Early evening summary
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has said that he would like the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime. He was speaking at a Guardian fringe where he also hit back at claims that he does not support fiscal discipline. (See 3pm and 2.46pm.)
The Labour party has passed a motion saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. (See 5.08pm.)
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, has said that a new form of “ethno-nationalism” is taking hold in the UK. (See 5.52pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Updated
Jonathan Reynolds, the former business secretary who was moved in the reshuffle, has said that he wants to try a “different approach” in his new role as chief whip.
Speaking at a fringe meeting organised by Politico, Reynolds said:
I don’t think you necessarily have to do a job like it was in the 18th century, even though we kind of like that in British politics.
As Martin Alfonsin Larsen from Politico reports, Reynolds said he wanted to be less in the shadows than previous chief whips. Reynolds said:
I do think fundamentally, you treat people well as a starting point, only a strange type of personality reacts badly to that, but I think we’ve got to recognise that. There’s a chance maybe at times to think about, ‘How can we do this differently?’
Reynolds, whose son is autistic and receives Pip and universal credit, benefits available to disabled people – said that the government’s botched welfare reforms were “not done in a way that took people with us”. He went on:
That’s why we had to have the changes [the U-turns watering down or removing the most contentious plans], and those were important decision that were necessary for the parliamentary party going forward.
I thought there wasn’t sufficient recognition of perhaps my family’s situation, which is, I want to protect the most vulnerable people in this country, but I need public support for the system to do that, and that public support will not be there if we aren’t making sure that we’re running that in a good way.
Burnham complains 'parts of Whitehall' resisting devolution
Geraldine McKelvie is a senior Guardian correspondent.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has complained that “parts of Whitehall” are resisting efforts to devolve power out of London.
Speaking at a fringe event on devolution, he said:
Devolution has really got what it takes to bring growth. Devolution works – so isn’t it mind blowing that parts of Whitehall are still resisting?
We have productivity growth in Greater Manchester four times greater than London. Why is anyone resisting any more?
The quicker Whitehall lets go, the quicker that growth will accelerate.
It’s getting really exciting, but it’s frustrating that we have to make the case again and again and again in terms of devolution.
Something as simple as data being shared by the centre with regions like us, it’s like we’re still not trusted. Incredible, really. We have gov.uk at the end of our email accounts. Why are we seen as not part of the system? We should be.
Burnham would not say who in Whitehall was causing the problem. But he implied he was talking about officials. “I wouldn’t want to name individuals, it’s institutional, there is institutional resistance,” he said. He also said ministers had been “largely supportive” of what he was trying to do.
As an example of the sort of devolution he wanted, Burnham said Manchester should have the power to operate a proper visitor levy. He said:
We do need a visitors’ levy and I think Steve [Rotheram, the Liverpool city region mayor] feels the same. We can’t go to our council tax payers all the time, particularly when council tax hasn’t been revalued since 1991. We do need the ability to raise more for ourselves.
Manchester does have a visitor levy, but only an optional one.
Here is some reaction to the vote to approve the Gaza genocide motion earlier. (See 5.08pm.)
This is from Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
This is a huge defeat for the government, with the Labour party finally accepting that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This historic vote must now become government policy: imposing comprehensive sanctions on Israel and a full arms embargo.
After almost 2 years of complicity in Israel’s genocide, the movement in solidarity with Palestine is turning the tide. People across this country are standing side-by-side with the Palestinian people demanding their liberation.
If the government tries to ignore this momentous vote, it would not only be in denial of the facts, against public opinion, increasingly globally isolated, but also at war with its own party.
And this is from Sasha Das Gupta, co-chair of Momentum, the leftwing Labour group.
Labour conference voting for the government to employ all means to end Israel’s genocide is a huge feat, marking a watershed moment in the party since Israel began its genocide in Gaza …
It’s clear the labour movement stands united against genocide. Now the government must listen to its own members and introduce a full arms embargo against Israel.
Shabana Mahmood warns of rising 'ethno-nationalism', as she says Labour members won't like some of her migration policies
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, gave what was deemed the most important speech of the day at Labour conference, but Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, gave arguably the most interesting. Here are some of the key lines.
Mahmood said that a new form of “ethno-nationalism” is taking hold in the UK, and that it needed to be recognised for what it was. She started her speech with a reference to the “Unite the Kingdom” march organised by Tommy Robinson, where she said some of those participating where “heirs to the skinheads and Paki-bashers of old” who were opposed to people like her being in Britain. (She is of Pakistani heritage.) She went on:
To dismiss what happened that day would be to ignore something bigger, something broader, that is happening across this country.
The story of who we are is contested.
I am a patriot, proudly so.
Mine is the patriotism of Orwell. Pride in a country that is forever changing, while also, ineffably, always the same.
It is a love of this country as an open, tolerant and generous place.
But that broad vision of who we are is increasingly disputed.
Patriotism, a force for good, is turning into something smaller.
Something more like ethno-nationalism, which struggles to accept that someone who looks like me, and has a faith like mine, can truly be English or British.
There are some who we will never be able to persuade.
But there are others, a growing number, who are on a path from patriotism towards ethno-nationalism, and this can be stopped.
She said that people were angry because they “feel this country is not working for them”. She went on:
Because the truth is, across this country, people feel like things are spinning out of control.
And without control, we simply do not have the conditions in which our country can be open, tolerant and generous.
When people see small boats arriving on our shores, they see a country that has lost control.
When they hear of widespread illegal working, under-cutting British workers, they feel the system is rigged.
And when they see crime unchecked on unsafe streets, they feel fearful.
This was the inheritance that the Conservatives left behind for us.
And their current irrelevance is the price they have paid
She said that, while the public “will accept those fleeing peril”, they would not support taking in asylum seekers “if there is chaos at our border”.
She warned Labour delegates that they would not like some of the measures she expects to implement to deal with the small boats problem. She did not specify what these would be, but implied they would involve some significant curtailment of human rights. She said:
In solving this crisis, you may not always like what I do.
We will have to question some of the assumptions and legal constraints that have lasted for a generation and more.
But unless we have control of our borders, and until we can decide who comes in and who must leave, we will never be the open, tolerant and generous country that I know we all believe in.
She said there was “widespread abuse” of legal migration when Boris Johnsonn was PM. She said:
In recent years, under the last Conservative government, the scale and the speed of change, as well as the nature of it, has frayed trust and eroded public confidence.
Between 2021 and 2024, we saw over 2.6 million more people enter this country than leave it.
And this included widespread abuse of Boris Johnson’s health and social care visa, which saw 710,000 people arrive here.
Far too many have been able to enter this country and disappear into the black economy – a rank betrayal of the Tories’ old promise that they would take back control.
If we are to preserve our openness to migrants like my parents, then we need a system that is fair to those who are already here.
She confirmed that Labour will restrict access to indefinite leave to remain – with some applicants potentially being denied access to this status permanently if they have not contributed enough to the UK. She said:
Because I know that the British people welcome those who come here and contribute, but contribution is a condition of that welcome.
For that reason, we will soon increase the time in which someone must have lived in this country to earn “indefinite leave to remain” from five years to 10.
And we will be consulting on this change soon.
And as part of that consultation, I will be proposing a series of new tests, such as: being in work; making national insurance contributions; not taking a penny in benefits; learning English to a high standard; having no criminal record; and finally, that you have truly given back to your community, such as by volunteering your time to a local cause.
Without meeting these conditions, I do not believe your ability to stay in this country should be automatic.
Some will be able to earn an earlier settlement than 10 years, based on their contribution, while others will be forced to wait longer if they are not contributing enough.
