Early evening summary
Keir Starmer is “very interested” in the Italy-Albania migration deal, the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said, as the UK vowed to send the nation £4million to support its controversial crackdown on illegal migration. As Aletha Adu reports, while the prime minister agreed with Meloni, stressing how important their deep relationship was, Starmer indicated that he was more interested in Italy’s strategy stopping migrants from reaching the country than its Albania deal, which Meloni said is a few weeks away from completion. The pair however, put migration at the top of their discussions, which also included topics around economic growth on Tuesday, before they were photographed joking and smiling through the gardens of the Villa Doria Pamphilj in Rome. The millions of pounds the UK will send to Italy will contribute to the Rome process, which is the Italian government’s project to tackle the root causes of irregular migration.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has avoided saying whether he views his party as more leftwing or rightwing than Labour. (See 3.39pm.) In interview before he wraps up the Lib Dem conference with his big speech tomorrow, Davey also said he wanted his party to be a better opposition to Labour than the Tories are. (See 5.15pm.)
Leading economists have said Labour will fail to bring in ‘decade of renewal’ unless Treasury fiscal rules are loosened to allow more investment. (See 12.29pm.)
Updated
Lib Dems renew their commitment to PR and electoral reform
The Liberal Democrats voted for an updated version of their PR/electoral reform policy at conference this morning. There is a summary here, and the full motion that was approved is here.
The Lib Dems summarise the policy like this:
Liberal Democrats have a comprehensive plan to build a better politics, starting with a fair voting system so no one’s vote is wasted:
-Replace first past the post with proportional representation via STV for UK General Elections and local elections in England.
-Ensure that the UK has an automatic system of inclusion on the electoral register.
-Protect and strengthen the Electoral Commission, including by repealing the Government’s power to designate a strategy and policy statement for the Commission.
-Scrap the Conservatives’ Voter ID scheme.
-Enable all UK citizens living abroad to vote for MPs in separate overseas constituencies, and to participate in UK referendums.
-Give young people the right to vote in the first election after their 16th birthday, for UK general elections and referendums, and local elections in England.
There is a full list of the conference motions passed today on the @LibDemConf feed on X. Wordings for the motions are in the conference agenda.
Davey says parliament should not rush into taking decision on assisted dying bill
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has said that he does not want parliament to rush into taking a decision on assisted dying. Yesterday a report claimed that Keir Starmer wants a vote on a private member’s bill to allow assisted dying before Christmas. But, in an interview with Sky News, Davey said that MPs should take their time and have a “more considered” debate. And he explained why, for personal reasons, he was sceptical about the case for changing the law. He said:
This is a vote that doesn’t go along party lines. I know the people in my party would be very much in favour of it. I have to say personally, I have some concerns. When it came to parliament, quite a long time ago, I went against proceeding with assisted dying and my concerns are both quite personal.
I cared for my mother as a teenager when she was dying of bone cancer. And I saw someone with a very painful disease. And by nursing, given palliative care, she was able to enjoy life and be with us, that’s what she wanted to be.
Now I accept every case might be different. But here’s my other concern, which I want to listen to the debate about, is the pressure it could put on elderly people. Not pressure coming from necessarily from the relatives, but from them inside internally, which they may not express.
I think a situation where healthy people might think they are a burden and then proceed with this is a huge worry and I think we should focus on that.
In 2015 MPs voted overwhelmingly against changing the law to allow assisted dying. But the composition of parliament, and social attitudes, have changed since then, and it is thought there would now be a majority in favour. Starmer has said that MPs should have a free vote on the issue, and that he personally would be in favour of an assisted dying law, subject to certain safeguards.
Keir Starmer has rejected suggestions that questions around whether he failed to declare donations of clothes for his wife Victoria, could have been avoided if the government had a anti-corruption adviser.
The prime minister said:
There’s a massive difference between declarations and corruption. Declarations is about declaring properly so you and everybody else can see properly made declarations.
Starmer also he hadn’t looked at filling the vacancy for an anti-corruption adviser just yet.
Davey says he wants Lib Dems to be better opposition to Labour than Tories are
Ed Davey has told the BBC that he wants the Liberal Democrats to be a better opposition to Labour than the Conservatives are. In an interview with Chris Mason, he explained:
There is no doubt that if [Labour] don’t listen to criticism, they can push things through, but that would make a very bad government.
What our democracy needs is good opposition. So we can check the government, show where making mistakes, scrutinise them properly.
And what I want for the Liberal Democrats in this parliament is to be the best opposition. I think we can be a much better opposition [than] the Conservatives, who are pretty divided, whose credibility on health and care is shot through - they’ve got none at all. Frankly, their position and their record on the economy means they have no credibility on the economy either.
