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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Labour conference 2017: Jeremy Corbyn's keynote speech – as it happened

Summary

  • Jeremy Corbyn has pledged that a Labour government would give cities the power to introduce rent controls and introduce tough restrictions on gentrification projects, invoking the memory of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Here are the key points from the speech.

And here is the verdict from a Guardian panel.

That’s all from me from Brighton.

Thanks for the comments.

Business leaders disappointed by Corbyn's speech

Here is some business reaction to the speech.

From Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director general

Labour says that it sees business as the backbone of the UK’s economy, but there were few warm words from the Labour leader today.

Repeated rhetoric on the sins of a handful of businesses does little to reassure anxious entrepreneurs and investors about the UK’s future as a great place to do business.

The vast majority of UK firms are dedicated to creating great jobs, and products and services that improve people’s lives. This must be recognised.

From Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce:

There is a rising concern amongst businesses about the two largest parties in Westminster, with one flirting with fantasy economics while the other engages in an unedifying playground bust-up.

Businesses of all sizes want to see pragmatism, realism and economic competence across the political spectrum at such a critical moment for the United Kingdom.

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech will have done little to reassure companies already worried about widespread state intervention, nationalisation, and the radical increases in taxes and costs they could face under a future Labour government.

From Stephen Martin, director general of the Institute of Directors:

Business leaders were not expecting to be praised in Jeremy Corbyn’s speech, but they will still be disappointed that there was not one positive thing said about the millions of companies, large and small, that form the bedrock of our economy.

There was plenty of criticism for privatised utilities, for big companies and for employers in general, but it would be very worrying if the leader of the opposition really saw nothing positive in Britain’s business community.

Labour may see themselves as a government in waiting, but if they are to govern, they will need to recognise that business is not the enemy.

From Federation of Small Businesses chairman, Mike Cherry:

We welcome Jeremy Corbyn’s commitment to invest in technical and vocational skills, alongside transport and digital infrastructure ...

Throughout conference, we would have liked to have seen a more pro-business, pro-enterprise vision articulated from the platform.

Updated

And here is the SNP MP Stewart Hosie responding to the speech on behalf of his party.

Jeremy Corbyn’s message of unity has been blown apart by the open civil war now engulfing Scottish Labour.

Part of that split centres on Labour’s incoherent position on Brexit – their failure to debate the issue is unforgivable, and exposes the fact that their leadership back the Tories’ extreme Brexit plans.

Those plans to leave the single market are a huge threat to Scottish jobs investment and living standards – and Labour should be opposing them tooth and nail.

This conference has shown that Labour remain inconsistent, incoherent and unfit for government.

Aside from their confusion on Brexit – the single most important issue facing the UK – they have already U-turned on their pledge on PFI deals and have sent mixed messages on lifting the public sector pay cap.

Meanwhile, their leadership candidates and supporters in Scotland are tearing themselves apart in the most bitter bout of infighting the party has seen in many years.

Updated

Damian Green, the first secretary of state, has put out this comment on the speech on behalf of the Conservatives.

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech summed up the problem with Labour: lots of big promises, but no explanation of how they would deliver them.

He failed to mention their broken promise on student debt, as he knows it’s unworkable.

He won’t call out or even mention claims of antisemitism within his party – highlighting just how divided Labour are.

And he’s already admitted that Labour are planning for a financial crisis if they take office - they know the costs of their policies would rack up and up, just like last time.

Labour say they are ready for power but everything we’ve seen this week suggests they’re not fit to govern – and it’s ordinary working people who would end up footing the bill.

Here are verdicts on the speech from a Guardian panel, featuring Ellie Mae O’Hagan, Polly Toynbee and Matthew d’Ancona.

Here is some reaction to the speech from political journalists and commentators on Twitter.

From the New Statesman’s George Eaton

From the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman

From the Spectator’s Fraser Nelson

From the Evening Standard’s Joe Murphy

From the Economist’s Adrian Wooldridge

From the Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff

From Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former communications chief and the New European’s editor-at-large

From the Telegraph’s Kate McCann

Here is Jeremy Corbyn’s speech as a word cloud.

Ed Miliband, Corbyn’s predecessor as leader, has welcomed the speech.

The Press Association’s Ian Jones has some stats on the speech.

Here is our first news story about the speech.

Here is the full text of Corbyn’s speech.

Corbyn's speech - snap verdict

That was probably one of the best speeches Jeremy Corbyn has given in a lifetime of speechifying, and easily his best as party leader. It was unusually long, even for this gig (75 minutes, according to my count), but it had substance and a few passages of exceptionally good writing. It was a speech that will merit re-reading, which is certainly not something that can be said of a usual Corbyn speech.

