
Early evening summary
Andy Burnham has criticised Keir Starmer for allowing too much of a “climate of fear” in the party. At a fringe meeting tonight, he said:
One thing I am worried about … is how can you have an open debate about all of those things if there’s too much of a climate of fear within our party and the way the party is being run?
Criticising a situation where “a party member is suspended for liking a tweet by another political party, or a member of parliament loses the whip for trying to protect disability benefits”, Burnham received repeated rounds of applause from the audience. He said:
If that is the way we’re doing things, where debate is being closed down, that to me is what we’ve got to change.
Burnham also spoke out against demands for “simplistic statements of loyalty”, saying:
If that closes down the debate we need, I think it’s at risk of underestimating the peril the party is in as we get to the polls next May.
Aubrey Allegretti from the Times has the clip.
NEW: Andy Burnham hits out at “simplistic statements of loyalty” after he called for a debate about the future of the Labour party.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) September 28, 2025
He warns there is “a risk of underestimating the peril the party is in as we get to the polls next May”. pic.twitter.com/lrti4hsy44
Earlier Alan Johnson, who was urged to run against Gordon Brown in 2009 when Brown was a PM and Johnson was a cabinet minister, told the BBC that Burnham should do what he did at the time.
Here’s a simple bit of advice for Andy. Do what I did, go and find a television camera, stand in front of it and say: ‘I have no intention of standing against the elected leader of our country’.
Labour has announced a programme to build 12 new town locations across England in a bid to address the country’s housing crisis. (See 11.39am and 2.11pm.)
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
Miliband says it's 'possible' government should come off Elon Musk's X social media platform
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has said it is “possible” the government should come of Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.
Referring to Musk, he said:
Look, he called for the overthrow of our government. He incited violence on our screens. His platform, X, promotes disinformation. He’s a dangerous person.
The British people are not like, what do we want? Elon Musk. They really don’t like Elon Musk, and they don’t like people coming and sort of saying we should overthrow the government and whatever other crap he said.
Updated
Miliband does not know if Farage racist, but says Starmer right to say Reform UK's policy racist
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
At the LCEF (Labour Climate and Environment Forum) fringe, Ed Miliband declined to say Nigel Farage was a racist. “I don’t know what he is,” said Miliband. But he insisted that Keir Starmer was right to describe Reform UK’s immigration policy as racist.
[Keir] is right to call out a racist policy because the idea that Farage comes along and says, get rid of indefinite leave to remain, breaking up families who’ve been here for decades, you know, sending Ukrainians who come to this country, fleeing Russian persecution. That is a racist policy against people who are born abroad, and it’s absolutely right to call it out.
On Donald Trump calling climate change a hoax, Miliband said:
We were elected by the British people with a mandate from the British people, and we’re going to carry on with our mandate whatever Trump says.
He said Reform was sticking up for “the frackers who want to frack our country” and added that the opposition to net zero had come from “massive economic interests”.
When asked if he was disheartened by the rise of Reform, he said:
Well, what’s the fucking point of politics? I lost the election in 2015 right? I could have gone away. But the point of politics is about ideals. The point of politics is to go out and argue your case, and you let the chips fall where they may, and maybe you win, and maybe you don’t, but I think we are gonna win! The point of it all is you believe in things, you go out and argue for things. You win the argument.
Asked about Andy Burnham, and his leadership ambitions, Miliband said:
I am Keir’s guy. If you are asking a leadership question, I am Keir’s guy.
He said Burnham is “a very talented guy and we should use all the talents we’ve got”.
About running again himself, he said:
I don’t know how many times I can say no, I definitely will not.
Political correspondent
Lisa Nandy has said Labour is “battling for the soul of the country” as she accused Reform UK of deliberately targeting Britain’s shared cultural institutions to sow division.
The culture secretary told activists that Keir Starmer was “absolutely right” to frame politics as a fight for national identity, recalling how her own father faced racism when he arrived from India in the 1950s. “We all know what discrimination and prejudice looks like,” she said.
Nandy insisted British cultural institutions such as the BBC, sport, and national celebrations were under attack from the right because they remain some of the few spaces that unite the country.
There’s a reason Reform are using some of the best things our country has had … they’re trying to turn them into potent sources of division.
She warned that the last 15 years of political turmoil had left the country vulnerable, but insisted Labour had to reclaim symbols such as the flag and national sport as emblems of unity.
Nothing we’ve ever achieved was ever done alone. Brilliant, bold, diverse, that is the country we celebrate when we stand together.
Nandy, the first Labour cabinet minister of Indian heritage, said she was determined not to be the last. “Every generation has a responsibility to fight for the country we believe in,” she said. “Stand together, fight together, and friends we will win together.”
Updated
Reform UK part of 'global network of far right', linked to billionaires, says Ed Miliband
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, speaking in conversation at an LCEF event, in conversation with journalist Lewis Goodall, is being asked about why people are so unhappy with Labour at the moment.
Miliband said Labour needs to take the fight to Reform UK and said they are part of a “global network of the far right” which needs to be challenged.
He went on:
It’s important to draw the contrast here, because it’s not just that [Nigel] Farage wants less workers’ rights and all those things. Even though he poses as something else, he is now part of a global network of the right, a global network of billionaires like Elon Musk who want to take away people’s rights, take away people’s freedoms, and we need to have that argument.
And I think if we frame the argument as who will really stand up to the working people of this country, who will change a broken economy so it works for the working people in this country, us or Reform, I think the answer is us, and I think we can win that argument. I am actually confident that we can do that.
Miliband went on to argue that two Tory ideas were to blame for the fact Britain was “hurting”: trickle-down economics and austerity, which dominated for three of the past four decades, he said. He argued it was hard to turn that around.
He also that Farage had the wrong diagnosis of the country’s problems, blaming “immigration, net zero and whatever else”.
Labour needs to say “that is not our view about why the country is in difficulties, and saying it plainly”, Miliband said. He said Keir Starmer did that today, and would be doing that again in his speech on Tuesday.
Plaid Cymru and Reform UK both offering 'divisive nationalism - different poison, same bottle', says Welsh FM Eluned Morgan
Polling in Wales suggests that Plaid Cymru and Reform UK will be the two biggest parties in the Senedd after next year’s elections. For the first time since devolution, Wales is likely to have a non-Labour first minister.
In her speech to the Labour conference, Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, described Plaid and Reform as “different poison, same bottle” and predicted “chaos” if one of them were to win.
She said:
Let’s be brutally honest, the polls are not looking good. People are angry. They’re disillusioned.
Our voice, the voice that’s always fought for them, is getting drowned out by the carnival of charlatans and the circus of snake oil salesmen.
Now Reform blames foreigners, Plaid blame Westminster – divisive nationalism in different forms. Different poison, same bottle – all with answers that sound brilliant until you ask how: They can’t tell you.
Morgan may regret this comment if, after the elections next year, Welsh Labour ends up trying to negotiate a coalition deal with Plaid, as seems quite possible.
Morgan went on:
Wales doesn’t need fantasy politics. Mark my words, Wales will fall into chaos if either Plaid or Reform wins in May. What we need is experience and stability in an age of instability, and that’s what Welsh Labour can offer.