So this country, our parliament, needs a party that has credibility on the economy, credibility on health and care. We’re that party and with 72 MPS, we will get our voice heard.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has recorded a series of broadcast interviews which are all embargoed until about now. None of them are likely to be as wild as this one, with Matt Chorley from Radio 5 Live, who interviewed Davey on a rollercoaster as a tribute to his trademark, stunt-orientated campaigning.
Can Ed Davey name as many of his 72 MPs as possible while on a roller coaster with Matt Chorley? 🎢
— BBC Radio 5 Live (@bbc5live) September 16, 2024
Check this ride out 👍
Listen to @MattChorley weekdays 2-4 on BBC Sounds 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/jw2CYwEjWn
Hilary Benn suggests inaction by Tories to blame for Casement Park redevelopment not happening before Euro 2028
Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, has blamed the Tories for the fact that the government decided to abandon plans to redevelop the derelict Casement Park stadium in Belfast so that it could be used as a venue for Euro 2028 matches. The announcement, which was particularly disappointing to nationalists, was announced on Friday night.
Speaking to PA Media today, Benn said:
This is a major international football tournament and we can’t be in the position where the country says we are going to build that stadium and then not be able to deliver it.
The risk was too great and reluctantly we came to the conclusion that the project could not go ahead.
Where does the blame lie? Well, I would point out that in the 18 months between the awarding of the tournament to the UK and Ireland and July 4, the day of the general election, the last government talked a lot, did absolutely nothing to progress the project at all, which is why we were left with what turned out to be an impossible situation.
I thought it was right, Lisa Nandy the culture secretary thought it was right, that we let people know as swiftly as possible once the decision had been made because we have now got to take stock about how to take forward the rebuilding of Casement, albeit in a very different form.
Colin Yeo, the immigration lawyer, has written a good post on his Substack blog about what the UK can learn from how Italy deals with irregular migration. His conclusion? Almost nothing.
Here is an extract explaining why he thinks this.
Italy has a highly asymmetric relationship with both Libya and Albania. Italy is able to pay both of them lots of money and both states are very happy to accept that money. By entering into an arrangement with them, Italy also lends them political and diplomatic credibility.
The UK does not have a highly asymmetric relationship with France or the EU. Or, rather, it’s not asymmetric in the direction that the UK might like.
Neither France nor the EU want to be in receipt of migrants deported from the UK. The UK cannot leverage its relationship with either to start conducting pull back operations. Nor are either in need of political or diplomatic credibility lent by the UK. And it is impossible to intercept small boats in the channel and tow them somewhere else. Removing people who have already arrived means detaining them then forcing them onto a plane. That’s really hard and really expensive.
So the chances of the UK learning useful lessons on migration management from Italy look like zero. The headlines fall into the same trap as the last government: creating expectations that it has no means to meet. The headlines might look good to some in the short term but it is very, very bad politics in the long run. Failure to deliver is absolutely not how Keir Starmer’s government wants to be perceived.
Tories say parliamentary commissioner for standards should investigate 'scandal' of late declaration of clothing gift
The Conservative party has revived its attack on Keir Starmer over accepting clothes donations from Lord Alli, a Labour donor. (See 10.53am.)
In a statement issued by CCHQ, before Starmer’s press conference in Rome, Andrew Griffith, the shadow science secretary, said:
It beggars belief that the prime minister thinks it’s acceptable that pensioners on £13,000 a year can afford to heat their home when he earns 12 times that but apparently can’t afford to clothe himself or his wife.
While his top team want a taxpayer-funded clothes budget to look sharp, people across the country are forced to make tough choices in the face of Labour’s damaging decisions.
CCHQ also said that a Conservative MP it did not name has written to the parliamentary commissioner for standards calling for an investigation into Starmer and the “scandal” that a gift of clothes for his wife was not initially disclosed in the register. The letter says: “There must be a full investigation into this scandal given this is not the first instance of the prime minister failing to declare donations and abiding by parliamentary rules.”
At her press conference with Keir Starmer, the Italian PM Giorgia Meloni described as “completely groundless” claims that her plan to send asylum seekers to Albania for their claims to be processed violated human rights. (See 2.06pm.)
But, as Adam Bienkov from Byline Times points out, Amnesty International issued a statement earlier in the summer condemning Italy’s treatment of asylum seekers.
Keir Starmer tells reporters he's in Italy to learn how the Italian Government achieved "dramatic reductions" in irregular migration.
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) September 16, 2024
Here's what Amnesty International had to say about their methods a couple of months back pic.twitter.com/gT8TMIVlmv
In the statement Amnesty International said:
These conditions [in detention centres] violate people’s right to dignity and must be improved by the Italian authorities. Plans to build new centres in Italy, combined with the introduction of mandatory border procedures under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and the upcoming implementation of the Italy-Albania agreement, make action ever more urgent to prevent further violations of international law that will affect an increasing number of people.