For the conference, the most enjoyable bits came at the start, particularly the passage where he lacerated the Daily Mail. Labour politicians have been denouncing the tabloid press at conference for years, but rarely, if ever, has it been done with such confidence and humour. It would be nice to think that “next time, make it 28 pages” (see 12.52pm) might be remembered as a press slapdown on a par with “prerogative of the harlot”. His line about the Conservatives discovering the magic money tree (see 12.32pm) was also exceptionally funny and well phrased – and powerful because it contained an essential truth.

Once Corbyn got on to the broader politics, the fun was over. This wasn’t a speech with any striking new policy – the housing regeneration conditions stuff (see 1.15pm) sounded new, but one for the inside page – but Labour has only recently published a manifesto and this is not the time in the electoral cycle to start making firm proposals. What was much more interesting, though, was the broad vision he set out about workplace democracy, and people power, and making public services and businesses accountable to the public. (See 1.28pm.) There was nothing specific here, but it was loaded with possibility. Corbyn has generally been seen as a command-and-control, old-style socialist. Here he was starting to sound like a leftwing advocate of David Cameron’s “big society”. It is not entirely clear how you can square this with some of his other goals (as someone once said, in Nimby England you can have a big housebuilding programme, or a big localisation programme, but you cannot have both), but it will be very interesting to see if he tries.

Corbyn’s passage at the end about the centre of politics moving, and politics catching up with the crash of 2008 (see 1.41pm), was also well expressed. It was probably the best version of the “centre of politics has shifted” argument I’ve heard.

The case against the speech was that it did nothing to puncture the air of complacency hanging over this conference. (See 11.32am.) It was also not a speech that addressed difficult questions (like the ones the party will have to face at some point over Brexit) or challenged its audience in any way. But when you think how far Corbyn’s leadership has come in the last two years, a bit of wallowing in self-congratulation seems understandable.

Updated

Corbyn is now winding up.

During the election campaign I met and listened to people in every part of the country.

Struggling single parents, young people held back by lack of opportunity.

Pensioners anxious about health and social care, public servants trying to keep services together.

Low and middle earners, self-employed and employed, facing insecurity and squeezed living standards.

But hopeful that things could change, and that Labour could make a difference.

Many hadn’t voted before, or not for years past.

But they put their faith in our party.

We offered an antidote to apathy and despair.

Let everyone understand - we will not let you down.

Because we listen to you, because we believe in you.

Labour can and will deliver a Britain for the many not just the few.

Updated

Scotland gets a mention.

Our manifesto and our policies are popular because that is what most people in our country actually want, not what they’re told they should want.

And that is why Labour is on the way back in Scotland becoming once again the champion of social justice.

Thank you Kezia. And whoever next leads Scottish Labour – our unifying socialist message will continue to inspire both south and north of the border.

Updated

Corbyn says 2017 may be year 'when politics finally caught up with the 2008 crash'

Corbyn is now broadening his speech out again, talking about the political spectrum overall.

Conference, it is often said that elections can only be won from the centre ground.

And in a way that’s not wrong – so long as it’s clear that the political centre of gravity isn’t fixed or unmovable, nor is it where the establishment pundits like to think it is.

It shifts as people’s expectations and experiences change and political space is opened up.

Today’s centre ground is certainly not where it was 20 or 30 years ago.

A new consensus is emerging from the great economic crash and the years of austerity, when people started to find political voice for their hopes for something different and better.

2017 may be the year when politics finally caught up with the crash of 2008 – because we offered people a clear choice.

We need to build a still broader consensus around the priorities we set in the election, making the case for both compassion and collective aspiration.

This is the real centre of gravity of British politics. We are now the political mainstream.

Updated

And he turns to Bombardier.

If the special relationship means anything, it must mean that we can say to Washington: that way is the wrong way.

That’s clearly what’s needed in the case of Bombardier, where thousands of jobs are now at stake.

A prime minister betting our economic future on a deregulated trade deal with the US might want to explain how 220% tariffs are going to boost our exports.

So let Britain’s voice be heard loud and clear for peace, justice and cooperation.

Updated

Corbyn says Trump’s speech to UN was 'deeply disturbing'

Corbyn says President Trump’s speech to the UN last week was “deeply disturbing”.

We must be a candid friend to the United States, now more than ever.

The values we share are not served by building walls, banning immigrants on the basis of religion, polluting the planet, or pandering to racism.

And let me say frankly – the speech made by the US president to the United Nations last week was deeply disturbing.

It threatened war and talked of tearing up international agreements.

Devoid of concern for human rights or universal values, it was not the speech of a world leader.

Our government has a responsibility. It cannot meekly go along with this dangerous course.

Updated

Corbyn turns to North Korea.

Let’s tone down the rhetoric, and back dialogue and negotiations to wind down the deeply dangerous confrontation over the Korean peninsula.

And I appeal to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to use the authority of his office and go to Washington and Pyongyang to kick start that essential process of dialogue.

And Palestine.

And let’s give real support to end the oppression of the Palestinian people, the 50-year occupation and illegal settlement expansion and move to a genuine two-state solution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Updated

Corbyn says human rights must be “at the heart of our foreign policy”.

