Gamers, your country needs you’
John Healey has set out his plans to “fix the Tory recruitment crisis” in the UK military.
The minister said he plans to “scrap 100 outdated policies that block people from joining” the Armed Forces.
He told the conference: “You hear some people say that young people today don’t want to serve their country.
“I know this is wrong. Over the last 10 years more than a million applied to join the forces but three in four gave up – just gave up on the process because it takes months and it’s tied up in red tape.
“Today I’m announcing the first steps to start to fix the Tory recruitment crisis.”
Mr Healey also set out plans to provide people with new training starting dates and called gamers and coders to join the military.
He added: “Second, I’m setting new targets for the forces to reject or make a conditional offer within 10 days, and to give people a training start date within 30 days.
“And third, I’m setting up a new direct route for cyber military recruits. Because if you’re a top gamer or a coder, your country needs you.”
What is austerity – and is Rachel Reeves ‘returning’ to it?
Rachel Reeves has promised that there will be “no return to austerity” at the Labour conference in Brighton, responding to critics who have compared her to previous Conservative governments.
Speaking at the party’s first conference in power for 14 years, Ms Reeves said: “Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services – and for investment and growth too.
Ms Reeves’ latest speech could be seen as a direct response to the critics, but it is unlikely to put a stop to the comparisons. Here’s everything you need to know about austerity and the criticisms Labour faces:
What is austerity – and why is Rachel Reeves accused of bringing it back?
The chancellor stared down her critics at her first conference speech in power – but do they have a point?
Rachel Reeves to announce investigations into £600m Covid contracts
Rachel Reeves is set to announce an investigation into more than £600m worth of Covid contracts and will pledge to chase down firms who have ripped off the taxpayer.
The chancellor will use her speech at the Labour conference on Monday to announce she has reversed a Conservative approach to “waive” £674m worth of disputed contracts, as her party attempts to re-establish its moral standing during an ongoing row over donations.
She will confirm that a new Covid corruption commissioner will be appointed next month to claw back the money wasted on deals, saying the government will not “turn a blind eye to rip-off artists”.
Read the full story below:
Rachel Reeves to announce investigations into £600m worth of Covid contracts
Chancellor to use speech at Labour conference to pledge reversal of Conservative approach to ‘waive’ £670m worth of disputed contracts
Thornberry challenges Starmer to cut post-Brexit border checks
Emily Thornberry has indicated that she intends to use her powerful new position in the Commons to push Keir Starmer to go further on undoing the harms of Brexit.
The newly elected chair of the foreign affairs committee urged Keir Starmer to cut vast amounts of unnecessary checks at the border as part of his planned Brexit EU reset.
There was “no need” for small businesses to give up trading with the European Union because of the friction, she said.
Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has the full story:
Thornberry challenges Starmer to cut post-Brexit border checks to help small business
The new chair of the powerful Commons foreign affairs committee, a surprise omission from the prime minister’s cabinet, said she had a list of improvements she was happy to give the government
Labour MP urges pro-Palestine protesters to keep marching as battle intensifies
A Labour MP has urged pro-Palestine protesters to continue marching, as she was heckled at the Labour conference.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy told a fringe event called Justice for Palestine that “the conflict is intensifying, so our political lobbying must intensify as a result”.
During her speech in Liverpool, a heckler called on the MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill to resign from Labour, before accusing the party of being “racist”.
On Monday, Ms Ribeiro-Addy said: “We represent the majority, both the global majority, and the clear majority in this country – the question is how to turn that majority into action and into a change of policy.
“The conflict is intensifying, so our political lobbying must intensify as a result.
“All the marches and the lobbying must continue, all the local meetings must continue, so must the letter writing, take to your local radio station phone-in, write to your local newspaper, canvas outside your local supermarket on a Saturday morning.”
Intervening, the heckler shouted: “And resign from the Labour Party, resign.”
This was met with shouts of “shut up” and “nonsense” from other members of the audience.
Ms Riberio-Addy continued: “Horrific things have been happening since 1948, and unfortunately even this phase of the conflict looks like it will be a prolonged one. So we have to be prepared for both an intense struggle and a prolonged one.”
Later in the session, the heckler shouted: “The Labour Party is a racist party.”
Speakers at the event also called on the Labour Government to do more to protect Palestinians and ban arms sales to Israel.
Reeves defends Angela Rayner in row over ‘vanity photographer’
Rachel Reeves has defended Angela Rayner in a row over the deputy prime minister reportedly hiring a vanity photographer to publicise her work.
The chancellor said it is normal for government departments to have communications budgets and stressed the photographer would not just promote Ms Rayner, but the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as a whole.
On Monday morning she told Times Radio: “All government departments under all governments have press officers and communications budgets. It’s not a personal photographer. It’s to promote the campaigning work of governments.”
Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story:
Rachel Reeves defends Angela Rayner in row over ‘vanity photographer’
Chancellor has also defended clothing donations she has received as Labour freebies row grows
Chancellor not ruling out capital gains tax rises
Rachel Reeves has recommitted to Labour’s pledge not to raise income tax and national insurance at the October Budget.
But the chancellor refused to rule out a potential hike in capital gains tax.
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I’m not going to get into speculation about individual tax changes.
“But our manifesto commitment, which was not to increase taxes on working people, that means income tax, national insurance and VAT rates, but also not to increase corporation tax, to cap it at its current level for the duration of this parliament, those are things we committed to in our manifesto and we’re going to deliver on those manifesto commitments.
“Trust in politics is at an all time low, and that is largely because governments have promised one thing at elections, and then they haven’t followed through.”
SNP MP slams Labour’s acceptance of free gifts ‘totally indefensible'
An SNP MP has described Sir Keir Starmer and his top team’s acceptance of thousands of pounds worth of free gifts including clothing from Labour donor Lord Alli as “totally indefensible”.
Angus and Perthshire Glens MP Dave Doogan told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think I, like most other ordinary people from ordinary backgrounds, are aghast at the naivety of UK Government ministers leaving themselves open to whatever the donors of these gifts expect in return.
“If something looks too good to be true, then it probably is. Everybody knows that.
“I think we need to ask ourselves why the most senior members of the UK Government are naively walking into gifts for this and gifts for that totalling £800,000, and thinking that there is no strings attached. Of course there are strings attached. It’s such a bad look.”
He added: “Let’s be really clear, Angela Rayner in particular, and Keir Starmer especially – these are not poor people.
“If Keir Starmer wanted £2,500 worth of glasses, he could have easily bought them. But he didn’t. He took it off somebody who was offering it to him, and that’s not the world that the rest of us walk in.
“People up and down these islands who voted Labour will be thinking to themselves, ‘I think I’ve backed the wrong horse here’, especially in Scotland when 37 Labour MPs are dutifully lining up to defend the actions of the prime minister which are actually totally indefensible.”
What is the Labour gifts row?
Keir Starmer has defended his gift-taking as he took part in two eve-of-conference interviews, insisting that it is transparency that matters.
But the prime minister is facing new questions about a football match he and his controversial chief of staff Sue Gray attended after hospitality was arranged by Spurs.
He was also pictured at the game with lobbyist Katie Perrior, who ran Boris Johnson’s publicity campaign when he became mayor of London in 2008.
Read the full story below:
Starmer and Gray took football freebie from Boris Johnson’s former aide
Keir Starmer has opened the Labour conference with a defence of his gift-taking but is facing questions about hospitality at another football match
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