Detention should be a measure of last resort. However, at the centres we visited, we met individuals who should never have been detained: those with serious mental issues or seeking asylum due to their sexual orientation or political activism, but who come from countries Italy has arbitrarily defined as safe.
Ed Davey refuses to say if he thinks Lib Dems more leftwing or rightwing than Labour
In an interview on the Today programme this morning Ed Davey said the Liberal Democrats were “the party now of rural Britain” (which may help to explain what he was doing repairing stiles this morning – see 1.04pm). He used the phrase in an interview where Justin Webb was trying to get him to explain whether he saw the Lib Dems as being to the right or to the left of Labour. Davey refused to choose, saying he did not see politics in those terms.
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a substantial increase in health spending, funded by higher taxes largely on the wealthy, companies and banks, and most analysts would describe that position as being more leftwing than Labour. Webb said most Lib Dem policies involved spending more money, and he asked Davey if that meant the Lib Dems would be opposing Labour from the left.
Davey replied:
No, I don’t think like that at all.
I don’t think the health service is a left/right issue. We need reforms, and we want to make sure those reforms work.
Davey also argued that, if social care was improved in line with Lib Dem proposals, that might take pressure off the NHS (saving money, he implied).
Webb then asked him if he could identify any issues where the Lib Dems were opposing Labour from the right.
Davey replied: “Well, it depends on what you think on the economy.”
He said the Lib Dems were more pro-European than Labour, and were calling for the UK to rejoin the single market. He said he did not really see that as a left/right issue, but he said the Lib Dems were “pro-trade”, implying that was arguably a more rightwing position than Labour’s.
Webb then asked if Davey was worried that his party might end up opposing Labour on grounds that would not appeal to the former Tory voters who backed the Lib Dems for the first time in dozens of Tory seats they won at the election. Asked if he thought that was a potential problem for his party, Davey replied:
I genuinely don’t. We had hundreds of thousands, millions of conversations during the general action with people in those areas that we won from the Conservatives. And what was striking was we talked to a lot of people who’d been lifelong Conservatives, who completely lost faith in the Conservative party. They felt the party moved away from respect for law and order, for freedom, for decency, for compassion, and they saw those values really strong in the Liberal Democrats.
So I think we’ve seen a shift to us on a values basis which is quite profound.
Updated
Starmer faces likely vote at Labour conference on call for all arms sales to Israel to be suspended
The Labour leadership is facing a challenge at party conference to extend its current limited arms embargo to Israel to cover all arms export licences and to go faster in recognition of Palestine as a state.
Campaigners say they intend to advance an emergency motion similar to one passed unanimously at the TUC last week calling on the government not just to impose an embargo on 30 arms export licences, but all current licences. They are confident they will receive the votes at conference for the issue to be chosen for debate.
The UK government on 3 September after two months intense internal discussion suspended 30 of the 350 arms export licences to Israel, but the decision has left both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups disssatisfied.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husan Zumlot, has been working the union conference circuit hard this spring and summer building support, and the party is also aware that it remains under electoral challenge in some of its strongholds from the Green Party and independents in local elections.
Both the Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner and the Middle East minister Hamish Falconer are due to speak at a Palestinian reception on Monday evening alongside Zumlot.
In a 20-minute address to the TUC Zumlot said it would be unconscionable if the UK continued to sell arms to Israel.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said “the TUC vote was a clear rebuke to the decision of the foreign secretary David Lammy to suspend only 10% of arms export licences crucially excluding indirect exports of components for the F-35 combat aircraft known to have been used to massacre civilians in the Gaza”. The PSC argues that the licences must be suspended if the UK is to meet its obligations under the Geneva Convention and international law.
There is likely to be a dispute between pro-Palestinian groups about how to frame any resolution extending the arms embargo, including how harshly to criticise Hamas for the attack on 7 October and how explicitly to state Labour government would be complicit in war crimes if it does ot suspend all arms exports.
One veteran pro-Palestinian campaigner says: “This is the first conference since the general election and where the mood will be one of unity. We have to be careful to frame our demands in a balanced way.”
A resolution submitted by Birmingham Northfield, for instance, calls for equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the release of all hostages whilst calling for the UK arms export sales to be halted to any state or group where there are known risks of international humanitarian law being violated.
The Labour national executive committee has the power to ask the conference to reject or remit a resolution with which it finds problematic, but that call can be rejected by conference. Labour is likely to argue its decision making is bound by a legal process.
It was Alex Forsyth asking a question at the press conference in Rome for the BBC, not Vicki Young as stated earlier. Sorry. I’ve corrected that now.
UK to contribute £4m to Italy's 'Rome Process' project for dealing with causes of irregular migration, Starmer says
In its news release, No 10 also firms up a bit what was agreed between Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni in terms of cooperation in dealing with irregular migration. It says:
In a joint statement issued after his meeting with Prime Minister Meloni, he has also confirmed that the UK will contribute £4m to the Rome Process, the Italian government’s project to tackle the root causes of irregular migration.