Democracy and human rights are not an optional extra to be deployed selectively.

So we cannot be silent at the cruel Saudi war in Yemen, while continuing to supply arms to Saudi Arabia, or the crushing of democracy in Egypt or Bahrain, or the tragic loss of life in Congo.

And I say this today to Aung San Suu Kyi – a champion of democracy and human rights: end the violence now against the Rohingya in Myanmar and allow the UN and international aid agencies in to Rakhine state.

The Rohingya have suffered for too long!

Updated

Corbyn turns to the Manchester and London terror attacks and, repeating an argument he made during the general election, argues that British foreign policy has helped to create the conditions where terrorism operates.

The targeting of our democracy, of teenage girls at a pop concert, of people enjoying a night out, worshippers outside a mosque, commuters going to work – all of these are horrific crimes.

And we all unite in both condemning the perpetrators and in our support for the emergency and security services, working to keep us safe.

But we also know that terrorism is thriving in a world our governments have helped to shape, with its failed states, military interventions and occupations where millions are forced to flee conflict or hunger.

Updated

Corbyn turns to the recent hurricanes and floods.

Our interdependence as a planet could not be more obvious.

The environmental crisis in particular demands a common global response.

That is why President Trump’s threats to withdraw from the Paris climate change treaty are so alarming.

He says action on climate change will encourage investment.

Corbyn goes on, saying he wants to put power in the hands of the people.

I promised you two years ago that we would do politics differently.

It’s not always been easy.

There’s quite a few who prefer politics the old way.

But let me say it again. We will do politics differently. And the vital word there is “we”.

Not just leaders saying things are different, but everyone having the chance to shape our democracy.

Our rights as citizens are as important as our rights as consumers.

Power devolved to the community, not monopolised in Westminster and Whitehall.

Now let’s take it a stage further - make public services accountable to communities.

Business accountable to the public, and politicians truly accountable to those we serve.

Let the next Labour government will transform Britain by genuinely putting power in the hands of the people, the creative, compassionate and committed people of our country.

Updated

Corbyn calls for more workplace democracy

Corbyn says he wants more workplace democracy.

The kind of democracy that we should be aiming for is one where people have a continuing say in how society is run, how their workplace is run, how their local schools or hospitals are run.

That means increasing the public accountability and democratisation of local services that Andrew Gwynne was talking about on Monday.

It means democratically accountable public ownership for the natural monopolies, with new participatory forms of management, as Rebecca Long-Bailey has been setting out.

It means employees given their voice at work, with unions able to represent them properly, freed of undemocratic fetters on their right to organise.

Updated

Corbyn says child abuse cases show how people’s voices have been ignored.

Some of the most shocking cases of people not being listened to must surely be the recent revelations of widespread child sex abuse.

Young people - and most often young working class women - have been subjected to the most repugnant abuse.

The response lies in making sure that everybody’s voice must be heard no matter who they are or what their background.

Corbyn says democracy faces twin threats around the world.

But changing our economy to make it work for the whole country can’t take place in isolation from changing how our country is run.

For people to take control of their own lives, our democracy needs to break out of Westminster into all parts of our society and economy where power is unaccountable.

All around the world democracy is facing twin threats:

One is the emergence of an authoritarian nationalism that is intolerant and belligerent.

The second is apparently more benign, but equally insidious.

It is that the big decisions should be left to the elite.

That political choices can only be marginal and that people are consumers first, and only citizens a distant second.

Corbyn says democracy should mean more than just listening to people at election time.

It must mean listening to people outside of election time. Not just the rich and powerful who are used to calling the shots, but to those at the sharp end who really know what’s going on.

Like the Greater Manchester police officer who warned Theresa May two years ago that cuts to neighbourhood policing were risking people’s lives and security.

His concerns were dismissed as “crying wolf”.

Like the care workers sacked when they blow the whistle on abuse of the elderly...

Or the teachers intimidated when they speak out about the lack of funding for our children’s schools.

Or the doctors who are ignored when they warn that the NHS is crumbling before our eyes, or blow the whistle on patient safety.

Labour is fighting for a society not only where rewards are more fairly spread, but where people are listened to more as well, by government, their local council, their employer.

Updated

Corbyn says Labour is committed to lifelong learning.

Lifelong learning for all is essential in the economy of the future.

The huge shift of employment that will take place under the impact of automation must be planned and managed.

It demands the reskilling of millions of people. Only Labour will deliver that.

As Angela Rayner said yesterday, our national education service will be run on clear principles: universal, free and empowering.

This is central to our socialism for the 21st century, for the many not the few.

Updated

Corbyn repeats the passage about automation briefed overnight (see 8.59am) – but there is no mention of the elusive robot tax (see 9.52am.)