In some cases, they will be barred from indefinite leave to remain entirely.
She said she wanted the police to focus on “the crimes the public care about the most”, like shoplifting. And she said she knew a lot about this from personal experience.
This year, forces across the country led a “Summer of Action”, tackling street-level crime in 600 locations.
This saw more visible police patrols, more undercover operations, more fines, more protective orders and more arrests.
On the back of that success, this year we will launch a new “Winter of Action”.
Forces across the country, in partnership with local businesses, will target shoplifters and anti-social behaviour during the busiest weeks for all retailers.
Once again, we will reach hundreds of locations – and tackle the offending that wreaks havoc on our high streets.
I am a rare home secretary, perhaps the only one whose first job was behind the till in my parents’ corner-shop.
I know there’s nothing “low-level” about shoplifting.
I know what it feels like to keep a cricket bat behind the counter, just in case.
And so I know, better than most, that when we get tough and tackle crime like this, we bring communities together.
Pat McFadden says DWP to investigate why so many people off work for mental health reasons
Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor.
Pat McFadden, the new work and pensions secretary, has said he wants to get to the bottom of why so many people are off work and claiming sickness benefits as a result of mental illness health.
At a TBI fringe, he said there was a “duty of curiosity” in a leader to find out what has caused this and to devise a policy to deal with it.
About four million people in the UK claimed a health-related benefit as of April 2024, up from 3m in 2019.
McFadden suggested that physical difficulties and mental illness health may end up having different policy response and treatment in the benefit system after a full investigation of the causes.
Keir Starmer tried to make the case for changes to benefits earlier this year saying the cost of sickness was “devastating”.
But he was forced to drop some of the cuts amid opposition by Labour MPs.
McFadden said politicians had come up with arguments and make the case for any changes they want to drive through.
“I want to start with opportunities and work as that’s where I think the issue is,” he said.
In his speech in the conference hall earlier, McFadden did not mention this difficult issue. But he spoke about the flagship policy devised with the Treasury of requiring young people out of work for more than 18 months to undertake a work placement or risk losing their benefits.
It’s wrong in human terms, and costly for the nation too. And we will not stand by while a generation is consigned to benefits almost before their lives have begun.
We will never accept that children should graduate from school onto a life on benefits. And we will not allow wasted talent to become Britain’s story.
Labour conference approves motion saying genocide taking place in Gaza, and calling for arms embargo
The Labour party has passed the “Peace in the Middle East 2” motion, the one saying the government saying the United Nation’s commission of inquiry concluded “Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”. The motion endorses this, and also says there is “a growing international consensus finding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza”.
The other Middle East motion, which was backed by the Labour leadership because it had more equivocal language on genocide (see 10.31am), was voted down.
The full text of the motion that was passed is here, on page 26.
And here is an extract.
Conference accepts the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry and calls on the Labour government to:
-Employ all means reasonably available to it to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza.
-Fully suspend the arms trade with Israel and the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement.
-Ban trade with the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
-Apply comprehensive sanctions to put pressure on the Israeli government to respect international law, including a full arms embargo and ending military cooperation.
-Take coordinated action with European and other allies to end the famine in Gaza by ensuring full access to humanitarian assistance. -Ensure individuals and corporations in the UK are not involved in aiding and assisting the genocide.
Updated
Labour members would rather have Burnham as leader than Starmer, by 2 to 1, poll suggests
Labour party members would rather have Andy Burnham as leader than Keir Stamer, by a margin of two to one, a YouGov poll for Sky News suggests. Sam Coates has the figures here.
EXC: Labour members polling from YouGov
In a head to head leadership poll: 62% would back Andy Burnham to be leader 29% would back Keir Starmer to be leader 9% don’t know or would not vote
Burnham is the favourite to succeed him by a long distance - the top pick of 54% of members. Next is Angela Rayner, the now sacked deputy leader (10%), then Wes Streeting on 7%, ex leader and energy secretary Ed Miliband and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper both on 6% and new home secretary Shabana Mahmood on 2%
Deputy leadership: closer than you think The poll found 35% would back Lucy Powell and 28% would back Bridget Phillipson, with 30% do not know and 5% will not vote. Excluding don’t knows this suggests Powell ahead of Phillipson 56% to 44% , a closer margin than some other pollsters
But one person in the 29% minority saying Stamer would be the best leader is Burnham himself, according to Max Kendix from the Times.
Adding to this, Burnham has just told me a simple “yes” to the question - is Keir Starmer the right man to be Labour leader and prime minister?
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said today he did not want to call the Reform UK plan to abolish indefinite leave to remain status racist. (See 4.04pm.) But David Lammy, the deputy PM, did call it racist in his speech. He said:
Nigel Farage doesn’t get it either. He wraps himself in our flag - but his policies don’t match British values.
We must call his scheme to round up and deport our French, Indian and Caribbean neighbours who already have indefinite leave to remain what it is.
It is racist.
I say: not in our country. Not in our name. Not in our time.
Lammy was wrong about French people being deported by Reform – or at least wrong with regard to French people here before Brexit. Reform UK has said EU nationals with settled status will be excluded. It is this aspect that makes it easier to argue the policy is racist, as Sunder Katwala from the British Future thinktank has explained.
Lammy says Labour can recover electorally and win next election
David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice, used his speech to the conference to deliver various messages likely to raise the morale of Labour members.
Lammy said that there was nothing unusual about governments facing challenges in office. He said:
Conference, governing in hard times is not new to our party or our movement.
From 1945, as Attlee’s Labour governed out of the ashes of World War Two, rationing continued to bite. And the public grew weary. But did Attlee, Bevan and Morrison wring their hands?
No. They built the NHS. New Towns. The welfare state.
In 1967, Harold Wilson’s Labour faced devaluation. And the very next year the ugly rise of Enoch Powell. Did Wilson retreat?
No. He championed the White Heat of Technology. The Open University. The Equal Pay Act.
And back in 2000, when I entered parliament, Tony Blair’s Labour was facing fuel protests. Tony was booed by at a conference speech.
Did we give up?
No. We held our nerve. We kept Britain moving. Record investment in schools and hospitals, the minimum wage, and Sure Start for every child.
This is Labour’s story: not ducking hard choices but facing them down.
He said that Labour was making a difference.
Five interest rate cuts. The fastest growth in the G7. Wages rising more in ten months than in the Tories’ last ten years.
We cut NHS waiting lists. Two million extra appointments promised – five million delivered.
We gave parents thirty hours of free childcare, saving them up to seven and a half grand a year.
We signed trade deals with the EU, the US and India.
We reformed planning – unlocking billions. Delivering the highest housebuilding in decades.
That’s the difference a Labour government makes.
He argued that Labour can recover electorally and win the next election.
And friends, when you see Nigel Farage measuring the curtains of Downing Street, look around the world.
In Australia, Labor trailed by ten points – until they won.
In Canada, the Liberals were once twenty points behind – until they won.
In Norway, Labour were at one point 16 points down – until they won.
The lesson is clear: progressives win when we follow the north star of our values with the guardrails of our realism.
Not through scapegoats. Not through stunts. But through hope. Purpose. And progress.
Sadiq Khan declines to call Reform UK's migrant policy racist, saying he is wary of devaluing 'powerful word'
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent.
Sadiq Khan has declined to follow Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in calling Reform’s policy of retrospectively stripping people of their right to remain permanently in the UK racist, saying he is wary of giving the impression that this meant Reform supporters must necessarily be racist.