The UK and Italy have also agreed to work more closely to tackle illicit financial flows linked to organised immigration crime and share intelligence to disrupt the maritime equipment supply chains used by vile people smuggling gangs.
The two leaders also agreed to deepen their defence co-operation by confirming that Italian army and navy will participate in UK carrier strike group operations in the Indo-Pacific next year.
Starmer and Meloni announce two Italian investments in UK worth almost £500m
At the press conference Keir Starmer said that he and Giorgia Meloni had discussed two Italian investments into the UK.
Downing Street has now issued a press release with more details. It says:
Today’s confirmed investments include:
-Leonardo, one of the world’s leading defence, aerospace and security companies, will invest £435m in 2024, to be spent at their Yeovil site, and in technology development and research programmes across the UK. It operates 8 major sites in the UK, supporting 8,000 employees.
-Marcegaglia, a steel manufacturer, will invest £50m in Sheffield to build a new clean steel electric arc furnace, creating 50 new jobs.
No 10 said the investments would support jobs and drive growth.
The press notice also includes this endorsement from Stefano Pontecorvo, chairman of Leonardo.
It is clear that the prime minister represents a pronounced change in approach for the UK and its relationship with the European Union. Leonardo’s presence in the UK is underpinned by transnational collaboration at a governmental level, which also supports cooperation at an industrial level.
I have beefed up some of the earlier posts with direct quotes from the press conference. You may need to refresh the page to get them to show up.
Starmer ducks question about whether he will continue to take gifts from Lord Alli
Q: [Also from Matt Dathan from the Times] Will you stop accepting gifts from Lord Alli?
Starmer says:
In relation to your question about gifts, look, the rules are absolutely clear in relation to gifts, in terms of the declarations that need to be made.
I said before the election, I say again after election, the rules really matter in terms of declarations.
That’s why my team reached out for advice on what to declare from the relevant authorities. They reached out again, more recently, got further advice and hence the declarations have gone in in accordance with the rules, so that it’s transparent and you can all see, according to the rules, exactly what declarations were made.
But it was because I insist on the rules that my team reached out to make sure that we were declaring in the right way under the rules, and then reached out against the appropriate authorities, basically asking for advice about what’s the appropriate way to deal with this.
He does not address the actual question, which was about whether he would continue to take gifts from Lord Alli.
Starmer says 3,000 migrants flown home since Labour won election, including 'single biggest ever' repatriation flight
Q: [From Matt Dathan from the Times] Unlike Rishi Sunak, you are not saying you can stop the boats. Was he unrealistic?
Starmer says the Rwanda plan was a gimmick. He repeats the point about being pragmatic. (See 2.04pm.)
UPDATE: Starmer said:
Rather than a gimmick, which, as you know, cost £700 million to persuade four volunteers to go to Rwanda, we have gone down the road of pragmatism.
Already we have returned over 3,000 people by flights. So, the flights actually did get off under this government, not to Rwanda, but back to countries of origin, carrying with them 3,000 people who shouldn’t be here, including the single biggest flight that has ever taken off, returning people to their country of origin.
That’s why we’re working so intently on the Border Security Command, which is intended to take down the gangs that are running the vile trade in the first place.
Updated
Starmer says he wants to put Ukraine 'in best possible position'
The next question is from an Italian journalist, who asks if the leaders favour Ukraine being allowed to use Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russian territory.
Meloni says she wants to see 360 degree support for Ukraine.
Starmer says Russia started the war. He says he wants to support Ukraine. He says they discussed equipment today, but he will not discuss the details.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
I think it’s very important as a matter of principle that we put Ukraine in the best possible position, and that’s what we’ve been discussing. We’ve had the opportunity today to touch on that.
I had the opportunity in recent days to touch on that. I’m not going to go into individual capabilities. You wouldn’t expect me to do that, but the principle framework, I think, is absolutely right, and we’ll continue to have our discussions in relation to it.
Updated
Meloni says complaints about Albanian scheme violating human rights of migrants 'completely groundless'
Q: [Also from Alex Forsyth] What is your response to human rights criticism’s of Italy’s approach?
Meloni says she does not accept that human rights have been violated.
UPDATE: Meloni said:
I don’t know what human rights violations you’re referring to, to be totally frank.
I have explained at length that the jurisdiction of these centres in Albania, it’s Italian and European.
So either you believe that European jurisdiction violates the human rights of migrants – or, well, I don’t know, this accusation, I think it’s completely groundless.
Updated
Starmer says learning from Italy's approach to irregular migration shows revival of 'British pragmatism'
Q: [From Alex Forsyth from the BBC] How interested are you in the Italian offshoring plan? And are you happy with every aspect of their approach to human rights?