Updated

Corbyn proposes opt-out organ donor scheme for England

Corbyn commits Labour to introducing an opt-out organ donor scheme for England, instead of the current opt-in one. The Labour government in Wales has done this, and the Daily Mirror has been campaigning for England to follow.

Like many people, I have been moved by the Daily Mirror’s campaign to change the organ donation law.

There are more than 5,000 people on organ transplant waiting lists, but a shortage of donors means that in recent years only 3,500 of them get the life-saving treatments they need.

So that everybody whose life could be saved by an organ transplant can have the gift of life – from one human being to another.

The law has already been changed in Wales under Carwyn Jones’s leadership, and today I make the commitment a Labour government will do the same for England.

Updated

Corbyn is still on public sector pay.

Year after year the Tories have cut budgets and squeezed public sector pay, while cutting taxes for the highest earners and the big corporations.

You can’t care for the nation’s health when doctors and nurses are being asked to accept falling living standards year after year.

You can’t educate our children properly in ever larger class sizes with more teachers than ever leaving the profession.

You can’t protect the public on the cheap.

The police and security services must get the resources they need, not 20,000 police cuts.

Scrapping the public sector pay squeeze isn’t an act of charity – it is a necessity to keep our public services fully staffed and strong.

Updated

Corbyn says Labour will raise public sector pay.

The firefighters who ran into Grenfell Tower to save lives; the health service workers caring for the maimed in the Manchester terrorist outrage; the brave police officers who confronted the attackers at London Bridge; and PC Keith Palmer, who gave his life when terrorists attack our democracy.

Our public servants make the difference every day, between a decent and a threadbare society.

Everyone praises them. But it is Labour that values them and is prepared to give them the pay rise they deserve and protect the services they provide.

Updated

Corbyn says Labour will impose conditions on housing regeneration schemes to safeguard residents

Corbyn says Labour will impose new conditions on housing regeneration schemes, to benefit local residents.

After Grenfell we must think again about what are called regeneration schemes.

Regeneration is a much abused word.

Too often what it really means is forced gentrification and social cleansing, as private developers move in and tenants and leaseholders are moved out.

We are very clear: we will stop the cuts to social security.

But we need to go further, as conference decided yesterday.

So when councils come forward with proposals for regeneration, we will put down two markers based on one simple principle:

Regeneration under a Labour government will be for the benefit of the local people, not private developers, not property speculators.

First, people who live on an estate that’s redeveloped must get a home on the same site and the same terms as before.

No social cleansing, no jacking up rents, no exorbitant ground rents.

And second, councils will have to win a ballot of existing tenants and leaseholders before any redevelopment scheme can take place.

Real regeneration, yes, but for the many not the few.

Updated

Corbyn says thousands of people are living in homes unfit for human habitation.

Labour is reviewing social housing policy, he says. It will return to conference next year with recommendations.

Labour thinks all homes should be fit for habitation. The Tories voted against an amendment requiring this, he says.

He says British cities should be able to impose rent controls. And undeveloped land held by developers should be taxed. As Ed Miliband said, “use it, or lose it”.

Families need homes, he says.

Updated

Corbyn quotes from the poet Ben Okri’s poem about Grenfell Tower,

He quotes this excerpt.

Those who were living now are dead

Those who were breathing are from the living earth fled.

If you want to see how the poor die, come see Grenfell Tower.

See the tower, and let a world-changing dream flower.

Updated

Corbyn says Labour will invest in infrastructure.

But it will ask big business to pay a bit more tax.

The Tory approach to the economy is not entrepreneurial; it is extractive.

He says the public realm has been degraded.

And there is a monument to that – Grenfell Tower.

(Corbyn is now using the passage briefed overnight - see 8.59pm.)

Updated

Corbyn says of the nine water companies in England, six are owned by foreign equity or sovereign wealth funds.

Executive pay has soared as the service deteriorates, he says.

That is why Labour will take the utilities back into public ownership.

Corbyn says the economy no longer delivers affordable housing, secure jobs or rising living standards.

There is a need for a new economic model. The one created by Margaret Thatcher does not work, he says.

He says the Financial Times said recently that our system looks much the same as it did before the crash.

The government needs to take a more active role restructuring the economy, he says.

We need “a new model of economic management, to replace the failed dogmas of neoliberalism”.

Updated

Corbyn pays tribute to his Brexit team.

They are ready to take over if the Tories fail, he says.

Corbyn says Labour will never follow the Tories into the gutter of blaming migrants for the ills of our society.

It isn’t migrants who drive down wages, but the worst bosses, in collusion with the Tory government. Labour will address this, “not pander to scapegoating or racism”.

Updated

Corbyn says a faction at the top of the Tory party want to use Brexit to turn the UK into a low-regulation tax haven.

A few companies at the top would do well. But everyone else would suffer.

He says the Tories spend more time negotiating with each other than with the EU.

A cliff-edge Brexit would be disastrous, he says.