He told a fringe meeting:
When you use the r-word – I’ve been the recipient of racist behaviour. I think it’s a really loaded word, and so I’m very careful when I use it, for the obvious reason, I don’t want to devalue this really powerful word.
Khan said he was “always nervous, given the impression that somehow I’m name-calling” in using the word.
This did not mean it should never happen, he added:
You’ve got to call out people. That’s why I wasn’t afraid to say a few days ago that I think President Trump is a racist, he’s sexist, he’s misogynistic and he’s homophobic. So I’m quite clear in relation to Donald Trump.
Speaking on Sunday Starmer said Reform’s plan to remove the status of having indefinite leave to remain and deport thousands of people already legally living in the UK as “racist” and “immoral”. Speaking on Monday, Reeves agreed with his view.
Khan was on a platform with Fraser Nelson, the former Spectator editor, who yesterday argued that calling Reform UK’s policy racist would backfire.
Bridget Phillipson says poorest students will get maintenance grants for some courses, funded by international student levy
Bridget Phillipson, the education secrertary, has announced that new, targeted means-tested maintenance grants will be introduced for students in England before the general election.
In her conference speech, she said:
Today I’m announcing that this Labour government will introduce new targeted maintenance grants for students who need them most.
Conference, their time at college or university should be spent learning or training.
Not working every hour God sends.
That is the difference that this Labour government makes.
In a news release, Labour said the grants would help students from the lowest-income families. It said:
The maintenance grants will help to support tens of thousands of students from level 4 – 6 studying priority courses that support the industrial strategy and the Labour government’s wider mission to renew Britain …
The grants will provide young working-class people with crucial targeted additional financial support to undertake both university degrees and technical qualifications under the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, including Certificates of Higher Education (CertHEs), Diplomas of Higher Education (DipHEs), technical qualifications, and degrees.
The new maintenance grants will be fully funded by a new international student levy, ensuring that revenue from international students is used to benefit working-class domestic students, and support growth and opportunity.
Further details on maintenance grants and the International Student Levy will be set out in the autumn statement.
The Department for Education has a few more details here.
Updated
Peter Kyle, the business secretary, claimed in his speech to the conference this morning that more investment is coming to the UK because Labour is in office. He said:
Companies who would not look at this country 15 months ago are now investing in our future, our jobs, our people.
So we welcome the investments of:
Microsoft – a £22bn investment, their largest ever into the UK;
Google – £5bn;
CoreWeave – £1.5bn;
Salesforce – £1.4bn into our country.
And why are they coming here?
They are coming here because of a Labour government.
The Palestine Youth Movement and London for a Free Palestine have claimed responsibility after the pro-Palestine heckler interrupted Rachel Reeves’ speech this morning.
As PA Media reports, according to the two groups, the activist, named “Sam P” stood up with a large Palestinian flag and said: “Why is Britain still arming Israel?”
In a statement issued by the protest groups following the disruption, the activist said:
It’s unbearable to watch this British-backed genocide unfolding on our screens while Labour carries on with business as usual.
We should do whatever we can to push for an end to the atrocities.
It is understood the heckler was removed from the hall by security and handed over to Merseyside police.
Emily Thornberry urges government to block bid by Elon Musk's Tesla to get licence to suppy electricity in UK
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee had warned the government against allowing Elon Musk to have any control of the UK energy grid.
Tesla has applied to Ofgem for a licence to be allowed to supply electricity directly to British homes. The application went in during July.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband yesterday refused to comment, saying “it is a matter for the regulator”.
However, Thornberry told a Labour Climate and Environment Forum event at the annual party conference that the government should be careful about granting the application because it could be a national security threat.
She said:
I would be very concerned about about Elon Musk and about his motivations and what he might do to the country. I think that any decisions that we may make about investment in infrastructure should be led first by the issue of security.
So I do think we should have a long, hard look whether it’s in our country for someone like Elon Musk to be allowed to invest in infrastructure in the UK.
Musk recently called for the overthrow of the British government and was accused of inciting violence on UK’s streets at a recent appearance at a far right rally in Britain.
Thornberry added:
I think it’s pretty interesting that the Chinese won’t allow Teslas near public buildings or government buildings because they’re worried about espionage.
She also said that Keir Starmer should go to the Cop climate change conference, and that he should let King Charles go to the summit in November.
She said:
In six weeks time, I’m going to be going to Cop 30 in Belem, where I will witness what it is that governments are now doing, and the government will have an opportunity there to demonstrate the leadership when it comes to climate change. This means the senior leaders, and I hope that includes the prime minister, will attend and engage.
I think the King should of course be allowed to go to Cop, I am sure he wants to go.
Updated
Treasury minister Torsten Bell ruffled some feathers on Monday night after mocking Lib Dem leader Ed Davey’s appearance. He said:
What Britain needs to tackle Farage is a vision. And the vision they need is not a fat bloke in a wet suit which is what the Lib Dems have got to offer Britain in the 21st century.
A Lib Dem councillor in Liverpool, Carl Cashman, posted that it showed Labour were “the nasty party”.
Burnham (55) says he wants UK to rejoin EU in his lifetime
Burnham says he wants to see the UK rejoin the EU in lifetime.
He says:
I’m going to be honest. I’m going to say I want to rejoin. I hope, in my lifetime, I see this country rejoining the European Union.
Burnham is 55. Keir Starmer, who is 63, has said he does not expect the UK to rejoin in his lifetime.
Burnham says he wants old people and disabled people to be able to use 'twirly' bus pass before 9.30am
Burnham says he is looking at removing the rule in Greater Manchester saying older people’s bus passes and disabled people’s bus passes cannot be used before 9.30am.
He says in the city these passes are known as twirly bus passes, because of when drivers have to tell people, “Sorry, you’re too early.”
He says there are economic benefis from people being about to use public transport. And he cites this as an example of how, as mayor, he can make positive changes as a result of having control of the bus network.
Burnham says fiscal rules should be more 'flexible', but strongly rejects claim he is not fiscally responsible
Pippa Crerar said she had been asking cabinet ministers for questions for Burnham, and her first one was, would he stick to the fiscal rules?
Burnham replied:
Yes, I would. You need strong fiscal rules. But it doesn’t mean in exactly their current form, is what I would say.
Burnham said that sometimes it can be prudent to invest, to lower current spending. So there should be a “more flexible” approach. But he would keep rules.
There’s nothing about me that is saying I’ll just throw the money everywhere. And I would say to that member of the cabinet – and indeed, any member of the cabinet – look what I’ve done to Greater Manchester. In a decade. I’ve been overseeing the finances of the country’s second city, first city, I mean. It’s pretty, pretty buoyant.
He also pointed out that he was a former chief secretary to the Treasury.
UPDATE: Burnham said:
I reject entirely this idea that I’m sort of hopeless and I’ve no idea about how to make it add up.
I’m doing it every day in Greater Manchester. No-one ever says Greater Manchester is run in a financially imprudent way.
Updated
Burnham says he 'can't launch leadership campaign' without being MP
Burnham said that he was not in a position to launch a leadership bid.
I can’t launch a leadership campaign. I’m not in parliament. So that is the bottom line.
He also said that it was a mistake to assume that he was desperate to go back to London.
In the early 1990s he left the north and went to London because that was what young people had to do to get on. But that was not the case now, he said. He said people would have to “wrench me out of the place” if they wanted him to leave Manchester.
Updated
Burnham says his Telegraph interview that infuriated Labour MPs was 'overwritten, and inaccurate in some respects'
Last week Burnham gave an interview to the Daily Telegraph that was headlined: Andy Burnham: MPs want me to challenge Starmer. That infuriated Keir Starmer’s allies more than anything. An interview published the previous day in the New Statesman was seen as unhelpful, but the Telegraph interview prompted Starmer loyalists to launch a full-on briefing war against him.