Starmer says they were discussing a common challenge. He says the Albanian scheme has not started. He is particularly impressed by the “upstream work” done by the Italians, stopping people coming in the first place.
He says today has been about a return of British pragmatism. He says:
I have always made the argument that preventing people leaving their country in the first place is far better than trying to deal with those that have arrived in any of our countries. I was very interested in that.
In a sense, today was a return – if you like – to British pragmatism.
We are pragmatists first and foremost. When we see a challenge we discuss with our friends and allies the different approaches that are being taken, look at what works, and that is the approach we have taken today, and it has been a very productive day.
Updated
Starmer 'very interested' in Italy's plan to offshore asylum applications in Albania, Meloni says
The first question comes from an Italian journalist.
Q: How will your cooperation on immigration play out?
Meloni says her government has a plan for illegal migration. She says Italy and the UK may be able to extend the work done by law enforcement agencies. And there may be scope for making sure their legislation is “in greater harmony” in the future, she says.
The traffickers work internationally, she says. She says:
No nation by itself can be effective in dismantling these networks of traffickers.
On Albania, she says Starmer was “very interested” in the Italian plan to process asylum applications offshore in Albania.
She says the programme has not started. But it may be delayed for a few weeks, she says.
UPDATE: Meloni said:
Albania, well, I have seen that the prime minister was very interested in what we are doing – but he should be the one to speak about this.
The model that the Italian government has conceived focuses on processing asylum applications for those immigrants who disembark within Italian or EU legislation or European legislation in a foreign country.
That was a model that was never experimented with before. If it works, as I hope it will, this can become a new way, really, to deal with migration flow.
Also because of the element of deterrence that this creates …
We have been working on this project rigorously. From what I understand, it will take a few weeks before it is perfect.
It would have been better if it has started earlier. I know that the world is watching us. Therefore I think we have to do this in the best possible way. And if we need a few extra days, as I was OK with this a few weeks ago, I will be OK with this now as well. But we are talking about a few weeks.
Updated
Keir Starmer says it is “fantastic” to be here, and he praises the weather and the venue.
He has come “for a very simple reason”, he says. He recognises Italy “as a leader in Europe, on the world stage, as a G7 economy and a Nato ally”, he says.
He says he is particularly grateful to Meloni for her leadership on Ukraine. (She has been robustly anti-Russian, unlike some other European politicians leading far-right parties.)
On irregular migration, he says this is a challenge for all of Eurpoe. As DPP, he saw what could be done by cross-border cooperation. He says he has never accepted the people smuggling gangs could not be tackled in the way terrorist gangs were. He goes on:
And now, of course, Italy has shown that we can. You’ve made remarkable progress working with countries along migration routes as equals to address the drivers of migration, of source and to tackle the gangs.
Starmer says he and Meloni also discussed two new Italian investment announcements in the UK.
Meloni says she and Starmer also discussed investment opportunities.
And she says they discussed Ukraine and the Middle East.
She says this will just be the first of a long series of meetings.
Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni hold press conference
Giorgia Meloni, the Italian PM, is speaking at the opening of the press conference with Keir Starmer.
She is running through what she and Starmer discussed. They agreed to beef up efforts to tackle the gangs involved in people smuggling, she says.
These are from the i’s Chloe Chaplain.
Keir Starmer and Georgia Meloni hold a joint press conference in Rome
— Chloe Chaplain (@ChaplainChloe) September 16, 2024
Meloni says she and the PM discussed issue of illegal migration and boat crossings in detail and agreed to strengthen efforts to tackle the criminal activity behind it pic.twitter.com/vpsTg7TkSe
Meloni says government’s ‘must not shy away from new brave options’ to deal with the challenge of irregular migration and says the two had discussed the Italy Albania agreement - the offshoring agreement Starmer has suggested he is open to
— Chloe Chaplain (@ChaplainChloe) September 16, 2024
Updated
The press conference in Rome with Keir Starmer and his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, is starting very soon, we’re told.
At the Lib Dem conference the hall may have been very full for Daisy Cooper’s speech this morning (see 12.46pm), but one person who apparently was not there was the party leader, Ed Davey. According to PA Media, he left the conference this morning to help replace a stile in Ditchling village with a group of volunteers called the Monday Group. The organisation helps to helps maintain footpaths in Sussex.
Back to the Liberal Democrats, and this is from my colleague Peter Walker, who was in the hall for Daisy Cooper’s speech (see 11.55am) – along with a surprisingly large number of other people, he points out.
To give a sense of how packed this year’s Lib Dem conference is, this is the scene for deputy leader Daisy Cooper’s speech. The main arena at the Brighton Centre full, with lots of people also standing. pic.twitter.com/6VwZCsOBKS
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 16, 2024
Here are some pictures from Keir Starmer’s meeting with his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, at the Villa Doria Pamphilj in Rome. They seem to be geting on pretty well.