That is why Labour is backing a transition that keeps the UK in the single market.

He says after that the task is different – to unite the country. Labour is the only part that can unite those who voted leave and remain.

The Tories are offering a “shambolic Brexit that drives down standards”. Labour would pursue one that puts jobs first.

Updated

Corbyn says 3 million EU citizens living and working in Britain are welcome here.

(This gets a sustained round of applause.)

They have been left under a cloud of insecurity. Their future should have been guaranteed.

He tells May, if she is watching, to guarantee their future now.

If you don’t, we will, when we are in government.

Updated

Corbyn says there is no bigger test than Brexit.

It cannot be addressed by repeating myths, or waiting 15 months to state the obvious.

Labour accepts the result of the referendum, he says.

But that does not mean having to put jobs at risk.

The negotiating team is hopeless, he says. The Tories are posturing for personal advantage.

He says Theresa May’s speech created unity - but only for a few hours.

But never was the national interest so badly served by government bungling.

Corbyn strongly condemn abuse of people on social media

Corbyn says there can never be any excuse for abuse.

We are not having it, not accepting it, not allowing it, he says.

  • Corbyn strongly condemns the abuse of people on social media.

Corbyn mocks Daily Mail, implying its anti-Labour election coverage backfired

Corbyn says some people did not come out of the campaign well – he means Labour’s traditional media critics.

They ran the campaign they normally do – attacking Labour, under orders from their tax exile owners.

The day before the election one paper (the Daily Mail) devoted 14 pages to attacking Labour. But the next day Labour’s vote went up 10%.

Never have so many trees died in vain.

Corbyn has a message for the Daily Mail editor.

Next time, make it 28 pages.

  • Corbyn mocks the Daily Mail, implying it’s anti-Labour election coverage backfired.

But this sort of coverage has an effect - it encourages social media abuse. And no one suffered more than Diane Abbott, he says.

(It seems to be Abbott’s birthday. Delegates sing happy birthday.)

Corbyn says she suffered intolerable abuse.

Updated

Corbyn says Labour’s campaign machine is “primed and ready to roll”.

Corbyn says Labour’s campaign inspired young people to vote.

It will never squeeze one generation to support another.

Under Labour, people win together.

The result confounded every single expert, he says.

John McDonnell said the other day “the grey beards got it wrong”. Corbyn jokes that he’s not sure that’s fair.

Corbyn says May should take another walking holiday and make another impetuous decision.

Updated

Corbyn says the other star of the campaign was you - the members.

They managed to “outplay the Tories’ big money machine”, he says.

He says Labour is the largest political party in western Europe. It has almost 600,000 members, and 3 million affiliated trade unionists.

He says he is “awed and humbled” by what they have done. He has never been more proud to be Labour’s leader.

Updated

Corbyn says Labour is now winning the argument.

His principles come from his mum and dad, and the community he lives in, in Finsbury Park.

But there were two stars of the election campaign.

The first was the manifesto, he says. It drew on ideas of members and trade unionists. And Labour was clear about how it would pay for it – by asking the richest and largest corporations to start paying their fair share.

Not simply to redistribute, but to transform that system, he says.

Labour would use the national investment bank to generate good jobs in every region.

He says the manifesto is one of a modern, socialist party, that has rediscovered its purpose.

Updated

Corbyn lists some of the policies May has been forced to drop since the election.

He says the coalition of Tory chaos is bereft of ideas and bereft of energy.

We have plenty of energy, I assure you of that.

He says the Tories are cherry-picking Labour policies, including on Brexit.

But May should go the whole hog, end austerity, scrap tuition fees, and end the public sector pay cap, he says.

Updated

Corbyn says the Tories are showing us what a coalition of chaos looks like.

But look at their record – more homelessness, and more people in poverty than ever before.

And the UK has been condemned by the UN for violating the rights of disabled people.

That is not strong and stable. It is callous and it is calculated.

The Tories calculated that making people poorer in the name of austerity would pay for hefty tax cuts for the rich and the powerful.

Updated

Corbyn says it is the Tories who have found ‘the magic money tree’

Corbyn says Labour is ready to meet the challenges of automation, to put peace and justice at the heart of our foreign policy, and to build a new relationship with Europe.

Labour is ready. The Tories are not.

They are definitely not strong, and they are certainly not stable.

But the Tories have one thing Labour lacks, he says. They have tracked down the magic money tree.

It has been put to use, though not necessarily good use. It is being used to keep Theresa May in power. They gave it a good shake. She is spending £100m per DUP MP.

  • Corbyn says it is the Tories who have found “the magic money tree”.

Updated

Corbyn is talking about the election result, using the passage briefed overnight. (See 8.59am.)

Corbyn says Labour’s plans have already inspired people of all ages and all backgrounds.

It is a privilege to be in Brighton, a city with a history of inspirational Labour activists.

Over 100 years ago a teenage shopworker joined the shopworkers’ union, after reading about it in a newspaper used for wrapping.