Burnham said the interview was “overwritten, and inaccurate in some respects”.
He said that, while he told the Telegraph that Labour MPs had been in touch with him over the summer, he did not say they were urging him to run for Labour leader. He said he did not discuss with the Telegraph what those MPs were saying.
(Burnham did not say that the Telegraph was wrong about the contents of those calls; just that it was wrong to say he had revealed all to the Telegraph.)
He went on:
[The Telegraph] said I would borrow £40bn more. I said no such thing. No such thing at all.
Burnham said the point he was making was that, of the £39bn allocated in the spending review for housing, he wanted all of it to be allocated to social and council housing.
In a paragraph about Burnham’s plans, the Telegraph said that he wanted “£40bn of borrowing to build council houses”. The article did not include a quote to back this up.
Burnham says Labour leadership is too 'factional', claiming MPs never lost whip under Blair for policy disagreements
The Guardian podcast with Andy Burnham has started.
Asked what he would say to people who say he is promoting his leadership ambitions, Burnham says all he has been doing is starting a debate.
He says, when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were leading the Labour party, he cannot recall anyone having the whip withdrawn for disagreements over policy.
He says, if the party is being run in a “factional” way, the party will not be able to benefit from having a range of voices working together.
Most cabinet ministers speaking at the Labour conference have treated Reform UK as their main opponents, while Rachel Reeves spoke more about the Conservatives.
In his speech to the conference this morning, John Healey, the defence secretary, attacked all the main opposition parties. He said:
You know, conference, who won’t back defence jobs? The Scottish nationalists.
They refused to fund a new advanced welding centre in Glasgow, so I can announce today that the Labour government now will step in and provide the funding needed – they won’t, we will.
And what of the other parties? Are they any better on defence?
The Tories – they left our armed forces hollowed out and underfunded.
The Lib Dems – they cut the size of the British Army to its smallest since Napoleon.
And Reform – they praise [Vladimir] Putin and they put down Nato. Conference, we are the party that created Nato in that great [Clement] Attlee government after the war.
Now, we’re the party growing jobs and growing the army, the party facing down Russia and strengthening Nato. Conference, Labour is again the party of Britain’s defence.
Andy Burnham in conversation with Guardian's Politics Weekly podcast
Andy Burnham will shortly be taking part in a live Q&A interview with the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast, at the Labour conference. Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey are hosting it.
There is a live feed here.
Labour plans to consult on use of live facial recognition before wider roll-out
Labour plans to consult on the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology before expanding it across England, the new policing minister has told the party’s annual conference, Rajeev Syal reports.
Reeves' speech - snap verdict
In 2021, in her first speech to a Labour conference as shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced a plan to spend £28bn a year on a green jobs plan. That is the sort of big, muscular, consequential intervention that a Labour conference wants to hear. At that stage the UK was already chin-deep in Covid debt, but there was still an optimism the economic prospects for the second half of the decade. Four years on, what was striking about Rachel Reeves’ second speech as chancellor to a Labour conference as chancellor was quite how little she had to announce.
There is an obvious reason for that, of course, and if your officials are telling you that you’ll need to raised taxes by £30bn (see 10am), a Gordon Brown-style investment splurge is not an option. Instead we got an announcement about the Youth Guarantee (see 7.44am), libraries for primary schools (see 12.14pm) and a youth mobility scheme with the EU (see 12.41pm). All fine, but none of these are the sort of big ticket announcement you would get in a chancellor’s conference speech in the glory when Britain was not having to spent £100bn a year paying off debt interest. And, given the government spent the first few months of the year saying it had “no plans” for a youth mobility scheme, some scepticism about how ambitious this will be is probably justified.
Instead, Reeves had to make an impact with her argument, and she did this pretty well. The speech was received enthusiastically in the hall. The chancellor talked at length about what the government has already achieved, and building projects that are going ahead because she has prioritised investment. She was robust in defence of her fiscal rules, and her belief in the need for controls on borrowing. (See 12.29pm.) This passage amounted to an implied rebuke Andy Burnham, but without being it being personalised or antagonistic. And her main target was the Conservative party. Other speakers at this conference have been focusing on Reform UK, but Reeves has probably spent more time than anyone else pondering why her economic consequence is so dire and that’s one area where it’s harder to blame Reform UK.
She also responded well to the heckle. The protest seemed a bit half-hearted, but Reeves hit back with a version of the retort that Keir Starmer used when he faced heckler sabotage in his speech in 2021 and it worked. She had the audience on her side – at this moment, and until she finished. She may not have had a huge amount to offer them beyond “faith” (see 12.46pm) but in the hall it was enough.
Updated
Reeves ends speech telling her party to 'have faith'
Reeves seems to be wrapping up now.
Whatever tests confront us, have faith because our party and our country have overcome greater challenges than these.
Have faith, because the opportunity to serve [John Smith’s famous phrase] is what we came into this for.
Have faith, knowing that this Labour government will not rest - I will not rest – until our patriotic cause is realised in a Britain that prizes contribution, that unlocks opportunity, that silences the nagging voices of decline.
And never let anyone tell you that there’s no difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government.
Reeves says a “better Britain” is within reach, “a Britain where the barriers to opportunity are torn asunder, a Britain able to look outwards with confidence, defiant in an uncertain world, powered by the contribution of its people, hopeful for our shared future, a proud Britain, a prosperous Britain, a Labour Britain”.
Reeves says Labour pushing for 'ambitious' youth mobility scheme with EU, giving 'maximum' opportunites to young people
Reeves turns to relations with Europe.
We should not cut young people off from opportunities that my generation took for granted, and that means rejecting the politics of isolation and division for which our young people pay the gravest price.
It means defying those voices which claim to speak in the national interest, but which demand that our people, our communities and our businesses suffer the consequences for a Britain cut off from the rest of Europe,
I don’t want young people to miss out on the chance to enrich their lives through travel, experiencing other cultures, working and studying abroad. Those opportunities cannot and must not be the sole preserve of the wealthy and the fortunate.
So, as well as making it easier to trade with Europe, as well as making it easier to travel in Europe, I can tell you today that we are working with the European Union to secure for young people in Britain the maximum economic and cultural opportunities available through an ambitious agreement on youth mobility.
So conference, don’t ever let anyone tell me that there’s no difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government.
Reeves confirms the plans to extend the Youth Guarantee, briefed overnight (see 7.44am), saying she wants “nothing less than the abolition of long-term youth unemployment”.
Reeves says Reform UK greatest threat to living standards of working people at election
Reeves goes on to say Reform UK is a threat to the economy.
There will be choices to take our country forward, and whatever tests come our way, whatever tests come my way, I make this commitment to you, I will take no risks with The trust placed in us by the British people …
The single greatest threat to our way of life and to the living standards of working people is the agenda of Nigel Farage and the Reform party.
She says there will be a choice at the next election between “a Labour government introducing the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in decades, or a Reform Party which has opposed those rights every single step of the way”.
It will be a choice between a Labour government standing with allies, and Reform “in bed with Vladimir Putin”, she says
It will be a choice between a party of economic responsibility, and a party that cheered on the Liz Truss’s mini budget, she says.
And it will be a choice between Labour, committed to the NHS, and Reform, a party that has “opposed to the very principle of a publicly funded healthcare”.