Labour will fail to bring in 'decade of renewal' unless fiscal rules loosened to allow more investment, say leading economists
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has been urged by leading economists to loosen the government’s fiscal rules to allow more public investment.
In a letter published in the Financial Times, they say that Labour will fail to bring in the “decade of national renewal” it has promised if it sticks to the spending plans it has inherited, implying cuts to investment.
The signatories include Gus O’Donnell, a former cabinet secretary, and Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs economist who served as a Treasury minister under David Cameron.
The letter says:
The challenge of renewing Britain requires the rebuilding of crumbling public services while also investing in the clean infrastructure needed to meet our climate targets and create an economy that is more resilient in the future. This challenge cannot be met by the private sector alone, it requires a step change in levels of public investment.
Yet the government has inherited spending plans that imply substantial real-terms cuts in public investment over the current parliament. We do not see how the planned “decade of national renewal” can take place if these cuts are delivered. To follow through on these plans would be to repeat the mistakes of the past, where investment cuts made in the name of fiscal prudence have damaged the foundations of the economy and undermined the UK’s long-term fiscal sustainability.
The current fiscal framework has helped to drive this short-term thinking and created an inbuilt bias against investment. A more responsible approach, which better reflects the significant long-term benefits of increased public investment, will require changes to our fiscal rules and to the mandate for the Office for Budget Responsibility.
In the upcoming budget it is essential that the government recognises the important role that public investment must play in the decade of national renewal. Further cuts to public investment must be avoided, a strategy for substantially increasing public investment adopted, and a process initiated to implement a pro-investment fiscal framework that focuses on long-term fiscal sustainability.
The letter was also signed by Prof Mariana Mazzucato from University College, London; Mohamed El-Erian, president of Queen’s College Cambridge; Sir Anton Muscatelli, principal of Glasgow university; Prof Simon Wren-Lewis, of Oxford university; Prof Jonathan Portes of King’s College London; and Prof Susan Newman of the Open University.
Labour has two main fiscal rules: that day-to-day spending costs should match revenue, and that debt should be falling as a proportion of GDP by the fifth year of the forecast. These are much the same as the old Tory rules, but Reeves has changed the balanced budget rule so that it does not include investment spending.
However, her scope to increase investment is still heavily constrained by the debt rule.
Reeves repeatedly stresses the importance of fiscal responsibility, and sticking to the rules, but there has been speculation that she could give herself some extra room for manoeuvre when she sets out the exact details of how the rules are defined at the budget.
Updated
Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper says Labour should use autumn budget 'to save NHS and care'
There is nothing that Labour is more proud of than being the party that set up the NHS. But, in her speech to the Liberal Democrat conference this morning, Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader and health spokesperson argued that the NHS was a liberal idea – because it delivers freedom (from the effects of ill health) and because it was based on ideas in the wartime Beveridge report, and William Beveridge was a liberal.
At the election the Lib Dems put a £9bn health and social care plan at the heart of its manifesto.
Cooper told her party:
As liberals, we don’t blindly defend the NHS as an institution. We defend it because it’s the manifestation of an idea – a liberal idea – that our NHS should be free at the point of use, and based on need not ability to pay. And we campaign for it – because health is about individual freedom.
You don’t have freedom, if you’re on a waiting list so long that your world shrinks and you’re left hobbling at home from one room to the next. You don’t have freedom if you’re diagnosed with cancer, but you have no start date for your treatment. You don’t have freedom, if you’re ready to leave hospital and go home, but you’re discharged instead to a care home miles away – losing mobility, independence and connection – for the sole reason that there aren’t the care workers to help you recover at home.
Conference, decent health and care services are the bedrock of a liberal society. That’s why we put health and care, front and centre of our general election campaign. It’s why our MPs have been raising questions about their local health services in parliament – en masse. And it’s why we’re demanding that the government make the autumn budget a budget to save the NHS and care …
We have a message for the Labour government too. The NHS was a liberal idea, driven forward by Labour. Designed by Beveridge, delivered by Bevan. So Wes [Streeting, health secretary] if you’re listening – Take up our ideas or put forward your own. If we support them, we’ll back you. But if we don’t see the right level of ambition or urgency, we will hold your feet to the fire.
Cooper said that this cause was personal to her because 12 years ago, suffering from aggressive Crohn’s disease, she was rushed to hospital and told that without surgery she had just four days to live. She said she recovered, but she worried what would happen to someone in a similar predicament now.
I was really scared. And I often wonder what’s happening now to the young woman – or man – who is suffering those same symptoms now. Can they even get an appointment with their GP?
Updated
At a briefing for journalists in Italy travelling with the PM, a Downing Street spokesperson was asked if the prime minister was worried about the Italian approach to irregular migration resulting in migrants being mistreated in countries like Tunisia. (See 10.13am.) She replied:
Obviously we take that incredibly seriously and want to be working more closely with countries upstream.