(That might be the first positive thing said about the press at the conference.)

She became general secretary before she was 30, and helped move the motion proposing the the setting up of the Labour representation committee (that became the Labour party).

She was Margaret Bondfield, who subsequently became an MP, and the first woman to sit in cabinet, in 1929.

This shows women have always played a vital role in the Labour party, she says.

Updated

Corbyn thanks the audience.

He says the atmosphere here is infectious.

Let’s make sure the whole country is infected with the same thing.

At last, it has stopped.

The chanting is getting louder.

Corbyn asks to bring the conference to order. But they are not taking any notice – Corbyn’s first conference revolt!

Updated

The applause is still going on.

Jeremy Corbyn's speech

Jeremy Corbyn is coming on stage now.

The delegates are chanting: “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn.”

Updated

They are going to sing Jerusalem too, the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope is relieved to hear.

The Red Flag is safe. (See 11.32am.) This is from the BBC’s Jessica Parker.

This is from my colleague Jessica Elgot.

This is from the Evening Standard’s Kate Proctor.

This is from the BBC’s Ellie Price.

The Labour party has also released the results of an election for two seats on the national constitutional committee (NCC), a body that deals with party discipline. As Paul Waugh reports at HuffPost UK, the two leftwing Momentum-backed candidates won easily.

Updated

This morning Labour released the results of the card vote taken yesterday on three important changes to Labour’s rule book. All three passed overwhelmingly.

Here are the figures.

1 - Adding four new members to the national executive committee

For: 98.9%

Against: 1.1%

2 - Changing the nomination rules in leadership and deputy leadership elections, so that candidates need the backing of 10% of MPs and MEPs, not 15%

For: 89.23%

Against: 10.77%

In this vote unions, who have half the vote at conference, were overwhelmingly in favour (98.11%). But amongst the constituency party members, who have the other 50% of the voters, there was some opposition. Almost 20% of CLP delegates voted against.

3 - Tightening up disciplinary rules covering conduct including antisemitism (details here)

For: 96.28%

Against: 3.72%

My colleague Rafael Behr likes the singing.

Here’s a flavour of it.

Updated

A Labour MP has brushed off reports that she mocked Prince Harry’s military career at a fringe meeting of the party’s Brighton conference, claiming the coverage proves the press are in charge of the narrative, the Press Association reports.

Emma Dent Coad, MP for Kensington, reportedly questioned Harry’s ability to fly a helicopter when addressing a meeting entitled Reigning In The Monarchy.

The Sun quoted her as saying: “Harry can’t actually fly a helicopter ... He tried to pass the helicopter exam about four times and he couldn’t get through it at all so he always goes for the co-pilot. So he just sits there going: ‘vroom vroom’.”

Dent Coad also reportedly said that Harry and his brother, William, were “not very bright”, adding: “Just let them drift away, be playboys or whatever.”

But responding to the coverage on Wednesday, she pointed to the lack of media reports about her comments on the Grenfell Tower disaster, which happened in her constituency.

She told the Press Association: “I’ve spoken five times about the Grenfell fire, yet this is all they’re interested in, which really proves the point I was making about the press in charge of the narrative.”

Emma Dent Coad, Labour MP for Kensington.
Emma Dent Coad, Labour MP for Kensington. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

Updated

At the Labour conference proceedings on the stage have started. The Rainbow Chorus, a LGBT choir, are singing.

10 things we've learned from the Labour conference

The Labour conference hasn’t quite finished yet, but it’s time to take stock. Here are 10 things we’ve learned from #LabCon17.

1 - The Labour party is more united than it has been for 20 years. You probably have to go back to 1997 to find a Labour conference so devoid of meaningful division. After Tony Blair’s first year as prime minister, conference became a showcase for divisions either within the leadership (Blair v Brown), or between leadership and membership. This year there has been a blast of harmony, to a large extent explained by the fact that ...

2 - Internal opposition to Corbyn in the party has collapsed. That is not because all those MPs and party members who were sceptical about him last year have seen the light. In private many still have their doubts about the Corbyn project, even though the election result did a lot to allay their fears. But there is no trace of any alternative political agenda in the party in the moment, and no MPs are making more than a half-hearted effort to articulate one. The only exception is Europe, where pro-Europeans have been trying to mobilise against the leadership, but ...

3 - Labour’s pro-Corbynism trumps its pro-Europeanism. That was the significance of the conference decision on Sunday not to have a “meaningful vote” (to use the phrase coined by Keir Starmer in another contest - when talking about parliament’s final vote on the Brexit deal) on staying in the single market. It did look like a classic, Blair-era leadership stitch-up, but party members (following the unofficial Momentum whip) voted overwhelmingly not to have a vote, as well as the trade unions, so it was a genuine democratic decision. When your party members are doing your stitching up for you, you have achieved a level of control that even Blair would have envied. But, after some Twitter venting on Sunday night, Labour’s pro-European largely went quiet – possibly because they know that party policy is gradually sliding their way. Corbyn is refusing to rule out keeping the UK in the European Economic Area for good after Brexit - perhaps because he is more interested in staying Labour leader and becoming prime minister than in indulging his lifelong single market scepticism.