Ukip, the first insurgent party launched by Nigel Farage, did quite well in elections in Wales nine years ago. Morgan said the group broke up in chaos.
We’ve seen this play before in Wales.
Nigel Farage’s Ukip party elected seven members in 2016 and by the end of the term, six of them had left, drawn by infighting, broken promises and internal chaos.
And just this week, their former Welsh leader admitted taking Russian bribes.
And right now they’re attacking our support for Ukrainian refugees.
This lot are … not putting Wales first. They’re putting Putin first.
Jo Stevens, the Welsh secretary, was also damning about Reform in her speech. She said:
Farage has turned up in Wales with patronising politics, with disrespect, division and derision for our communities.
Reform UK don’t care about Wales. They haven’t got any Welsh policies. They haven’t got a Welsh leader. They can’t even spell Caerphilly right.
But as much as we roll our eyes at their condescending nativist tone, they are a serious threat.
They’re a threat to our communities, a threat to our NHS and, if you work in Welsh public services, they are a threat to your livelihood.
Updated
Environment reporter
Labour needs to up its messaging on the climate crisis and the need for clean energy or it will cede ground to Reform UK, the chair of the Commons energy committee has said.
Speaking on a More In Common panel on solar power, Bill Esterson warned:
I just want to start by talking about the climate threat, because it’s increasingly struck me that we talk about the clean power agenda, we talk about what we’re doing in energy, but we don’t talk as much as we used to [about the climate threat]. I feel that’s perhaps why those who are peddling misinformation and returning to outright climate denial are having traction.
Michael Shanks, energy minister and Ed Miliband’s right-hand man in the department, said they would make their messaging clearer. He told the panel:
While we’ll talk a lot about the energy security arguments and about jobs, and we’re bringing down bills, we will double down as a government on being very clear that tackling the climate crisis is a priority for us now, not a future threat, but a very present reality.
He said that his goal of decarbonising the electricity grid by 2030 was “really difficult” but “absolutely still achievable” and added there will be upcoming legislation from his department on planning reform to get infrastructure projects built.
Esterson added the public have a “high degree of impatience” about bills not going down, and added: “We’ve got to get on getting the message out that we deliver.”
He said the energy department is doing a good job of getting the message out but said “the whole of government needs to be doing that too”.
Updated
Results announced of priority motions ballot
The Labour conference has just adjourned for the day. Before it wrapped up, the results of the priorities ballot were read out – naming the 14 motion subjects that have been chosen for debate, out of the 46 submitted.
The top seven from constituency Labour parties were:
Animal welfare
Cleaning up our communities
High streets
NHS dentistry
Skills
Violence against women and girls, misogyny and domestic abuse
Water
And the top seven from trade unions and other affiliates were:
AI and our rights
Guaranteed hours
Industrial energy prices
Public sector workers
Public spending
Staffing in adult social care
Subsidiary companies and insourcing
Updated
What commentators are saying about Starmer's BBC interview, and describing Reform UK's immigration policy as racist
Here is some more comments on Keir Starmer’s BBC interview this morning, and his decision to call Reform UK’s immigration policy racist.
Commentators on the left are generally enthusiastic.
From the LBC presenter James O’Brien
This is good (for once). Farage has to stay front & centre for almost 4 more years & I don’t see how he can without edging ever closer to the National Front credo that’s always animated him. For now, Starmer must wait until he’s *blatantly* racist before using the term. Otherwise it loses power 1/2
A thing to watch for, discourse-wise, is racism-deniers & facilitators in ‘mainstream’ media trying to detoxify ideas that have been beyond the mainstream pale since the Eighties. The Liddles & Littlejohns openly relish the opportunity that Farage offers them to remove what’s left of their masks.
From Atul Hatwal, editor of the Labour Uncut website
I thought the Friday Starmer speech was inadequate in terms of meeting the moment. Felt like it was drafted to respond to the Robinson march, basically ignored Reform’s mass deportation plan. Much better this morning, finally called it right ‘racist and immoral’
From Jonathan Portes, an economics professor and immigration specialist
Exactly the right language and tone from Starmer here -no nonsense about “legitimate concerns” or weasel words about cost/practicality. Now government needs to put his money where the PM’s mouth is (in policy terms)
From Adam Bienkov from Byline Times
The Prime Minister’s condemnation of Nigel Farage’s racist and immoral mass deportation plans has come far too late for many in his party
james O’brien bluesky
From Paul Mason, the broadcaster, writer and campaigner
This is probably Starmer‘s finest statement of principle since he’s been PM - the creeps outside shouting about Fabianism need to be defeated, not appeased
But Fraser Nelson, the former Spectator editor who now writes a column for the Times and a Substack blog, argues that Starmer has made a mistake. He recently made a documentary for Channel 4 about Reform UK, and it included an interview with Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who fought off a threat from the BNP in her Barking and Dagenham constituency (helped by a young Morgan McSweeney, now the PM’s chief of staff). Nelson says Hodge gave him a quote explaining why Starmer may have made an error. On in a post on his Substack he says:
I interviewed [Hodge] for the film, and we didn’t get to use much of it. Which is a shame because she made some very interesting points on the r-bomb [calling someone racist]. [Hodge said:] “Throughout that whole four-year period of campaigning against the BNP, I never called anybody a racist. The moment you do, you belittle their concerns about the impact of immigration on their community and unfairness coming into the system (as to who got a council home and who didn’t). If I had accused them of being racist, I would simply have driven them even further into the BNP camp because they would have felt offended that I didn’t really understand their concerns.” …
This dynamic - that a challenger party is strengthened when attacked by a larger rival - is important. It is a dial that can be moved by the challenger: you trigger them. Say or do something to get them talking about you: preferably in hyperbolic tones. This is the basic art of populist war, which Donald Trump mastered because the Democrats rose to the bait every time. This explains the effect of shock-tactics in election campaigns - Farage’s HIV/immigrant line in 2017, his Sunak/D-Day line in 2024 and his Sarwar/Pakistani line in Hamilton. Yes, condemnation comes, but with it, attention. And if you’re attacked for making a point that most voters agree with, it’s a net plus.
So dropping the r-bomb may be gratifying for Farage’s opponents to use. It may rally the base in the week of a conference. But as Baroness Hodge says, doing so when there is no grounds for it risks diminish you - and bolstering your opponent. It could well be that Reform’s opponents keep playing into its hands.
Updated
Scotland being held back by 'tired and out of touch SNP', Sarwar says
While most speakers at the Labour conference have singled out Reform UK for special criticism today, Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, and Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader were also withering about the SNP.
In his speech Alexander said:
The SNP, as a nationalist party, is dedicated to making Scotland independent - everyone understands that.
But the harsh truth is that if you wake up every morning thinking: “What can I do today to move Scotland closer to independence?” that means you start the day focussed on difference, division and grievance.
In today’s world of political, economic and technological turmoil that approach is letting Scotland down.
Now is the time to focus on building not breaking, on cooperation not conflict, on working together not pulling apart.
We need and deserve a first minister fully committed to solidarity and not separation to ensure Scotland’s aspirations are backed by the UK’s strength.
That’s is why the next first minister has to be someone who will put the people of Scotland first.
And this is what Sarwar said about the SNP.