Reeves delivers warning to Burnham, and Labour's left, saying letting spending get out of control 'dangerously' wrong
Three years ago the Tories consigned their party to “utter irrelevance” when Liz Truss created economic chaos, Reeves says.
Labour must never do the same.
But there are some people “who peddle the idea that we could just abandon economic responsibility”, she says.
These people are “wrong, dangerously so”, she says. She goes on:
We need to be honest about what that choice would mean, because when spending gets out of control, when market confidence is lost, that doesn’t just show up in some OBR reports and some difficult headlines a few months later. It is felt immediately in the growing cost of essentials, and rising interest rates.
Let me tell you, there is nothing progressive, nothing Labour, about government using £1 in every £10 of public money it spends on financing debt to interest – billions of pounds every single year going towards repaying debt, debt racked up by the Tories paid to overseas hedge funds and investors.
This is clearly aimed at part in Andy Burnham, in response to his comment last week about who the government should not be in hock to bond markets. But it also sounds like a lecture aimed at the Labour left generally.
UPDATE: Reeves said:
Even now with the global uncertainty that we have seen ripple through financial markets, there are still critics out there who all too readily forget the consequences of reckless economic choices.
Never forget that in two hours one Friday, almost three years ago, the Conservatives under Liz Truss sent mortgage costs spiralling, put pensions in peril and consigned their party not just to defeat, but to utter irrelevance.
That was a warning. And the British people will not forgive any party that forgives it. Conference, let us reaffirm our commitment that we will never, ever do what they did to ordinary working people in this country.
But I do know that there are still people who peddle the idea that we can just abandon economic responsibility, cast off any constraints on public spending. They’re wrong. Dangerously so. And we need to be honest about what that choice would mean.
Updated
Reeves says she can only spend this money because Labour regained the trust of the electorate.
She will never squander that trust, she says.
We were able to increase investment only because we remain steadfast in that commitment to economic responsibility.
That was not a trade off against Labour values, she says. She says financial responsibility is part of Labour values.
Reeves says the government is also investing in social housing.
At the spending review she announced £40bn for this, “the biggest cash investment into council, social, and affordable housing in a generation”.
Reeves is now listing areas around Britain where Labour is investing.
She says the government will “push ahead” with plans for Northern Powerhouse rail.
(It was recently reported that this was being delayed. What “push ahead” with means is not clear.)
Updated
Reeves says Britain needs more growth.
Investment is part of the solution to that, she says, as well as planning reform, as well as reform to pensions, a national wealth fund, a modern industrial strategy, and new trade deals.
Reeves says Covid corruption comissioner has recovered almost £400m lost during pandemic
Reeves says, thanks to the work of the Covid corruption commissioner, the government has recovered almost £400m that was lost during the Covid pandemic.
We are getting that money back, and we are putting it where it belongs – in our communities, in our schools and in our national health service.
Reeves confirms she is funding libraries in every primary school in England.
Reeves lists Labour's achievements
Reeves says that in every one of the 451 days it has been in office it has achieved more than it did in the more than 5,000 days it was in opposition.
She is now listing achievements, including:
creating Britain’s first genuine living wage, getting spades in the ground on new road and rail projects, backing our communities to strengthen Pride in Place, including here in Merseyside with the reopening of Southport pier, investing in home-grown, British energy, freezing fuel duty, capping bus fares, recruiting new neighbourhood police, opening school breakfast clubs, expanding free school meals, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty as we do it, and delivering a pay rise – a deserved pay rise – to our nurses, our teachers, our police and our armed forces.
And conference, we’re making the NHS fit for the future too, with £29bn a year towards its day to day funding, a record cash investment – the NHS created by a Labour government, protected by every Labour government and protected by this Labour government.
Updated
Reeves says Labour can make these choices because of Keir Starmer’s leadership.
Labour members gave their all to regain the trust of the British people.
She says she wants to explain what gets her up every morning. Her parents were teachers. Ordinary family find themselves fighting a system that hoard privilege at the top.
When she was growing up, the Tory government did not care about children like her.
She believes in “a Britain founded on contribution”.
I believe in a Britain founded on contribution, where we do our duty for each other, and where hard work is matched by fair reward.
I believe in a Britain based on opportunity, where ordinary kids can flourish unhindered by their backgrounds.
And I believe that Britain’s real wealth is found not only in the success of the fortunate few, but in their talents of all our people in every part of our great country.
Reeves wins support of delegates as she hits back at pro-Gaza heckler, saying Labour no longer party of protest
A pro-Gaza heckler interrupts, talking about genocide.
Reeves says the government has recognised a Palestinian state.
But Labour has changed, it is not a party of protest, and that is why she is here as chancellor of the exchequer.
Delegates applaud, drowing out the heckler.
Updated
Reeves says she calls her approach “securonomics”.
That is why she has stepped in to help the shipbuilding industry.
And it has stepped in this weekend to protect Jaguar Land Rover. The automotive industry is “the jewel in the crown of British manufacturing”, she says.
And she says, when steel jobs were at risk, the government intervened to take control of British Steel.
There must be a future for steel jobs in Britain, she says.
Labour 'chose investment' when it took office, Reeves says
Reeves starts by thanking Matt for his kind introduction.
She says she was proud to announce the Sizewell C investment.
It will produce the energy to power 6m homes.
When Labour was elected, Britain was faced with the choice of investment or decline.
Labour “chose investment”, she says.
The Tories did not choose that, and oppose it from opposition.
So there is a difference between the Tories and Labour, she says.
Key event
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is about to give her speech to the conference.
Before she starts, a welder has been invited on stage to speak.
He says he met Reeves at the GMB confernce when she announced that Sizewell C was going to go ahead. He was honoured and excited, delighted that unions voices had been heard.
The government was showing it was committed to investing in the sectors of the future, he says.
Sizewell C will take £14bn of investment. GMB members feel pride in the industry, he says. They “finally felt heard”, he said.
The government is investing “in a brighter future for the whole of Britain”, he said.
Updated
Why Scottish Labour's leaders think there is path to victory in next year's Holyrood elections
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Scottish Labour leaders have sketched out their broad strategy for trying to win next year’s Holyrood election, warning their candidates and activists that time to overturn a huge polling deficit is running short.
Despite a 17-point deficit behind the Scottish National party, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, told a Politico event in Liverpool he believed pollsters and pundits seriously underestimated his party’s capacity, while overstating the threat from Reform UK.
Sarwar said June’s Holyrood byelection in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, when Labour triumphed despite very poor national polling and an apparently surging Reform vote, was a “preview for what’s going to happen next year.”
He said:
Reform are going to try to create noise, try and divide us and try and do a ‘plague on all your houses’ kind of approach [which] was utterly rejected and probably horrified lots of people across the country.
What did John Swinney, the SNP, do? They didn’t fight the byelection on their record. They’re not planning on fighting the election next year on their record. And who can blame them? [And] now they want to talk about independence, not because they think they’re going to win a majority. It’s purely a distraction from their record all over again.
What did Labour do? We ran the most impressive ground campaign we have ever done, the most, successful, intricate and detailed digital campaign we’ve ever ran. And we focused on the issues that matter to people. And I’m genuinely really, really confident that if we do the same again next year we will win the election.
Facing a very volatile electorate, where Reform is currently up-ending conventional party dynamics in Scotland, Labour strategists believe Labour can win by forming a new “transactional coalition” of voters if they relentlessly focus on voters’ low levels of happiness with the SNP’s domestic record.
At a Scottish Fabians fringe event on Sunday, Jackie Baillie, Sarwar’s deputy, and Douglas Alexander, the recently-appointed Scotland secretary, offered different versions of the same countdown clock facing Labour.