The principles that we’ll be following in everything that we do is that it is workable, affordable and in line with international humanitarian law.
But it is vital that we stop people from starting these journeys, we’ve seen far too many deaths in the Mediterranean as well as the Channel.
So it’s incumbent on us to take an international approach to an international challenge, to stop more lives being lost at sea, not just from the Channel, but also in the Mediterranean.
She also confirmed that the government is not planning to introduce any further “safe and legal” routes for asylum seekers wanting to come to the UK. A number of these routes already exist, she said.
Here are more pictures from Keir Starmer’s visit to the border controls centre in Rome.
Starmer ducks question about why he and his wife accepted clothing gifts, while insisting declaration rules not broken
In his clip for broadcasters, Keir Starmer was also asked about the revelation in the Sunday Times yesterday that Waheed Alli, a Labour donor, paid for clothes for Starmer’s wife, and that the gifts were declared late in the register of MPs’ interests.
Asked what he would say to people who felt the Starmers should be paying for their own clothes, and who felt he was now acting like Tory ministers he used to criticise, Starmer replied:
Let me shed a bit of light on this.
It’s very important to me that the rules are followed. I’ve always said that. I said that before the election, I’ve reinforced it after the election.
And that’s why, shortly after the election, my team reached out for advice on what declaration should be made so it’s in accordance with the rules.
They then sought out for further advice more recently, as a result of which they made the relevant declarations.
But for me it’s really important that the rules are followed. That’s why I was very pleased my team reached out proactively, not once but twice, because it is very important that we have transparency, very important that you and others can see the rules are being followed.
Starmer did not addresss the point about whether the Starmers should be paying for their own clothes.
In a Sunday Times report yesterday Gabriel Pogrund said that Starmer had declared clothes and glasses he had received from Alli, a peer and longstanding Labour donor, but that originally he had not declared clothing donations for his wife because his staff thought they did not need to be included in the register of members’ interests. Pogrund said, after his team checked the rules last week, these gifts were added.
The current register, which dates from two weeks ago and does not include the update, says Alli gave Starmer work clothes worth £16,200 and multiple glasses worth £2,485 earlier this year.
In an interview yesterday David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said that it was important for the PM and his wife to look smart when they are representing their country, and he claimed that in the US the president gets an allowance that covers this sort of expense.
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Starmer defends Italy trip, saying he wants to learn from 'upstream work' to stop migrants setting off in first place
Keir Starmer has defended going to Italy to learn about its approach to stopping irregular migration, saying he has long called for more focus on “upstream work” – stopping migrants setting off in the first place.
In a clip for broadcasters, he said:
I’m here to have discussions, here at this co-ordination centre and with the prime minister [Giorgia Meloni], about how we deal with unlawful migration.
Here there’s been some quite dramatic reductions. So I want to understand how that came about.
It looks as though that’s down to the upstream work that’s been done in some of the countries where people are coming from.
I’ve long believed, by the way, that prevention and stopping people travelling in the first place is one of the best ways to deal with this particular issue.
So I am very interested to know how that upstream work went, looking, of course, at other schemes, looking forward to my bilateral with the prime minister this afternoon, but we’ve already got a shared intent to work together on this trade, this vile trade, of pushing people across borders.
In her interview on the Today programme this morning, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, was asked again whether Labour should be trying to learn anything about tackling migration from the Italian government. The presenter, Nick Robinson, pointed out that the Italian deputy PM, Matteo Salvini, is being prosecuted because he refused to let a migrant boat dock five years ago.
When it was put to her that Labour should have nothing to learn from this sort of approach, Cooper replied:
We have very different arrangements in the channel. There is very close cooperation between the UK and French authorities, including with organisations like the RNLI and the French different rescue authorities that work to make sure that everything possible is done to save lives.
But Robinson put it to her that maybe Italy’s approach was only successful because it involved hardline tactics that Labour would not be willing to follow. He quoted Tony Smith, a former head of the UK’s Border Force, who says this in an article for the Telegraph published yesterday.
Italy has also supplied patrol vessels to enable the Tunisian coastguard to pick up migrants who set off in the Mediterranean and return them there, well before they enter international or Italian waters.
Meanwhile, Italy and the EU have for years been paying Libya to clamp down on migrant boats; it is not just a Meloni initiative …
So, it’s going to be hard for the UK to use Italy’s success as a model for stopping the boats. Not least because it involves a raft of human rights violations and accords with pretty unpalatable countries – Libya is a failed state; and Tunisia is slipping back to autocracy.
In response, Cooper did not accept the premise of the question. She said the UK government would “always ensure that proper standards are met”. But she said that there had not been enough European cooperation to tackle the problem, and she said there had to be more focus on tackling organised crime. Referring to the Tories, she said:
I think there was just a bit too much just shouting from the last Conservative government. They shouted, but they didn’t do things. They shouted at other countries rather than working with them.
