Keir Starmer UN speech - live: PM urges Middle East to ‘step back from the brink’ in address before Trump meet
Keir Starmer to meet Donald Trump after UN speech
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Sir Keir Starmer is set to meet Donald Trump in New York after he delivers a speech to world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, the prime minister urged Israel and Hezbollah to agree a ceasefire and for the two sides to “step back from the brink”.
In a speech to world leaders in New York, Sir Keir said: “I call on Israel and Hezbollah: Stop the violence, step back from the brink.”
The 79th UN summit comes as the Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out conflict and the bloody war in Ukraine grinds on.
It follows an intervention at the UN Security Council where he tore into Russia over its actions in Ukraine, saying Vladimir Putin was treating his own citizens as “bits of meat to fling into the grinder” in the conflict.
Sir Keir has been embroiled in a donations row after borrowing an £18m penthouse flat from Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli during the general election and to film a Covid video. But Downing Street claims he did not break the rules.
Can Keir Starmer simply ignore a vote of Labour’s annual conference?
Russia treating own citizens as ‘bits of meat to fling into grinder’, says Starmer in UN speech
Keir Starmer to promise ‘global leadership’ in UN General Assembly speech
Keir Starmer ‘not discussing individual members of staff’ including Sue Gray
Transport Secretary looks to new repair technology to tackle pothole ‘plague’
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has declared war on potholes, vowing to use cutting-edge repair technology to battle the “plague”.
Potholes delay journeys, put the lives of drivers and cyclists at risk, and damages vehicles, the government said.
During the general election campaign, Labour pledged to fix an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the next parliament.
Ms Haigh said the state of the nation’s roads had become a “constant and visible reminder of the decline in our country’s infrastructure”.
Last month, new research revealed that concern about the state of local roads had reached record levels.
Some 27 per cent of those questioned in a survey commissioned by the RAC said their vehicle had suffered damage as a result of potholes in the previous 12 months.
During a visit to Blackpool today, the Transport Secretary met road workers and councillors to learn about high-definition imagery technology.
The town’s Project Amber scheme uses an advanced imagery system that takes high-definition pictures of roads to detect potholes and compile data on areas most in need of repair.
It is hoped similar systems can be replicated across the country.
Tory peer and vocal critic of Islamaphobia in the party quits
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has said she is quitting the Conservative Party in which she was a vocal critic of Islamaphobia.
She posted on X: “It is with a heavy heart that I have today informed my whip and decided for now to no longer take the @Conservatives whip.
“This is a sad day for me. I am a Conservative and remain so but sadly the current Party are far removed from the Party I joined and served in Cabinet.
“My decision is a reflection of how far right my Party has moved and the hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities. A timely reminder of the issues that I raise in my book Muslims Don’t Matter.”
The Conservative peer had previously criticised Tory leader frontrunner Robert Jenrick after he suggested people who say “Allahu Akbar” should be “immediately arrested”.
She previously wrote on X: “Every day before we start parliamentary business in the Commons and Lords we say a prayer and praise God – we say our parliamentary version of Allah hu Akbars at the heart of democracy – a process Robert Jenrick is a part of.
“This language from Jenrick is more of his usual nasty divisive rhetoric – he is such a tool.”
Sir Keir Starmer appears on CNBC programme
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is pictured being interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin during CNBC “Squawk Box” financial program on Thursday in New York.
Sir Keir is in New York to attend the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
He had already visited Wall Street standing with Adena Friedman, Chief Executive Officer of Nasdaq as he meets the team and family behind BioAge as it starts trading on the Nasdaq
ICYMI: Starmer’s Covid broadcast urging work from home filmed in donor’s flat
Sir Keir Starmer recorded a Covid-era broadcast urging the public to work from home from a Labour donor’s £18 million penthouse.
The Christmas message, broadcast in December 2021, was reportedly filmed at a flat belonging to Lord Waheed Alli - a donor who has handed hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Labour Party over the last two decades.
Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has the full story:
Starmer’s Covid broadcast urging work from home recorded in donor’s £18m penthouse
The Christmas broadcast aired on December 13 2021, the same day new Covid guidance urging people to work from home came into force.