Alexander, appointed after Starmer’s deeply unpopular move to sack Ian Murray as Scotland secretary, said:
The way I think about this job is after this conference, we will have eight weeks until a Labour budget at the end of November. We therefore have ten weeks of political activity this side of Christmas. We then have 12 weeks from the 1 January to the 31 March, and then we are into the short campaign. So to each and every one of the candidates and I see a number of candidates, there’s not going to be much sleep and there’s going to be a lot of activity in the coming weeks and months.
Baillie, who selected nearly all Scottish Labour’s new Holyrood candidates, drummed home the same message: “It’s seven months away, 221 days. I know Douglas broke it down into different chunks but you need to work hard for each and every one of the 221 days. And I will be watching.”
In the conference hall delegates are now debating economic matters.
When Gaza was being debated, apart from the union delegates proposing and seconding it, no speaker was called backing the “genocide” motion. (See 10.31am.) The The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said this was “a blatant undemocatic move by the Labour leadership to silence demands from trade unions and members for Labour to acknowledge Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza”.
Development minister Jenny Chapman says she's 'incredibly worried' about disease breaking out in Gaza
Eleni Courea is a Guardian political correspondent.
Jenny Chapman, the minister for international development, said she was “incredibly worried” that Gaza was “on the verge” of an outbreak of disease.
Speaking at a conference fringe event hosted by the Labour campaign for International Development, she said:
What I can’t understand is why the government of Israel is not more concerned about the outbreak of disease. Previously they’ve been very concerned about that because, clearly, disease knows no border.
IPC [Integrated food security Phase Classification] has designated famine already. The cascade event is starting to hit, disease is going to spread unless something is done very, very urgently, and even then once these things take hold it’s very very difficult to act. So I’m incredibly worried, and I think the things that we’re doing diplomatically on the world stage are very important but they don’t feed a single child, and we have to keep on using whatever levers we can.
The GHF [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] method of distribution of aid has been a catastrophic failure, as we all said it would be. And it just proves that humanitarian principles really matter.
Updated
Elections guru John Curtice delivers grim prognosis for Labour, saying just attacking Reform UK won't bring recovery
Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor.
Dire warnings about Labour’s polling predicament were delivered by John Curtice, the polling expert and professor of politics at Strathclyde University, at a Demos fringe this morning.
His core message was:
Labour needs to tell the country what it stands for, what it believes in and link that to how it’s going to get there ... The art of politics is the ability to articulate a synoptic vision which is illustrated through particular policy proposals.
The fascinating thing about where we are at the moment is that [Keir] Starmer hasn’t been able to do it, [Rishi] Sunak couldn’t do it, [Kemi] Badenoch hasn’t been able to do it, [Ed] Davey can’t do it. [Nigel] Farage can do it and maybe [Zack] Polanski can as well.
Curtice’s big warning to Labour was that “you can’t just focus on Reform if you’re going to recover from the situation that you’re in” as Labour is losing so much support to the Lib Dems and Greens as well.
He also highlighted that unhappiness with the economy and the NHS, rather than immigration, was the biggest driver of Labour 2024 voters turning to other parties.
Asked whether there was much of a glimmer of hope in Labour’s polling numbers at the moment, Curtice said he thought the answer was “no”. He said he did not think Reform UK would go away and many of its voters were “beyond the reach of this party”.
He said the one route to a better future for Labour was “if the economy is turned around and waiting lists are brought back down”, as well as rhetoric and reality more closely reflecting each other on the issue of immigration.
On the small boats, he warned Labour to “stop shouting about it” and “don’t repeat the Tory mistake and focus on an issue over which you don’t have complete control”.
On Starmer, Curtice highlighted the prime minister’s record levels of unpopularity and described him as good in times of bad news but “not very good at optimism”.
Lib Dems accuse Reeves of planning '£10bn stealth tax' by extending threshold freeze
The Liberal Democrats have responded to Rachel Reeves’ interview round comments about freezing tax thresholds (see 10am) by saying she is planning a £10bn stealth tax bombshell.
In a statement, Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson, said:
It looks like the chancellor is preparing to clobber families with another £10bn stealth tax bombshell.
This would be copying the mistakes of the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak’s endless stealth taxes and would drag more people on low incomes into paying income tax for the first time.
The chancellor should be turbocharging the economy with a much more ambitious trade deal with the EU, not choking off growth through years of tax hikes.
In her speech Yvette Cooper said Labour “stands firm in Nato”, and that if necessary it would confront Russian planes in Nato airspace. She said:
If we need to confront planes in Nato airspace without permission, then we will do so, because this party should be very proud that in Ukraine’s greatest time of need, [Ukrainian president Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people have had no better friends than our country, our government and our prime minister, Keir Starmer.
And she contrasted Labour’s stance with Reform UK’s.
There is a choice – between a Labour foreign policy rooted in our belief that strength at home depends on our partnerships abroad and whatever chaotic right-wing ideology we end up facing at the next election, with politicians who are happy for us to surrender our national interests or slide into isolation …
While we are strengthening the Nato alliance, [Reform UK] trot out Russian propaganda claiming Nato caused the war.
And while we opened our hearts and our homes to Ukrainian children, their policy is to turn them away.
While we do new trade deals underpinned by international law, they want to rip up those rules and lose the jobs and investment we need.
And while we work together to renew Britain, they tour the world seeking every opportunity to run our country down.
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, told the Labour conference that statehood was “the inalienable right of the Palestinian people”.
In her speech this morning, she said:
For many decades, the UK has pledged support for a two-state solution in the Middle East, but only recognised one of those states – until now.
And seven days ago, I stood in the great chamber of the United Nations in New York, beneath the UN symbol of peace, to confirm the historic decision of the United Kingdom to recognise the state of Palestine …
Recognition is the embodiment of our passionate belief that the only path – the only path – to security and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike is two states living side by side.
But let there be no doubt, there can and will be no role for Hamas terrorists in any future governance of Palestine.
Cooper also aid that the “intolerable suffering must end for children facing starvation while Israeli forces block food at the border, for the hostages and their families in anguish”.
At the Labour conference a delegate from the Jewish Labour Movement said that the “genocide” motion on Gaza did not even mention Hamas. If delegates passed the motion, they would be dishonouring the victims of the 7 October massacre, he said.
Updated
'This is genocide', and waiting for court to confirm that 'too late', says Unison's Christine McAnea
At the Labour conference Christine McAnea, the Unison general secretary, proposed the Gaza motion saying genocide is taking place. (See 10.31am.).
The wording of the two motions is available on this Labour document.
McAnea urged delegate to back the second motion, and to oppose the first.
She said:
This is genocide. But if we wait for this to be confirmed by a court, it will be too late, because it’s already happening as we sit here.
Updated
Labour activists urged to back motion saying Israel has committed genocide in Gaza
Labour activists at the conference are today proposing a motion saying Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
The debate this morning will cover foreign affairs, and there are two emergency motions on the Middle East.
As the motions were being drafted last night, there was a row as the Labour leadership pushed for wording in one motion saying “the United Nations independent commission of inquiry found a risk of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”.
This was seen by activists as a pro-Israel falsehood. The commission did not find “a risk” of genocide; it said genocide was happening.
A second motion, proposed by the unions Unison and Aslef, says commission concluded “Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, said that if this motion is passed, it will be a “major defeat” for Starmer.
He said:
Trade unions and conference delegates have forced the party to allow a debate and vote on Palestine after dozens of motions were initially blocked.