4 - Labour has a genuine problem accepting it lost the general election. Collectively the party seems to be suffering from some sort of cognitive dissonance on this point, much to the amusement of journalists who have been been able to engage in projects like this.

Given that expectations of what Labour would achieve before the general election were so universally dire (including amongst Corbynites, although some of them seem to have forgotten this), this elation is understandable. But it also means that ...

5 - Labour appears complacent, and has not been thinking hard about what it needs to do to win the next election. The sensible step for any party that has lost a general election is to hold a postmortem, work out what went wrong, and strategise about what needs to be done to gain those extra seats. There has been almost no evidence of the party collectively doing any of that this week. Instead there is a widespread assumption that, now it has been established that Corbyn is not an obvious electoral liability, Labour is likely to win next time because the Tories are floundering and all governments inevitably fall. That may well turn out to be what happens, but there is no guarantee, and a more hard-headed party would be saying things intended to extend its electoral appeal. That has not happened so far this week, although we are told that Corbyn will use his speech later to address not just the party, but the nation at large.

6 - Corbyn is so dominant that, not only does he face no challenge to his leadership, there is not even an obvious successor. In most political parties, at any one time, there is someone generally identified as the next leader in waiting. They often never become leader (Yvette Cooper filled this slot for a few years in the Miliband era), but their presence means the leader is always, to an extent, on probation. Corbyn, though, is so pre-eminent that the usual chatter about who might be the next leader is extremely muted. The danger is that the party is starting to look like a personality cult. It isn’t, quite, but even if you acknowledge that there is an irony element in the “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” chanting that has become the conference anthem (will it replace the Red Flag at the end of proceedings today?), there is something just a little too North Korean about it all.

7 - Labour is now perhaps better understood as a party for the young than a party for the working class. This is something we knew from the general election voting demographics but it has been dramatically illustrated in Brighton by the thousands of young people turning up for the Momentum-organised The World Transformed (TWT) events, an alternative progressive politics festival taking place alongside the conference. It has been extremely well organised, and it has seen people queuing around the block to hear the kind of speakers who only attracted tiny audiences at fringe events a few years ago. After just two years, TWT now seems an integral part of Labour conference.

8 - Business is taking Labour much more seriously. After Corbyn was first elected party leader, a lot of the corporate lobbyists who normally attend party conference stayed away. They assumed they did not need to worry about preparing for a Labour government. But that has changed, and this year they are here in force. They might not necessarily like Labour much, but they feel the need to engage.

9 - Corbyn is getting much, much better at handling the media. He was elected leader because of his politics, not because he was good on TV, and until this year his broadcast interviews were often marred by policy clangers or tetchiness. But over the last six months he has improved enormously, not least at the essential political skill of being able to sidestep tricky questions. (Remember how he handled Andrew Marr’s question about illegal strikes?) In this respect he is acting much more like a conventional politician, without having sacrificed his reputation for authenticity – a rare achievement.

10 - Labour’s transformation has not finished. Corbyn may have achieved complete dominance over the party, but reshaping it is still a work-in-progress and, behind the scenes, there is considerable nervousness amongst MPs not sympathetic to Corbyn about where the party will end up, and whether they will end up being deselected. The party voted through some rule changes yesterday, but the founder of Momentum has made it clear he would like to go further and a review of party democracy being carried out by Corbyn’s political secretary Katy Clark – which has received surprisingly little discussion at conference – could end up being the vehicle by which this happens.

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn has been tweeting about his speech.

Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, has said the party was surprised by its success in Scotland in the general election. Labour won seven seats, holding Edinburgh South and picking up six others from the SNP.

In an interview with BBC Radio Scotland, Watson said: “Frankly we were surprised at the results in Scotland.”

But he went on:

We shouldn’t have been because I was up campaigning in the local elections in May, I was on the doorsteps in Glasgow and people were beginning to tell me their views on the health service, the education system – obviously after 10 years in government the SNP are failing in the delivery of those public services.

Labour was now trying to win back more seats from the SNP, he said:

If we’re targeting those seats it is because generally they are former Labour seats and we would like to re-engage voters there and win their confidence back.

Watson also insisted that Labour’s leadership was opposed to the prospect of any deal with the SNP – despite veteran MEP David Martin suggesting the groundwork should be laid for a possible coalition between the rival parties at Holyrood.

Martin said while the prospect may seem “unthinkable” to many, signs of increasing co-operation between the two parties had been growing. He suggested moves to recognise common ground were necessary now in case the 2021 Scottish elections fail to give either party a majority.