In Scotland we are being held back by a tired and out of touch SNP government.
Look at the contrast.
In England under Labour, NHS waiting lists are falling.
In Scotland under the SNP they are still rising - with 1 in 6 Scots on an NHS waiting list.
Here patients are being seen quicker. But not in Scotland.
Do you know that there are more people waiting over two years on an NHS waiting list in Glasgow alone than in the whole of England?
Here schools are now recovering after a decade and a half of Tory misrule. While under the SNP ours are falling down the international league tables.
Here the Labour government is getting spades in the ground to build new homes, while in Scotland the SNP are failing to deal with a national housing emergency.
A UK Labour government is returning neighbourhood policing to local communities.
But in Scotland, under the SNP, police numbers are cut and our police stations are closing.
Alan Miliburn warns there is risk of state services being 'overwhelmed' without more focus on problem prevention
Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor.
Alan Milburn, the lead non-executive director at the Department of Health and former Labour cabinet minister, had a stark warning about the state of public services at a Tony Blair Institute fringe meeting.
He said:
The truth is unless we get upstream of some of these issues – family breakdown, knife crime, divisions in communities and, frankly, health – then the system will just be overwhelmed. The state will be overwhelmed. You can see it already. The law of supply and demand isn’t working.
He said Donald Trump was right that the west would need to spend more on defence and meanwhile the NHS, social care and infrastructure and other public services had increasing demands.
He said there is a “limit to how much you can tax and how much you can borrow … and it is not even about the bond market, it’s about people”.
Milburn said the current situation was “not sustainable” and solving it would require a “mindset change” to shift towards spending money on prevention of problems before they get acute.
Updated
Updated
Attorney general Lord Hermer rejects suggestions he is blocking attempts to stop ECHR being misused
Political correspondent
Lord Hermer, the attorney general, has pushed back against claims from colleagues that he is standing in the way of reforming Britain’s human rights framework, insisting that “good lawyers are not blockers, they are enablers.”
Speaking at a fringe event at Labour conference, Hermer said he looked forward to working with the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to “transform” the asylum and immigration system, promising a “world-class litigation strategy” that would scrutinise every stage of the process “from caseworker decisions through to supreme court cases”.
He added that the role of lawyers in government was not to dictate policy but to “help [ministers] make the decisions as effectively as they possibly can”, remarks that appear aimed at quelling unease among Labour MPs who believe he should go further on reform of the European convention on human rights (ECHR). Labour has so far ruled out withdrawal from the convention but signalled it wants to be “at the table” in shaping reforms to how it is applied, particularly in asylum cases.
Hermer said many of the problems lay not in Strasbourg, where the European court of human rights is based, but in the UK. He described himself as “completely shocked” to find that Home Office officials did not always attend first-tier tribunals or counter medical evidence presented by applicants.
He argued that failures in casework and appeals had fuelled misconceptions about human rights law, citing the chicken nugget story, a widely misrepresented ECHR case, as “completely false”.
Updated
Anas Sarwar suggests Starmer should 'stop being shy' of promoting UK government's successes
Scotland editor
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has challenged Keir Starmer and party strategists to “stop being shy” of the UK government’s successes, implying that without a dramatically bolder sales pitch Labour faces obliteration in next year’s Holyrood elections.
In a speech peppered with direct attacks on John Swinney, leader of the “knackered” Scottish National party leader, and “poisonous” Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, Sarwar directly his main message internally.
He repeatedly chided Labour for being too shy on boasting about its achievements – appearing to echo growing concerns within the party and the cabinet Starmer is failing to construct a coherent story about Labour’s policies.
With Scottish Labour has surprised its critics by winning several key byelections, its popularity as measured by opinion polls has plummeted, in line with the UK party’s steep decline.
The latest Norstat poll for the Sunday Times Scotland underscored growing anxiety in Sarwar’s party, by placing Labour third behind reform in a Holyrood constituency vote, at 17% to Reform’s 20%. The SNP are comfortably in the lead at 34%.
Despite the byelection wins, many of Sarwar’s allies fear those findings demonstrate Labour is in deep trouble. Sarwar is seen as being increasingly equivocal about whether he believes Starmer is the right Labour leader.
Sarwar used the word “shy” eight times in his speech, as he drummed home his appeal.
Conference, since getting rid of the Tories last summer, we have begun the work of clearing up their mess, and changing this country for the better.
But let’s be honest, it’s not been easy. It was never going to be. That’s why we need to be more confident in telling our Labour story.
We can’t expect the right-wing press to do our jobs for us. We can’t afford to be shy about the successes we have had.
Or about the positive changes we are making. If we aren’t going to talk about our successes – then no one else will. If we aren’t going to tell our positive story, then people aren’t going to hear it.
Updated
Anthony Albanese says Labor in Australia has shown patriotism can by 'truly progressive force'
Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM and Labor party leader, gave a speech that did not directly refer to Keir Starmer’s leadership difficulties (see 8.59am), but which seemed intended to be as supportive as possible in the circumstances. Speaking as someone who has already won two general elections, he was able to so so with some authority.
Here are the main points he made.
Albanese said that his party had shown the patriotism could be a “truly progressive force”. He said:
[The labour movement should] should build cohesion and respect and harmony at home. We do that by embracing patriotism as a truly progressive force, by demonstrating that our love of country is what drives us to serve, and also to change it for the better.
This is now Starmer’s core argument. (See 11.23pm.)
Albanese said governments could not deliver progress immediately. He said:
For Labour governments, every single day counts because it takes time to turn promises into progress.
It takes time for plans to work and be seen to work. For inflation to fall, wages to rise, new homes to be finished, new energy connected, new hospitals to open, new investments in education to flow into results.
It takes time to tackle problems that have been created over decades. It takes time to repay trust by delivering on commitments, and in doing so, build trust for future action.
It takes time to make change with people and make change work for people, and none of that means we can expect or ask for patience.
But Albanese recognised that governments have to be able to respond to some problems immediately.
The challenges that the world throws at us, from economic turmoil to threats to our national security, never wait, and the action that we need to take on climate change, the work we need to do to seize the jobs and opportunities of clean energy, that cannot wait.
So while governments always need to be able to tell the difference between what’s urgent and what’s important, in the end, we have to do both.
In his BBC interview this morning Starmer said he wanted to be judged by what he achieved over five years. (See 10am.)
Albanese said that Labor was able to win re-election in Australia because it delivered economic improvement and rising wages in its first term. This is exactly what Starmer is trying to do. Albanese said:
We didn’t pretend that we had solved every problem in just three years, but we could point to an economy that was turning the corner, inflation down, wages up, unemployment low, and interest rates starting to fall, and we offered a second term agenda that built on the patient and disciplined work we had done in our first term.
He said that, if delegates got angry at conference, it was a sign they were taking politics seriously. He said:
The debates that we hold here are not just healthy, they’re essential. They’re a sign of life.
The reason passions run high at our conferences is because we really care, because the stakes are really high, because what happens here really matters.
There has not been much dissent on the conference floor yet – although there was an argument this morning about why some Gaza motions have been disallowed.
And he also paid personal tribute to Starmer.
We all know this is a time when trust in governments and institutions is under challenge.
We all sense this is an era where our capacity for peaceful disagreement is being tested.