In the teeth of opposition from the government, trade unions and Labour members will now vote on a motion that accepts the findings of the UN commission of inquiry report, which confirms Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and calls for meaningful action, including a full arms embargo on Israel.
What is happening inside the conference reflects the growing pressure of the solidarity movement – Starmer’s own party share the mounting disgust at Britain’s ongoing complicity in Israel’s crimes and want it to end.
Updated
Jackie Baillie tells Burnham to shelve leadership positioning, amid concerns it will harm Labour at Holyrood elections
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Labour’s Scottish leadership has accused Andy Burnham, the erstwhile Labour leadership contender, of peddling “nonsense”, and urged him to stay in Manchester and “shut up”.
In a clearly choreographed series of remarks, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said at a conference fringe event:
Andy is doing a fantastic job as the mayor of Manchester. I think the people of Manchester need him.
Jackie Baillie, the deputy leader of Scottish Labour, was more direct. At a Fabians fringe meeting, she said:
I have one very clear message for this Labour party conference, and actually, it’s not so much to conference as to the person who calls himself the king of the North. Well, all I would say to him is Manchester needs you. OK? We need to stop this nonsense and we need to focus very much on the elections ahead of us.
Scottish Labour leaders are deeply irritated because Burnham’s interventions feed into the air of instability and crisis around Starmer’s premiership, when Labour faces a very difficult task in unseating the Scottish National party in next May’s Scottish parliament elections, as well as the senedd elections in Wales and for English councils.
This spat sours a previously productive relationship. Scottish Labour has collaborated with Burnham and other Labour metro mayors, such as Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, to project Labour’s wider constitutional agenda to empower the UK’s nations and regions.
While Labour strategists believe their ratings will recover once the election contest starts, recent polls show Scottish Labour some distance behind the SNP, and neck and neck with Reform UK. The latest Norstat poll for the Times and Sunday Times in Scotland puts the SNP on 34% in a constituency vote, Reform 20% and Labour at 17%.
Michael Marra, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesman, boiled down the party’s position: “I think he should shut up.”
Updated
Reeves suggests big tax rises coming in budget, saying 'world has changed' and pledges made at CBI last year no longer apply
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has now finished her media round. Here comments about Reform UK are getting a lot of attention, but that’s not part of her portfolio. Her comments about the economy, and the budget, were probably more significant.
I have covered a lot of what she said already. Here is a summary, with fresh or beefed-up quotes, that provides a more comprehensive account.
Reeves said that it was possible to support a racist policy without being racist. (See 8.09am.) This is intended to counter the Reform UK claim that, when Keir Starmer described its plan to end indefinite leave to remain as racist yesterday, he was also calling the millions of people who support Reform racist. Nigel Faragel, the Reform UK leader, told the Daily Mail:
The prime minister has insulted those who believe mass migration should come to an end. Starmer thinks anybody here on a time-limited visa is entitled to stay in Britain for ever. Labour do not believe in border controls - and think anyone who does is racist.
Reeves in effect abandoned the pledge she made to the CBI last year not to raise taxes on the scale she did last year. In a Q&A at the CBI in November 2024, Reeves at one point said she was “not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes”. The Tories have sometimes taken this as her pledging no further tax increases – a commitment did not repeat. But mostly in the Q&A she was saying she would not need to do “a budget like this ever again”, referring to the 2024 budget that raised taxes by £24bn in 2025-6, or by £41bn by 2029-20. And for months she was happy to stick her statement about not planning 2024-style tax rises again. But today she argued that the world had changed since last November. When the BBC’s Nick Robinson asked her if she would repeat the pledge not to come back with “more borrowing or more taxes”, Reeves replied:
Well, look, I think everyone can see in the last year that the world has changed, and we’re not immune to that change. Whether it is wars in Europe and the Middle East, whether it is increased barriers to trade because of tariffs coming from the United States, whether it is the global cost of borrowing, we’re not immune to any of those things.
In an LBC interview, Reeves said that some of the media comment about tax rises planned for the budget has been “rubbish”. (See 8.27am.) But on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, when asked about a report from ITV’s Robert Peston saying the Treasury assumes taxes will have to rise by £30bn in the budget, she adopted a quite different tone, and did not seriously challenge the figure. (See 8.46am.)
Reeves confirmed that the OBR is reviewing its productivity forecasts for the economy, and admitted that this would have an impact on her plans. She told the Today programme:
We also know that the Office of Budget Responsibility are reviewing the productivity numbers based on the past productivity experience under the last government, and are set to make changes, then we have to respond to those, because it’s very important.
“Respond” was a euphemism. Reeves meant she would have to spend less as a result, as Heather Stewart explained in a story on this last week.
Reeves refused to rule out extending the freeze on income tax thresholds in the budget. She is widely expected to extend the freeze (which means people paying more tax, because the tax-free allowance does not rise with inflation). In an interview on BBC Breakfast, asked to rule this out, Reeves replied: “I’m not going to be able to do that.” This answer gave the impression a further freeze is coming.
Reeves said Labour’s manifesto commitment not to raise VAT still “stands”. Like Keir Starmer yesterday, she said the commitment “stands”, but would not explicitly say she was ruling out raising VAT, and this evasiveness has generated speculation that either Labour is planning to abandon the commitment at the budget, or that is planning some change to VAT that might breach the spirit, if not the letter, of the pledge. (Quite what the pledge means anyway is a matter of debate. The manifesto said the party would not “increase” VAT. This normally taken as referring to the headline rate, but could refer to the scope of VAT; some items get a zero or lower rate.) Reeves did not entirely clear up this confusion, but she said she wanted to protect people from tax increases that would raise the cost of living. She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
The manifesto stands and it stands for a reason that working people bore the brunt of the economic mismanagement of the last government and the cost-of-living challenges are still people’s number one biggest concern.
That’s why I’m determined to make working people better off and why I’m determined not to increase those key taxes that working people pay, and that’s why we made those commitments in the manifesto, and that’s why we stand by them.
She said that she wants to move to a situation where the OBR produces just one main economic forecast a year. At the moment it produces two a year (because a law says it has to), and this meant that when it downgraded its growth forecasts ahead of the spending review earlier this year, Reeves had to adjust her plans accordinginly. Many economists argue that it is wrong for the Treasury to have to revise its plans so often according to forecasts that inevitably fluctuate, and Reeves seems to agree. She told Times Radio.
The International Monetary Fund have said that we should move to just one major fiscal event a year and I agree with their recommendations. And to be able to do that we do need to change the way that the OBR do their forecasting. Two full forecasts a year make it harder to have that one fiscal event.
So there are different ways you could do it. You could do a shorter term forecast, you could do a forecast that just looks at the changes in the economy over that period of time.
But what I’m trying to achieve here is stability for families, but also stability for businesses, because one criticism that we get and, one criticism which I think was a fair criticism of the previous government, was that policy changed all the time and it was difficult to keep up.
Updated
Reeves plays down, but does not deny, report saying Treasury expects tax will have to rise by £30bn in budget
Rachel Reeves is on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, where one of the presenters, Ed Balls, is a Labour former shadow chancellor.
Balls puts it to Reeves that Treasury officials told ITV’s Robert Peston last week that she would need to put up taxes by about £30bn.
Reeves says the final forecasts, which will determine what the final budget figures are, have not yet been provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility. But she does not try to dispute the figure.
Updated
Reeves to urge business leaders to face up to risk Reform UK poses to economy
In her Today interview Rachel Reeves was asked about a FT report saying she will urge business leaders to highlight the risks of a Reform UK government in her speech later.
The FT say Reeves will tell the Labour conference.