Police issue arrest warning to protesters showing support for Hezbollah
ICYMI: Rayner and Reeves lead cabinet turnout for Labour Friends of Israel
Chancellor Rachel Reeves and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner were among five cabinet ministers to attend a Labour Party conference fringe event to show solidarity with Israel and the remaining 101 hostages held by Hamas.
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) on Tuesday evening had one of the most significant and largest turnouts by senior ministers for the entire event, as Palestinian flag-waving protesters remained outside the conference in Liverpool all week.
Our political editor David Maddox has the full story:
Rayner and Reeves lead big turnout by cabinet for Labour Friends of Israel
With pro-Palestinian protesters outside, cabinet ministers were out in force at conference to support Labour Friends of Israel
Watch: Starmer refuses 4 times to apologise for cutting winter fuel payments
Starmer refuses four times to apologise to pensioners for axing winter fuel payments
Sir Keir Starmer refused four times to apologise to pensioners for cutting winter fuel payments during an interview with Good Morning Britain. The prime minister sat down with Susanna Reid at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. “Would you like to take this opportunity to say sorry?” the presenter asked. “I am really concerned that we have been put in this position,” Sir Keir responded. The question was then repeated another three times but was not directly answered. “I promised we would stabilise the economy,” the PM responded, suggesting the people who should be apologising are the previous government.
Jacob Rees-Mogg to respond in free speech debate at Conservative conference
Ex-Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has been handpicked by the chair of the party to respond to a debate on free speech at its conference next week.
The Conservative Party conference, which starts in Birmingham on Sunday, is bringing back member debates for the first time in two decades, being trialled out by interim party chair Richard Fuller.
Sir Jacob, who lost the election for the newly created seat of North East Somerset and Hanham in July, said he was “delighted” Mr Fuller was bringing the debates back, and they are about members “taking back control” of the conference.
Members will get the opportunity to take part in the four debates, which will all take place on the conference’s main stage on Monday.
As well as the one on free speech, being responded to by Sir Jacob, there will be a debate on immigration and border control, responded to by shadow foreign minister Paul Holmes; one on building homes and protecting green spaces, which will be responded to by David Simmonds – the shadow minister for housing; and another on growing the economy, which will be responded to by Laura Trott – the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury.
Asked how the respondents had been selected, Mr Fuller said: “These are people that I have chosen.”
“I think these are the right people to respond to members on this debate,” he added.
COMMENT | The NHS saved my life twice. Now it feels like it’s trying to kill me
When it comes to seeking advice for my chronic health condition, writes James Moore, I’d rather turn to X/Twitter than my local GP. Wes Streeting is right – things have to change:
The NHS saved my life twice. Now it feels like it’s trying to kill me | James Moore
When it comes to seeking advice for my chronic health condition, writes James Moore, I’d rather turn to X/Twitter than my local GP. Wes Streeting is right – things have to change
Labour MP explains £1.2million donation was for sister dying from brain tumour
Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh has explained that a £1.2 million donation from top party donor Waheed Alli was for her dying sister.
Replying to a post accusing Mr Alli of wanting MPs in his debt, she posted on X: “Waheed Alli was my sister’s best friend for 25years. Tragically she was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma Brain Tumour in Nov 2021 & died on June 24th 2023.
“He took every step of her last terrible journey with her. Lending me money to buy a house with ground floor bed and bathroom.
“The loan will be repaid on gaining probate on Margaret’s Estate. It has been properly registered and Waheed wanted nothing other than his best friend being comfortable in the last months of her life.”
In the first controversy to hit Sir Keir Starmer’s new government, questions have been raised over Lord Alli – the business executive who has donated some £700,000 to the party over the past two decades – being handed a Downing Street pass.
In a row dubbed “passes for glasses”, it has emerged that Lord Alli had gifted the Sir Keir eyewear and work clothing worth £18,000, clothes for his wife Lady Victoria Starmer, and a £10,000 donation to the PM’s chief of staff Sue Gray’s son Liam Conlon’s campaign to become a Labour MP.
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