But what I see here in UK Labour, and this man, this leader, this prime minister, my friend, is the same determination that I know lives in every member of the Australian Labor party, an absolute resolve to stand together and defend democracy itself.
These are from Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a thinktank focusing on race, identity and migration, on why he says Keir Starmer was right to describe Reform UK’s indefinite leave to remain policy as racist.
Its wrong & un-British to strip from people the promise that this was their permanent home
Is it racist too? Farage is now exempting 4m European nationals with settled status, 9/10 white, but threatening half a million non-Europeans, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Africa in a similar ethical position
The impact is discriminatory, whatever the intention. The discrimination is avoided by making new rules apply in future and not reneging on past pledges. Farage appears to accept this principle for Europeans, on reflection, but not the Commonwealth yet. How does he explain the difference?
Labour speakers from the platform at conference today have been aimed almost all their fire at Reform UK, with other opposition parties barely getting a mention. This is what Anna Turley, the Labour chair, told the conference about Nigel Farage’s party.
Let’s be clear, the Reform party isn’t new, or different, as they like to claim.
They are a party of recycled Tories with recycled ideas.
And they stand ready to exploit division for their own political gain.
Masquerading as patriots whilst their leader jets to the US to call for trade penalties on the UK.
And on issue after issue - asylum, online safety, or how to pay for their policies they have no serious answer on how to fix things aside from saying they ‘don’t know’.
Conference, that is Reform: cuts, chaos, and trying to turn people against one another.
Updated
Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM, is speaking to the conference now. He was introduced by Keir Starmer who described “Albo” as a genuine friend, and described how he turned up at Downing Street on Friday with four tins of Albo beer as a present.
Reed says housebuilding will start in at least 3 new town locations before
In his speech to the conference Steve Reed, the housing secretary, said that housebuilding would start before the next election in at least three of the 12 “new town locations” announced by the government this morning. (See 11.39am.)
He said:
I can announce today that we will go ahead with work in at least 12 locations with Tempsford, Leeds South Bank and Crews Hill identified as three of the most promising sites.
We’ll build homes people feel proud to live in.
Communities with schools, hospitals, good public transport, green spaces on the doorstep, and the investment that brings good, well paid, unionised jobs to the area.
And we’ll work with world-class architects to design each new town with its own character and distinct, unique identity.
We’ll back the builders by streamlining planning rules so local people have a voice but we can get spades in the ground much faster.
So we’ll start building homes in at least three new town locations before the next general election …
When I said ‘build baby build’, I meant it.
In her speech Hollie Ridley, Labour’s general secretary, said that in 2026 the party would be fighting “the Greens with their ‘let’s be all things to all people’ strategy”.
If that is the Greens’ strategy, it seems to be working. The Green party of England and Wales has just announced that its membership has passed 80,000 – an increase of almost 20% since Zack Polanski was elected leader at the start of September.
Modern Tories like Jenrick don't have 'values system' like old-style Conservatives, Labour's general secretary claims
Hollie Ridley, the Labour general secretary, claimed that modern Tories are less principled than their predecessors in her speech to the conference this morning.
Without even mentioning Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, she said:
Gone are your grandparents’ Tories.
We may have disagreed with them. But they had a code - a values system.
They have been replaced by the likes of Robert Jenrick - a man driven by nothing but his own personal ambition.
Conference, the country can never be led by somebody like that.
And, on Reform UK, she said:
That brings me on to Nigel Farage.
A man who wants to replace our NHS with an insurance model of healthcare.
A man who voted against banning zero hours contracts.
A man who called for the US to implement trade penalties on the UK, even though he knew it could cost jobs and drive up bills for the British public.
The man is fundamentally unfit for office.
Ridley also made a point of thanking the party’s donors.
Conference, I cut my teeth as a trainee organiser. When I was first employed by the Labour party, my role was part funded - part by the GMB and part by a private donor, Graham Cole.
And because of them, the Labour party was able to take a chance on a working class girl from Dagenham and change my life forever.
But being a donor to a political party isn’t easy. It comes with a huge amount of scrutiny.
People question your motives.
But conference, I have worked with so many of our donors over the last year.
I have seen first-hand that they are driven by the same thing that drives us all – a desire to deliver positive change in the world.
We are very lucky to have them.
Updated
Labour members welcome Starmer's decision to describe Reform UK's immigration policy as racist
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Leading Labour figures have praised Keir Starmer for calling out of what he called Reform UK “racist” policy to remove indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from immigrants to the UK.
Speaking at a Labour List fringe on how to “turn the green tide”, John McTernan, former advisor to Tony Blair, said:
Starmer was right this week to name [Reform] as the enemy. He’s right today to say they’re racist. We were wrong about the last month or so to say “that won’t work. Their proposals won’t work. They’re a gimmick.” Their proposals are morally wrong.
McTernan added that Starmer needs to keep making a strong argument against Reform up to the next election.
It’s wrong for them to say, if you’ve chosen to live in our country and work in the country, that you can have your indefinite leave to remain ripped away from you. This is a generational battle, and I trust in the British people, but this party wins when it’s united.
But Thangam Debonnaire, Labour peer and former MP who lost her Bristol seat to the Greens, said that the party could no longer rely on people of colour to vote for them and needs to stand up against racism. Referring to Shabana Mahmood’s comments in an interview published today about ILF (see 8.39am), Debonnaire said:
For many generations, the Labour party has always banked on the votes of people of colour. That is no longer true.
And one of the reasons we can’t be banked is some of the people who are going to be affected by what was announced this morning from us on indefinite leave to remain. [The proposals] affect us in particular, and they affect us in very particular ways. And even if the rules end up not quite affecting us all, it feels like that’s where the arrow is being shot.
Bella Sankey, leader of Brighton and Hove Town Council, also on the panel agreed that Labour needs to keep speaking strongly against racist, far-right comments. She said:
As a mixed heritage person, it’s very clear to me that the party needs to call out proactively and consistently the racism of our opponents. I was pleased to see the prime minister do it this morning. Reform is a racist party.
She said that mainstream Conservatives were also now making racial, far-right comments and that that had to be “called out” too.
Armed forces families and veterans to get priority for some housing built on surplus MoD land under 'Forces First' plan
Labour has announced that serving and former members of the armed forces will get priority for some homes build on surplus Ministry of Defence land.
John Healey, the defence secretary, will mention the pledge in his conference speech tomorrow, but the party has announced details this morning, confirming a Telegraph story.
Labour says:
The move will see a presumption for armed forces personnel and veterans to receive priority access through ‘first dibs’ on new homes built on surplus MoD land. It will also see high quality new service family accommodation (SFA) for serving personnel to rent, as Labour works to ‘stop the rot’ of poor military housing and turn around years of falling military morale under the Tories.
The measures would apply to a proportion of new homes on selected sites, agreed between MoD, the local authority and the developer based on demand and site viability.