Who is standing up for Britain’s stability. A Labour government that is resolute in cutting interest rates and borrowing or a Reform party that cheered on Liz Truss’ mini-budget?
Who is standing up for Britain’s businesses? A Labour government that is forging a closer relationship with our nearest trading partners or a Reform party that talks Britain down and is hungry to cut us off from the world?
Nick Robinson suggested that business would not take kindly to this, given the way Reeves put their taxes up. Reeves brushed this aside.
Q: You are saying you don’t call supporters of Reform racist. But it looks as if you don’t understand people’s concerns.
Reeves says the government should call out policies that are wrong.
She says it is one thing deporting people who arrive in the UK illegally.
But the Reform UK plan would mean someone working alongside you being deported because they were born abroad, or someone living next to you being who was born abroad being deported. That is wrong, and racist, she says.
Reeves says much of speculation about possible tax rises in budget is 'rubbish'
Q: Do you accept that you cannot tax your way to growth?
Reeves says it is not just about tax.
The government’s changes to the planning rules will promote growth, she says.
Q: People with shares, or pensions, or savings, or a valuable home – when you say you will protect working people, who are not including them, are you. You are coming for them, arent’ you.
Reeves says many of the people who claim to know what will be in the budget are “talking rubbish”. And some of the pre-budget speculation is irresponsible, she says.
Reeves confirms she no longer stands by pledge to CBI last year about not coming back with more tax rises
Reeves says her youth unemployment plan will build on what previous governments have done.
There has always been conditionality in the benefits system, she says.
Q: Can you repeat the statement you made to the CBI last year, when you said you were not coming back with more borrowing and more taxes.
Reeves says everyone can see that the world has changed since then.
Robinson says he is interpreting that as meaning taxes will go up.
Reeves says benefits bill too high
Rachel Reeves is now being interviewed by another Nick – Nick Robinson on the Today programme.
Q: Last year you spoke of iron discipline. But you buckle when you face difficult choices.
Reeves says she faced a difficult situation when Labour took power.
She says the government has maintained its commitment to economic discipline.
Q: You changed on winter fuel payments, and on disability benefits. As soon as the going got tough, you got going.
Reeves says the government had to make a number of difficult decisions.
But all the tax decisions stand, she says.
Q: Are you ever going to say no to people?
Reeves says people have seen her take difficult decisiions.
Q: Will you cut welfare spending. Spending on health and disability benefits is due to rise from £61bn to £72bn by the end of this parliament.
Reeves says Stephen Timms, the disability minister, is looking at this.
Q: Will you cut the benefits bill?
Reeves says the benefits bill is too high.
Reeves does not dispute LBC presenter's suggestion that Andy Burnham bond market comments makes him 'Trussesque'
Reeves ended her LBC interview by saying that anyone saying the government should just borrow more “makes no economic sense”. That was in response to a question about Andy Burnham and his comments about the bond markets in an interview last week.
Ferrari asked her if she was saying that Burnham was “Trussesque”.
Reeves laughs as Ferrari’s word, which he describes as new. She goes on:
Anybody that says you can just borrow more – I do think that risks going the way of Liz Truss.
Reeves says people can support racist policy without being racist, in reference to PM's comment about Reform UK
Ferrari asks about what Keir Starmer said yesterday about Reform UK’s plan to end indefinite leave to remain being racist.
Q: Does supporting that policy make someone racist?
No, says Reeves.
Q: So you can support a racist policy but not be racist.
Reeves says it is a racist policy.
Q: But how can you support a racist policy and not be racist?
Reeves says people support Reform UK for all sorts of reasons.
Ferrari says he does not see how you can support a racist policy and not be racist.
Reeves says she is not sure lots of people do support this policy. She says:
I think there are lots of people who back Reform would be horrified by the thought that people who came to this country legally, are working and contributing, will be deported from this country. And we had to call out Reform for their policies. And this is a racist policy, and it’s a bad for our country, and we need to call that out.
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Reeves pushes back at suggestions VAT may rise, saying commitment not to put it up still stands
Ferrari says the UK has lower growth forecasts than other G7 countries.
Reeves says the OECD is saying the UK will have the second fastest growing economy in the G7 this year and next.
And for the first half of this year, the only period for which data is available, the UK economy grew at 1% – faster than other G7 economies.
Q: Can you rule out a VAT increase in the budget?
Reeves says the government made those commitments and they stand.
Ferrari says something stands until it falls.
Reeves says Labour made those commitments because they want working people tobe better off. She goes on:
We are continuing with standing by, whatever words you want to use, those commitments.
Q: Can you rule out a VAT increase?
Reeves says listeners “can hear the commitment that I have made”.
She says the govenment is standing by its commitments because it wants people to be better off at the end of this parliament.
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Rachel Reeves is on LBC, being interviewed by Nick Ferrari.
Reeves says almost one million young people are not in work or training. That amounts to one in eight, she says, 18 to 24-year-olds.
They are more likely to suffer as a result unemployment later in life, lower wages and mental health problems.
Q: How much will this cost?
Reeves says the money for this was allocated in the spending review. Further details will be in the budget.
Ferrari keeps asking how much it will cost, and Reeves keeps insisting she will set that out in the budget.
Reeves says there are hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the economy. Employers say they struggle to hire the right people, she says.
Ferrari quotes various business leaders saying government policies are making it harder for them to operate.
Reeves says some of the first quoted by Ferrari (Next, Marks and Spencer, Asda and Aldi) have recently announced good results.
Reeves to pledge Youth Guarantee to 'abolish' unemployment for young people
Good morning. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was a student when the Blair government was in power and one of her heroes at the time was Gordon Brown, who ran the Treasury for 10 years. One of Brown’s flagship measures was an employment programme for young people (the new deal) and today Reeves says she wants to achieve something similar. In her speech she will say:
At the spending review, I pledged record investment in skills to support our young people. And so today, I can announce that with that investment we will fund a new Youth Guarantee …
We won’t leave a generation of young people to languish without prospects – denied the dignity, the security and the ladders of opportunity that good work provides.
Just as the last Labour government, with its new deal for young people, abolished long-term youth unemployment I can commit this government to nothing less than the abolition of long-term youth unemployment. We’ve done before and we’ll do it again.
Reeves is doing a full media interview round this morning. I will be covering it in detail.
Some newspapers are splashing this morning on previews of the Reeves speech.
As Pippa Crerar reports for the Guardian, Reeves is also going to announce funding for a library in every primary school in England.
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, is also speaking at the conference today, and other papers are splashing on what she is set to say. Rajeev Syal has a preview for the Guardian here.
And here are the frontpage headlines from the Telegraph and the Times.
And the Guardian and the Daily Mail have both splashed on Keir Starmer’s comments about Reform UK yesterday – with rather different takes.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: The conference opens. The morning speakers include Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, at 10.05am, John Healey, the defence secretary, at 10.50am, and Peter Kyle, the business secretary, at 11.40am.
Noon: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, speaks.
2pm: The afternoon session open with a speech from Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary and candidate for deputy leader. The other speakers include Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, at 2.40pm, David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, at 2.50pm, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, at 3.30pm, Liz Kendall, the science secretary, at 3.45pm, and Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, at 4pm.
2pm: Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, speaks to Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey from the Guardian’s Politics Live podcast at a fringe event.
2.30pm: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, speaks at a fringe event.
3.15pm: Burnham speaks at a fringe event on devolution.
4.30pm: Anneliese Dodds, the former development minister, speaks at a More in Common fringe.
5pm: Lammy speaks about taking on the populist right at an IPPR fringe meeting.
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