Starmer says difficult decisions best taken 'early on'
Keir Starmer has had a breakfast meeting with business leaders in Rome this morning. He told them the UK and Italy were “very close allies, obviously partners in the G7, partners in Nato, very strong bilateral relations”. He said his government’s top priority was growth. And, according to the PA Media report, he also had a message that may have been aimed more at the audience at home.
You will be familiar with this in your businesses, if you’re turning around business, if you’re turning around the company, and you know there are difficult decisions to make, it’s better to do them early on.
That’s a comment about next month’s budget.
Yvette Cooper says Albanian-style offshoring not being considered ‘at the moment’ as she defends Starmer's Italy trip
Good morning. Rishi Sunak had a good relationship with Giorgia Meloni, the leader of a far-right party who became PM in Italy around the same time he did in the UK, and he took a very close interest in what her government is doing to stop irregular migration into her country by boat. Keir Starmer has abandoned Sunak’s Rwanda scheme, but not everything has changed in Whitehall and today he is in Italy for talks with Meloni and to see if he can learn anything that might help Labour reduce small boat crossings.
In a press release about the trip, Downing Street said:
As part of the visit Keir Starmer will discuss with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni her country’s success in tackling irregular migration. Italy has seen a 60 per cent drop in irregular migration by sea over the past year thanks to tough enforcement and international cooperation.
As Aletha Adu and Rajeev Syal report, this has not gone down well with some Labour MPs, and with charities that support refugees.
We will hear Starmer himself speak at a press conference later, but this morning Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has been doing a media round and this is what she told Sky News when its presenter, Kay Burley, asked her why Labour was interested in learning from a hard-right European government. Cooper replied:
Well, we’ve always worked with other democratically elected countries, including those led by political parties that we’re not aligned with. The last Labour government did that. Other governments have done that. That’s just always been the case. It’s part of making sure that we are pursuing Britain’s interests, working internationally with other governments.
The areas that I think are important in terms of working with Italy are particularly around tackling organised immigration crime, the smuggler and the trafficking gangs. Italy has been doing this, they have made some significant progress on doing this.
And also on the partnership working that they’ve been doing with other countries, working upstream to prevent dangerous journeys in the first place. And there’s been a 60% reduction in boat crossings across the Mediterranean to Italy. That means that fewer lives being put at risk in the Mediterranean. It also means addressing some of these border security issues. We do need to work with other countries on this.
The Italian government is also preparing to send asylum seekers to Albania to have their claims processed and Starmer has hinted that he might consider adopting a similar plan. The Alabanian plan is not the same as the Tories’ Rwanda plan; Rwanda was a pure deportation scheme – anyone being sent there could claim asylum, but only in Rwanda, not in the UK, because it involved a blanket ban on people arriving in small boats claiming asylum in the UK. The Albanian plan is just about offshore processing; people will still be able to claim asylum in Italy, but they will be held in Albania while their applications are processed.
But the similarities (people arriving by boat being taken to a third country) have spooked some campaigners, and on Sky News Burley asked why an Albanian-type scheme might be acceptable to Labour when the Rwanda scheme wasn’t. Cooper replied:
The Italian arrangement with Albania is not yet up and running, and we will be interested to see how that develops. We’ve always said we would look at what works. It is a very different kind of programme from the Rwanda one.
The Rwanda scheme was run for two and a half years by the Conservatives. They spent £700m on sending four volunteers to Rwanda. That is not a workable programme.
The arrangement that Italy has with Albania is a very different one. It’s effectively around having a fast-track for those who have arrived from predominantly safe countries, and is also a scheme that is monitored by the UNHCR as well to make sure that proper standards are in place. We will see how it develops. We have always said we will look and see what works in any country.
Asked to confirm that the government was considering an Albanian-type scheme, Cooper said “we’ll see how the Italy-Albania arrangement develops”. But the government’s priority was tackling the gangs, she said. When Burley asked her again if Albania was an option, Cooper replied:
It’s not in place at the moment, so no. As we’ve always said, we will look at anything that works. But no, that’s not the scheme that we’re looking at at the moment. What we’re looking at at the moment is developing new Europol taskforces.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am (UK time): Keir Starmer visits the Italian border operations control room. He is due to record a pooled clip for broadcasters. Later he has got a lunch meeting with the Italian PM, Giorgia Meloni, and at 1pm (UK time) they are due to hold a press conference.
11am: Daisy Cooper, the deputy Lib Dem leader and health spokesperson, speaks at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton. Jane Dodds, the speaker of the Welsh Lib Dems, is speaking in the afternoon, and during the day there are debates on topics including proportional representation and how well the party did at the election (in the morning) and Gaza and prisons policy (in the afternoon).
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