The ‘Forces First’ proposals form part of the upcoming defence housing strategy which will deliver a generational renewal of armed forces housing, while supporting a drive to supercharge housebuilding on surplus defence land, delivering high quality affordable homes for working families across Britain. The defence secretary has identified the long-term potential for over 100,000 homes on repurposed Defence land.A trailblazer for this approach is already underway at MOD Feltham in south-west London, where the MOD, the London Borough of Hounslow and the GLA have agreed to adopt a ‘Forces First’ approach as part of a groundbreaking partnership to develop the site. Once vacated, this new development alone is expected to deliver hundreds of homes and jobs. Under the new approach, the aim will be for a portion of the homes to have first priority for military personnel or veterans, including some of the intermediate affordable housing built on site.
Updated
Badenoch claims Starmer's 'manifesto stands' interview answer implies VAT may rise in budget
Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Keir Starmer’s VAT answer on the BBC this morning implies it is likely to go up in the budget. (See 9.32am.) She posted this on social media.
Keir Starmer just failed three times to rule out a hike in VAT.
Claiming that ‘the manifesto stands’ is not the same as saying ‘no rise in VAT’.
The PM must rule out hiking VAT immediately, or working people will fear another Labour tax bombshell in the budget.
Labour activists applaud Angela Rayner as Reed calls her 'true working class hero'
Steve Reed, the housing secretary, is speaking now.
He started by paying tribute to his predecessor, Angela Rayner, calling her “a true working class hero”. That generated loud applause.
Reed became housing secretary three weeks ago after Rayner resigned over her inadvertent failure to pay the right amount of stamp duty when she bought a flat.
UPDATE: Reed said:
So I can begin by thanking my good friend Angela Rayner for all she has done for our party and our government over so many years.
For workers rights, for local government, for building council homes - Angela, you are a true working class hero.
Updated
Ellie Reeves, chair of Labour’s national policy forum, used her speech to the conference this morning to ridicule Reform UK’s approach to making policy. She said:
Until recently, [Reform UK] was literally owned by one individual: Nigel Farage.
A man who when asked about his policies said, and I quote: “If you ask me, how are you going to do this, I can’t really give you an answer”.
So how do they solve that problem?
By importing failed Tories to help them write their policies.
If the answer is Nadine Dorries, then you’re asking the wrong question.
Conference that is not how a serious party responds to the challenges our country faces.
Reeves said Labour members were involved in party policy making, unlike their counterparts in Reform or the Conservative party.
She said the national policy’s forum’s annual report, published by the party, showed “our collective voice continues to drive our Labour government’s work”.
Labour activists applauded in tribute to party figures who have died since their last conference, PA Media reports.
Included on the memoriam list was Hefin David, the member of the Senedd for Caerphilly between 2016 and his death at age 47 earlier this year.
Labour faces competition from rival parties in a by-election for the seat on 23 October.
The applause rose in a crescendo when ohn Prescott’s picture was displayed on screens in the conference hall.
The former deputy prime minister died age 86 in November.
Reform UK accuses Starmer of describing its supporters as racist - despite PM saying he wasn't
But Nigel Farage’s colleagues are claiming that Keir Starmer was calling Reform UK supporters racists.
This is from Zia Yusuf, the Reform UK head of policy.
“Pay hundreds of billions for foreign nationals to live off the state forever, or we’ll call you racist!”
Labour’s new message to the British electorate just dropped:
And this is from the Reform MP Sarah Pochin.
Wanting to stand up for our country and stop our welfare system being abused is not racist, @Keir_Starmer. It is called standing up for the British people. You should try it sometime.
In his interview Starmer made a point of stressing that he was not calling Reform supporters racist. See 9.22am.
This is what Nigel Farage has posted on social media this morning responding to what Keir Starmer said about him this morning. He has not commented in detail on Starmer’s criticism of his plans to remove indefinite leave to remain.
Keir Starmer has spent his entire weekend attacking Reform. This is the reason why. pic.twitter.com/zIqp1C9Cnr
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) September 28, 2025
Farage is referring to this More in Common polling.
Labour activists joined the Liverpool Show Choir in singing You’ll Never Walk Alone to mark the tabling of a Hillsborough law, PA media reports. PA says:
Attendees, including Keir Starmer and David Lammy, stood as they sang the song from the musical Carousel, which has been adopted by Liverpool FC fans as their anthem.
Three men, two of whom wore Liverpool FC ties, held up a red and ochre scarf as they belted out the lyrics.
The song came after Charlotte Hennessy, whose father James, known as Jimmy, died in the 1989 football stadium tragedy, spoke on stage.
“Our input hasn’t ended just because it started its journey through Parliament,” she said.
“We will be watching, we will be listening, and we will continue to follow its progress until it is passed in its entirety.”
Anas Sarwar says he, not Starmer, will lead Labour's campaign in next year's Holyrood elections
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has insisted he “absolutely” has confidence in the Keir Starmer – but made clear it would be him, and not the PM, who leads Labour’s Holyrood election campaign, PA Media reports. PA says:
Sarwar added he is “confident” Labour will win the Scottish election next year, ending almost 20 years of SNP rule.
His comments came as a Norstat poll for The Sunday Times suggested the SNP is still leading in support, but voters have Labour and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK fighting for second place.
According to the poll, more than a third (34%) of Scots will vote SNP on the constituency ballot, with Reform second with 20% support, and Labour tailing on 17%.
On the regional list, 29% are planning to vote SNP, with Reform and Labour tied on 18%.
The Scottish Labour leader dismissed polls which show his party struggling for support.
Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show from the Labour party conference in Liverpool, Sarwar said: “When people are asked to actually vote, and the choice is put in front of them between a third decade of the SNP with John Swinney in charge and a new direction with Scottish Labour and me as first minister, I am confident we will win that argument and win that election.”
In a briefing last week with journalists, Sarwar was more reluctant to say he had full confidence in Starmer.
Steve Reed says he does not think Unite will disaffiliate from Labour, despite Sharon Graham saying it could
Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, has revived her union’s threat to break its links with Labour.
In an interview with Sky News this morning, Graham said:
My members, whether it’s public sector workers all the way through to defence, are asking, ‘What is happening here?’
Now when that question cannot be answered, when we’re effectively saying, ‘Look, actually we cannot answer why we’re still affiliated’, then absolutely I think our members will choose to disaffiliate and that time is getting close.
Asked when this might happen, Graham said the budget on 26 November would be “an absolutely critical point of us knowing whether direction is going to change”.
Steve Reed, the housing secretary, was asked about this in his own interview with Trevor Phillips on Sky. He said that Unite members would have more more in their pockets because wages were going up. He said Graham was “a very strong negotiator”.
But he said he did not think Unite would really disaffiliate from Labour. “I don’t think Unite will walk,” he said.
Starmer thanks campaigners as he opens conference saying Hillsborough law show government 'on side of justice'
The conference opened this morning with a speech from Keir Starmer about the new Hillsborough law – the public office (accountability) bill published earlier this month. He said:
For the past few years, we – as a party – I – as an individual – have vowed to do what we can to bring a measure of justice to the families affected by this.
And I say a measure of justice because nothing can ever replace the loss.”
I am delighted to say that this year we do not have to make any more vows – we have a law, the Hillsborough Law.
A law which shows that this government is on the side of justice, that we will do the hard yards for working people, and that we’re building a country which sees and respects everyone.
It’s an incredibly important moment for the 97, for Liverpool, but most of all, for the whole country. And conference, we must recognise that it was an unacceptably long and hard fight for the campaigners, for the families and victims of Hillsborough to get us to this point.