Asked about this, Watson said:

I’ve never talked about doing deals with the SNP ... Some of our colleagues still do, but that’s certainly not the leader and deputy leader that say that.

Updated

Rayner says Labour can't promise public sector workers 5% pay rise

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, told the Today programme this morning that Labour could not commit to giving public sector workers a 5% pay rise. She said the party would love to be able to promise that, but that it would not make promises it could not deliver.

Instead Labour was currently proposing an inflation pay rise, she said.

We’re a government in waiting; the Conservatives would like you to think that we’re talking about a magic money tree and promising things we can’t deliver.

We’ve set out quite clearly that we would like to give – we’d love to give public sector workers a 5% pay rise but we cannot do that at the moment.

What we’ve said is we will make sure that they get an inflation pay rise, which is more than what this Conservative government have done.

We can’t undo the damage that the Conservatives have done to our public sector for years and years but what we will do is reverse some of that and start putting us on the right path.

But it’ll take longer than I would personally like to see, but we have to be responsible about that and that is what Jeremy Corbyn is going to set out in his speech about responsible government, about making sure we are investing in our future and that we have a credible plan to do that.

Rayner was also asked about the Telegraph story saying Labour was proposing a “robot tax”. (See 8.59am.) “That’s not what we were talking about at all,” she said.

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, giving a broadcast interview this morning.
Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, giving a broadcast interview this morning. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Updated

It’s the final day of the Labour conference and Jeremy Corbyn will wrap it up with his keynote speech just before lunch. It will be the third year he has addressed Labour conference as leader and never has he had such a receptive audience.

Corbyn’s office released some excerpts overnight. Here is the Guardian’s overnight story about what he will say.

And here are some of the key passages we’ve seen.

  • Corbyn will say Labour is a government in waiting.

Against all predictions, in June we won the largest increase in the Labour vote since 1945 and achieved Labour’s best vote for a generation. It’s a result which has put the Tories on notice and Labour on the threshold of power.

Yes, we didn’t do quite well enough and we remain in opposition for now. But we have become a government in waiting. And our message to the country could not be clearer: Labour is ready ... We are ready for government.

  • He will say he wants to make public services and businesses accountable to the public.

I promised you two years ago that we would do politics differently. It’s not always been easy. There’s quite a few who prefer politics the old way. But let me say it again. We will do politics differently. And the vital word there is “we”.

Not just leaders saying things are different in a way that leaves everything the same – but everyone having the chance to shape our democracy. Our rights as citizens are as important as our rights as consumers. Power will be devolved to the community, not monopolised in Westminster and Whitehall.

Now let’s take it a stage further: make public services accountable to communities, business accountable to the public and politicians accountable to those we serve.

Let the next Labour government transform Britain by genuinely placing power in the hands of the people - the creative, compassionate and committed people of our country.

Quite what this means in practice has not yet been set out, but potentially the implications of this approach could be very radical. For example, one idea being kicked around informally by Labour MPs would be to enable patients to somehow vote out GPs if they feel they are getting a bad service.

  • He will say the Tories are bungling Brexit.

The Tories are more interested in posturing for personal advantage than in getting the best deal for Britain. Never has the national interest been so ill-served on such a vital issue. If there were no other reason for the Tories to go, their self-interested Brexit bungling would be reason enough.

So I have a simple message to the cabinet: for Britain’s sake pull yourself together or make way.

  • He will say Grenfell Tower is emblematic of “a failed and broken system” that Labour will replace.

The disregard for rampant inequality, the hollowing out of our public services, the disdain for the powerless and the poor have made our society more brutal and less caring.

Now that regime has a tragic monument – the chilling wreckage of Grenfell Tower, a horrifying fire in which dozens perished, an entirely avoidable human disaster.

A tenants’ group of Grenfell residents had warned, and I quote words that should haunt all politicians: “The Grenfell Action Group firmly believes that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord.”

Grenfell is not just the result of bad political decisions. It stands for a failed and broken system, which Labour must and will replace.

  • He will say that the rise of automation will make more investment in lifelong learning essential.

We need urgently to face the challenge of automation; robotics that could make so much of contemporary work redundant. That is a threat in the hands of the greedy but what an opportunity if it’s managed in the interests of society as a whole.

But if planned and managed properly, accelerated technological change can be the gateway for a new settlement between work and leisure, a springboard for expanded creativity and culture, making technology our servant and not our master at long last.

The tide of automation and technological change means training and management of the workforce must be centre stage in the coming years. So Labour will build an education and training system from the cradle to the grave that empowers people not one that shackles them with debt.

The Daily Telegraph has written this up as Corbyn proposing a tax on robots.

Corbyn’s speech is the only item on the conference agenda today. It starts at 12.15pm.

But, before then, I will be covering the buildup, and looking at the best conference analysis on the papers and on the web. I will also be posting a “10 things we’ve learnt from the Labour conference.”

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

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