And so it’s not the government that should be thanked, it’s not me that should be thanked. It’s the families and campaigners, who after such unimaginable loss, had almost every obstacle put in their path to get to justice.
Government identifies sites for 12 new towns
Steve Reed, the housing secretary, was on Sky News this morning to promote an announcement about the government building what it is calling 12 new towns. Here is Geraldine McKelvie’s story about this.
Here is the news release from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
And here are the 12 new town locations.
-A standalone settlement in Adlington, Cheshire East; to serve the growing industries in Greater Manchester and Cheshire, as identified in the government’s Industrial Strategy.
-A corridor of connected development in South Gloucestershire, across Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc; building in one of the highest productivity areas in the country with a high value research, advanced engineering and technology economy.
-An expanded development bringing together Chase Park and Crews Hill in Enfield; delivering green development and helping address London’s acute housing need.
-Redevelopment of the former airbase at Heyford Park in Cherwell; connecting to Oxford and building on the existing progress and commitment to high-quality placemaking; referencing the area’s past and supporting its future in innovative technology industries.
-Urban development in Leeds; catalysing on the city’s existing economic prospects and capturing the benefits of the governments £2.1 billion local transport funding allocation for the Combined Authority by delivering well-connected, high-quality homes in the South Bank to support the city centre.
-Inner-city development and densification in Manchester, Victoria North; supporting continued growth and attracting high-skilled workers to service the city’s diverse industries.
-A standalone settlement in Marlcombe, East Devon; strengthening the region’s labour supply and supporting the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone.
-A ‘Renewed Town’ in Milton Keynes; reinvigorating the city centre and expanding to the north and east whilst reshaping the way people travel, by delivering a Mass Rapid Transit system.
-Densified development in Plymouth; evolving Britain’s Ocean City and capitalising on the government’s £4.4 billion investment in HMNB Devonport, Western Europe’s largest naval base.
-A new settlement in Tempsford, Central Bedfordshire; to maximise the benefits of East West Rail by building a well-connected new town in the heart of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.
-The creation of a riverside settlement in Thamesmead, Greenwich; unlocking inaccessible land in the city and improving connectivity if the proposed extension of the Docklands Light Railway can be delivered to enable the development.
-Expanded development at Worcestershire Parkway, Wychavon; accelerating delivery around the existing train station to help meet regional housing need and act as a model for sustainable, carbon neutral development.
Starmer's BBC interview - snap verdict
The script has changed. For the last year, as Nigel Farage and Reform UK did all they could to ramp up public concern about illegal immgration, and immigration generally, Labour has been hestitant about taking them on. It has been willing to criticise Farage on technicalities, but nervous about making a principled argument against Reform. In some ways this was similar to Labour finding it impossible to say that Brexit was a mistake – because it does not want to alienate the voters who supported it. But in that case Starmer is supressing a view he holds strongly. (He knows Brexit has been a disaster.) On immigration, he genuinely believes that some of the concerns of the public are legitimate. As a consequence, as Farage grabbed the headlines day after day over the summer with immigration-linked scaremongering and policy announcements, Labour had almost nothing to say. Rather, what it did have to say was summed up by the parody slogan: “Nigel is right, but don’t vote for him.”
This timidity infuriated a lot of progressive voters, and is part of the reason why so many Labour members despair of Starmer’s leadership. (See 8.59am.)
Today Starmer adopted a new line, which will probably do a lot to shore up his position in his party. To what extend the electorate at large will notice remains to be seen.
Given that Labour were criticising Farage last week, and are criticising him again today, it might feel like nothing much has changed. But the terms of the criticism have changed in three important way.
First, Starmer was making a principle, moral objection to Reform UK’s plans to rescind indefinite to remain (ILR) status from people who currently have been told that they have the right to remain in this country for as long as they want. This is quite different from the position last week when Labour was criticising the plans not for being morally wrong, but for being unworkable.
Second, Starmer was even willing to call the plans racist. Normally politicians are wary of applying that term to their opponents, because it can be sound as if they are accusing all their opponents’ supporters of being racist too. Today Starmer seemed to think it was justified, and worth the risk.
And, third, Starmer linked this to an argument about patriotism. Normally Farage relishes being called “racist” by liberals, because he can argue that this just shows they are out of touch with the “people”. But today Starmer was able to innocuate himself against that by arguing that Farage would “tear our country apart” (which the Reform ILF policy arguably would, if it led to hundreds of thousands of people who have been established in the UK for many year – people like nurses – being forced to leave). And the fact that Farage in the past has spoken approvingly of Vladimir Putin, and that one of his former allies has just pleaded guilty to making pro-Russian statements in the European parliament in return for bribes, makes denouncing Reform as anti-patriotic much easier.
The polling probably stiffened Starmer’s resolve before he spoke out this morning. Yesterday YouGov published figures showing that, although voters are split almost 50/50 on the Reform plan to end the ILR status, by 2 to 1 they think it is unfair to do this retrospectively.
Starmer says goverment will restrict spending on taxi rides for asylum seekers in hotels after huge bills revealed
In the interview Starmer said that he would like to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers before the 2029 deadline set by the government.
When Kuenssberg put it to him that 2029 was some time away, Starmer replied: “I’d like to bring that forward.”
Asked if he could commit to doing that, he said the government was “doing everything we can to bring that forward”.
It was looking at what alternative accommodation could be used, he said.
Asked if it fair for some asylum seekers to get expensive taxi rides to go to GP appointments, he said:
It shouldn’t be happening. It’s not fair, and I understand that. We will stop it.
Asked when, Starmer replied “as soon as we can”.
Starmer says he has 'for some time' thought left wrong to ignore concerns about illegal immigration
In his interview Starmer was asked about the speech he gave on Friday in which he said the left had been wrong on immigration.
Asked when he realised the left had been wrong on illegal immigration, he said this had been his view “for some time”. He said that he had been to Oldham to discuss people’s concerns about immigration soon after being elected as an MP (when he was a shadow immigration minister under Jeremy Corbyn), and he suggested that had influenced his views.
Updated
During his interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Keir Starmer also defended his plans for a digital ID scheme.
Asked what difference it would make, he said:
The difference is this is on point of starting, not a retrospective exercise as it now is. It is an automatic collection of the information by the government so we know exactly who is working in our economy, and it will help us enforce the rules that are there.
But there’s no point people saying to me, ‘why do we need it?’ when we all acknowledge there is a problem people are working illegally in our economy. It is amongst the reasons that people want to come to the United Kingdom, we have to deal with that.
I made a pledge that we would do whatever was necessary, use whatever tools were available to deal with illegal migration. I intend to do so.
Starmer brushes off criticism, saying it's part of 'job description' and he'll be judged on his 5-year record
Kuenssberg ended her interview by asking about Andy Burnham, and the leadership.
Starmer said Burnham was doing a very good job as mayor of Greater Manchester.
Q: He is not the only person raising comments about your leadership.
Comments about leaders and leadership are part and parcel of being in politics.
It is the bread and butter of politics, every leader get its, it always comes up, particularly at conference. It’s in the job description.
I don’t focus on that. I focus on what have we got to get done.
Q: Some people are desperately worried. I have spoken to many people [Kuenssberg wrote up the findings from the conversations here] and there is deep concern about how you are doing your job. Is it wise to stick your fingers in your ears.
Starmer said:
People are entitled to their views and I’m not sticking my fingers in my ear in the slightest.
What I am saying is that it is important to keep focusing on what it is that we are delivering, and saying, absolutely in clear terms, the difference it makes to people’s lives.
That Hillsborough law means that thousands of people, whether it’s the 97 [people killed at Hillsborough] or Grenfell or Windrush or Horizon or infected blood and all the other scandals, will have a degree of justice, that other people will never have to go through that again.
Starmer says at the next election he will be judged on three things.
One, have we improved living standards? Do people genuinly feel better off? Two, have we improved public services? Is the NHS in a better place, and people can feel it. And, three, do people feel safe and secure in their home, in their neighbourhood, and that their country is secure.
Starmer said he would be happy to be judged on that basis.
It’s a five-year mandate, and I will be judged at the end of that five years, and quite right too.
I just need the space and get on and do what we need to do, and do those three things above all else.
Q: What is your message to your party?
Starmer said now is not the time for navel-gazing.
It’s the same line he used in the Sunday Times. (See 8.07am.)
I am saying we have got the fight of our lives ahead of us because we’ve got to take on Reform and we’ve got to beat them. So now is not the time for introspection or navel-gazing.
There is a fight that we are all in together, and every single member of our party and our movement – actually, everyone who cares about what this country is, whether they vote Labour or otherwise - it’s the fight of our lives for who we are as a country. We need to be in that fight, united not navel-gazing. I’m absolutely clear in my mind about that, and that’s what I will be talking about at conference.
Starmer denies putting donkey field he bought for his parents into trust, after report claims he did, with potential tax benefits
Kuenssberg asked Starmer about this story in the Sunday Times. It says:
Sir Keir Starmer gave land to his parents via a trust that meant their estates would never pay inheritance tax on the asset whatever its eventual value, according to legal experts.
The prime minister’s decision to place a seven-acre field within the structure meant its value was excluded from his parents’ estate, of which he was a beneficiary, when they died.
At the time, Starmer could not have known whether the estate would end up avoiding the tax and, if so, by how much. This is because any payment depended on the total wealth his parents left behind and the tax-free allowance available to the estate at the time.
He insists the trust made no difference to the liability and that he gave them the land solely to help them. Yet No 10 repeatedly declined to say why he could not have simply given them the land, or kept it while permitting them to use it.
Starmer said the story was wrong. He did not put the field into a trust. He said he bought a field for his parents because they loved donkeys, his mother was very ill, and towards the end of her life she enjoyed being able to look at the donkeys in the field next to their house. It cost him £20,000, he said.
'Manifesto stands', Starmer says, when asked he remains committed to election commitment not to raise VAT
Kuenssberg is now asking about tax.
She repeatedly asks if he will rule out raising VAT.
Starmer ignores the question several times.
Then he says he cannot discuss the budget.
Kuenssberg says in the past he has been willing to say that manifesto commitments not to raise income tax, employee national insurance or VAT still apply.
Starmer just replies: “The manifesto stands.”
Kuenssberg asks him to clarify what that means. It could just mean it stands today, she says.
Starmer says Labour put the manifesto to the electorate, it was elected, and it stands. He is not going into the detail of the budget.
This line, ‘‘the manifesto stands”, is new wording. It is hard to tell from this exchange whether Starmer is saying this because the budget will involve some shift on VAT that might breach the promise, or whether he has just chosen a new way of saying he will stick to the commitments.
One policy that would be an arguable breach of the commitment would be not raising the main rate of VAT, but extending the scope of it, so that items now coverered by a zero rate or a lower rate have to pay a higher rate. Last week the Institute for Government thinktank proposed this.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
We put that manifesto before the electorate. We got elected and that manifesto stands.
I’m not going to go through the details of what may be in the budget.
Obviously, it’s two months away and no prime minister and no chancellor would ever sit here and indicate two months out what may or may not be in the budget.
Updated
Starmer says Reform's indefinite leave to remain policy immoral and 'racist'
Q: Do you think the Reform UK indefinite leave to remain policy is immoral?
Yes, says Starmer.
He says it is one thing to remove illegal migrants.
But removing people who are settled in the UK is a “completely different thing”, he says.
He says most elections in this country have been between Labour and the Conservatives.
But Reform are different, he says. It is the sort of politics we have seen in France or Germany, he says (implying they are far-right).
Q: Do you think this is a racist policy?
Starmer says:
I do think that it is a a racist policy. I do think it is immoral. It needs to be called out for what it is.
But Starmer says he is not saying people who are considering voting for Reform are racist. They are people “frustrated” by the lack of change, he says.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
It is one thing to say we’re going to remove illegal migrants, people who have no right to be here. I’m up for that.
It is a completely different thing to say we are going to reach in to people who are lawfully here and start removing them. They are our neighbours.
They’re people who work in our economy. They are part of who we are. It will rip this country apart.
Asked if Reform were trying to appeal to racists, Starmer said:
No, I think there are plenty of people who either vote Reform or are thinking of voting Reform who are frustrated.
They had 14 years of failure under the Conservatives, they want us to change things.
They may have voted Labour a year ago, and they want the change to come more quickly. I actually do understand that.
Updated
Starmer says Reform UK's plan to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants who have it would 'tear country apart'
Q: What is patriotic renewal?
Starmer gives examples of what the government is doing to get the economy going.
And he says Reform UK would tear the country apart.
He highlights Nigel Farage’s plan to rescind indefinite leave to remain from migrants who have already been granted this status.
I want to serve the whole of our country, our beautiful, tolerant, diverse country …
Reform not believe in that country. They want to tear that country apart. What was said last week about deporting migrants who are lawfully here, who’ve been here for years working in our hospitals, in our schools, running businesses, our neighbours and reform say they want to deport them. That would tear our country apart.
(This is a much harder line than the one Labour was using against the Reform policy last week, when it focused on practical flaws in what Farage was proposing.)
He also accuses Reform of “cosying up to Putin”.
UPDATE: Here is the clip.
Updated
Starmer stresses he always said turning Britain around would take time, in response to questions about poor Labour polling
Keir Starmer is being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC now.
Q: How much trouble are you in?
Starmer says the government has done “a lot”, and accomplished “great things”.
He lists a series of achievements.
Q: Poll suggest Labour would win fewer than 100 seats if there were an election now.
Starmer says he always said it will take time.
He will be judged at the next election by whether people feel better off.
Q: Do you accept you are in trouble?
Starmer says he is focusing on delivering. He mentions the Hillsborough law.
Steve Reed says he is confident Starmer will lead Labour into next election, after poll suggests members want him replaced
Steve Reed, the housing secretary, was interviewed by Trevor Phillips on Sky News this morning.
Asked about the Survation poll for LabourList (see 8.59am),, Reed said he was confident that Keir Starmer would lead the party into the next election. He said:
[Starmer has] been written off many, many times over his career.
People said that Keir Starmer could not win a general election for Labour. He picked this party up off the floor and he led us to a landslide victory in the general last year.
Updated
53% of Labour members want new leader before election, poll suggests
More than half of Labour party members want a new leader before the general election, a new poll suggests.
The Survation poll, commissioned by the website LabourList, found that 53% of members said the party should get a new leader before the general election, and only 31% said Keir Starmer should stay in place.
The same poll found that 64% of Labour members said they thought Starmer had governed badly since entering office.
And it found that 65% of them think the party is heading in the wrong direction.
Commenting on the poll, which surveyed 1,254 LabourList readers who say they are party members, Emma Burnell, the LabourList editor, said:
The phrase ‘make or break conference speech’ is wildly overused in politics. So much so, that you try to reach for other things to say.
But the plain truth is Starmer has to do an awful lot this week to convince his party he has a plan to turn things around and the capability to achieve a revival of Labour’s fortunes.
Labour members will need to see a plan for change that goes beyond a slogan. But they will also be looking for a passionate messenger who can sell that plan to the country. It’s a tall ask, but one Starmer knows he must deliver on.
Party membership polling can sometimes be unreliable. But these findings are not incompatible with recent anecdotal reporting about party activists and some MPs being very concerned about how the party is doing.
Shabana Mahmood says migrants who want indefinite leave to remain should have to be contributing to communities
Although the Sunday Times got an interview with Keir Starmer, there was more news in the Sun on Sunday’s interview with Shabana Mahmood. Here are the main lines. Mahmood was speaking to the paper’s political editor, Kate Ferguson.
Mahmood said that she wanted to impose new conditions on migrants who want indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK, requiring them to show that they are making a contribution to communities. She told the paper:
I am looking at how to make sure that settlement in our country - long term settlement, indefinite leave to remain - is linked not just to the job you are doing, the salary you get, the taxes you pay, [but] also the wider contribution you are making to our communities.
She said she was inspired by the example of her parents, who came to Birminghan fom Kashmir in the 1960s and 1970s. She said:
They didn’t just come to work - they settled, they made a contribution to the local community, they were volunteers, they got involved in local politics. They did more than simply work and earn a salary.
Last week Reform UK announced that it wants to abolish the ILR status altogether. Mahmood is not proposing that.
But the government has already said it wants to extend the amount of time migrants normally have to wait until they can apply for ILR, from five years to 10 years. And, in some respects, Mahmood’s proposals in the Sun in Sunday echo the plans announced by Kemi Badenoch earlier this year. Badenoch also said people should have to wait 10 years before they can claim ILR, and she said it should only be given to people who are net contributors to the state, and that people who have claimed benefits should not qualify.
As Patrick Maguire reported in the Times last week, in Labour circles “contribution” is now fashionable as an idea that could be applied to public service reform. Mahmood’s interview reflects this thinking.
Mahmood said that the European convention on human rights and refugee conventions were being “used in a way that was never intended” and said she would propose reforms before Christmas. The Home Office is working on new guidance to the courts on how they should interprete two of the articles in the convention.
Mahmood said the policy of putting migrants in hotels had been a “total disaster for the country”.
She said her “jaw hit the floor” when she learned last week about the Home Office spending £600 on a taxi journey for a migrant with a GP appointment a long way from the hotel where they were staying. She ordered a review after a BBC investigation highlighted this.
She suggested that some of those who have been putting up St George’s flags or union jack flags around the country have the wrong motives. Asked about flags, she said:
I love the St George’s flag and I love the Union Jack. They are flags that I see myself reflected in.And where our flags are being used as a symbol of unity I’m all for it. I would like to see more of our flags actually on our civic institutions …
I think the thing that we have to be careful about is the motives of some - not all - but some of the people that are putting up the flags. They are speaking to nationalism. And I’m a patriot, not a nationalist.
In my vision of patriotism, you can be English in this country and have 1,000 years of history here, or you can be English and look like me. And no one, not Tommy Robinson or anybody else can take my English identity away from me.
Mahmood was referring to concerns that some of those who have been putting up flags are anti-migrant, or racist.
Other ministers asked about flags have declined to accept there is anything negative about the flag-flying trend.
Mahmood said that Margaret Thatcher was one of her political heroes. In a quickfire question round, asked to name her heroes, Mahmood said:
I have two women who I look up to for their strength and their steel, and that’s Benazir Bhutto and Margaret Thatcher.
Mahmood probably won’t be using this line in her speech to the conference.
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Starmer calls on Labour to stop ‘navel-gazing’ and join ‘fight of our times’ as Labour conference begins
Good morning. The Labour party’s four-day annual conference starts this morning in Liverpool and the headline on the Sunday Times splash sums up the challenge facing Keir Starmer: can he pull things round?
In party politics terms, what that means is: can Labour recover its lead in the polls? At least, can it do that in time for the next general election? And, in practice that means, can Labour see of the threat from Reform UK. “I think we can pull this round,” Starmer told the Sunday Times, in an interview with its political editor, Caroline Wheeler.
The next four days won’t settle this question. Sometimes political parties get a modest boost in the polls after their party conference, but Labour are about 10 points behind Reform in polls at the moment and no one is expecting them to close that gap this week. But Labour members will be looking for evidence that that party is on the right track. In particular, there are three problems Starmer needs to address. First, he is accused of being a lousy communicator. Will we see any evidence that he is raising his game? Second, he is accused of being not even sure what he wants to communicate in the first place. Commentators, and even some Labour MPs, say they are not clear about the government’s guiding mission. Will we get clarity on that? And, third, voters want clear evidence that Labour is bringing about meaningful change. Will we get policy that ticks that box?
Over the last few weeks some Labour MPs have been talking privately about the benefits of getting a new leader. In his Sunday Times interview, Starmer said the party had to abandon this sort of “navel-gazing”. He said:
It is the fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together. We don’t have time for introspection, we don’t have time for navel-gazing. You’ll always get a bit of that at a Labour party conference, but that is not going to solve the problems that face this country.
Once you appreciate the change — in the sense of the division that Reform would bring to our country and the shattering of what we are as a patriotic country — then you realise this is a fight which in the end is bigger than the Labour party.
Here is the agenda for the day.
8.30am: Steve Reed, the housing secretary, and Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, are interviewed on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.
9am: Keir Starmer is interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Other guests include Alan Johnson, a former Labour home secretary, Gary Smith, general secretary of the GMB union, and Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
11am: The conference opens.
11.40am: Hollie Ridley, Labour’s general secretary, speaks. In a session on party business, Ellie Reeves, the national policy forum chair, Anna Turley, the Labour chair, and Bev Craig, leader of Manchester city council and leader of the Labour group on the LGA (Local Government Association) also speak.
12.35pm: Steve Reed, the housing secretary, speaks.
2.05pm: Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM and leader of the Australian Labor party, speaks.
2.30pm: Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, speaks.
2.30pm: Peter Kyle, the business secretary, takes part in a Social Market Foundation Q&A at a fringe meeting.
2.45pm: Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, speaks to the conference.
3pm: Jo Stevens, the Welsh secretary, speaks.
3.15pm: Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, speaks.
4pm: Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary speaks at a fringe meeting.
4.30pm: David Lammy, the deputy PM, takes part in a Financial Times Q&A at a fringe meeting.
5pm: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes part in an LCEF (Labour Climate and Environment Forum) Q&A at a fringe meeting.
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