Early evening summary
Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, has told the conference she will review regulatory bodies to ensure they are not imposing unnecessary rules. She said:
I want us to use our Brexit freedoms to scrap unnecessary regulations that hold back firms and hamper growth.
It’s clear that the regulators that enforce the rules can also sometimes be a blocker to businesses, so our review will seek to root out the bad practices with the aim of making companies’ lives easier and reducing costs for consumers.
Sir Jake Berry, the former Tory chair and organiser of the “tax pledge”, has told a rally organised by the New Conservatives that, with 30 MPs promising not to vote for anything that would raise the tax burden, they are too powerful to be thrown out of the party. This is from Aubrey Allegretti.
Jake Berry says it’s “pretty unlikely” the chief whip will kick MPs out of the Conservative Party for refusing to vote for tax rises.
He notes more than 30 MPs have signed the pledge and says you don’t have to be good at maths to know that is half the government’s majority.
Jake Berry says it’s “pretty unlikely” the chief whip will kick MPs out of the Conservative Party for refusing to vote for tax rises.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) October 2, 2023
He notes more than 30 MPs have signed the pledge and says you don’t have to be good at maths to know that is half the government’s majority.
A reader asks:
Does the Conservative conference do any actual party business - elect officers, approve rules, administrative measures, policies? Or is it purely a media event?
No. Most other parties do enact internal party business at their conference, such as vote on rules. But the Tories don’t. The Conservative party does have a voluntary wing, the National Conservative Convention, which in some ways is quite powerful. (If it was not for the convention and the board, the MPs might have abolished the rule letting members vote for leaders some time ago.) But the convention does not play a role in the main conference proceedings. In fact, at this conference, we have not even heard from candidates or members in the conference hall at all – just ministers.
Coffey takes on EU's bendy banana rule, joining long list of Tories exaggerating what they're banning
Boris Johnson is not attending the Conservative conference, but he was there in spirit this afternoon when Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, announced that she was axing an EU rule banning bendy bananas.
In her speech she declared:
My officials are cutting red tape and introducing smarter regulation.
Frankly, bent or straight, it is not for government to decide the shape of bananas you want to eat – I just want to assure you they are safe to eat.
So we will be dropping absurd regulations, including the one on bendy bananas.
Contrast all this to Labour.
They are sneakily signing up to keeping in step with whatever Europe decides.
The “ban on bendy bananas” is one of the great myths of Eurosceptic politics. As Jon Henley wrote in 2016, at the height of Brexit, there was an EU regulation covering the shape of bananas and it did say that in general they should be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature”. But traders were free to sell bananas of any shape imaginable; the rule was just there to ensure that, when traders ordered bananas graded in a certain category, they knew what they were getting.
But Coffey is not the first Tory at this conference to try to take credit for banning something that does not exist. Straw men have been everywhere.
Rishi Sunak started the trend with his net zero announcement two weeks ago, which included a bizarre passage saying he was going to scrap policies that were not government policy.
At a dinner with journalists at Westminster the following week, Sunak joked about his own resort to hyperbole.
Sunak last night assured journalists about some “very worrying proposals”.
“The ban on Christmas - I’ve scrapped it. The ban on pubs opening for more than an hour a day - I’ve scrapped it. The ban on Strictly - I’ve scrapped it. And the ban on puppies - I’ve scrapped that too.”
Sunak last night assured journalists about some “very worrying proposals”.
— Jack Elsom (@JackElsom) September 29, 2023
“The ban on Christmas - I've scrapped it. The ban on pubs opening for more than an hour a day - I’ve scrapped it. The ban on Strictly - I've scrapped it. And the ban on puppies - I've scrapped that too.”
But that did not stop him offending again, and in his interview with Laura Kuenssberg yesterday he tried to take credit for blocking Welsh-style 20mph “blanket” speeding ban. The Welsh government said there is no “blanket” ban.
This morning Mark Harper, the transport secretary, joined in. He told the conference that he was opposed to so-called 15-minute cities which mean “local councils can decide how often you go to the shops” and he was going to stop them.
But councils aren’t doing this, as Evan Davis established on the PM programme a few minutes ago. This is from Peter Walker.
Worth listening to Evan Davis grilling junior minister Andrew Bowie on R4 on this bit of Mark Harper’s speech on 15-minute cities. Bowie was asked to name a council proposing what Harper vowed to oppose. He could not, but said such things are “coming up in discussions online”.
Worth listening to Evan Davis grilling junior minister Andrew Bowie on R4 on this bit of Mark Harper's speech on 15-minute cities. Bowie was asked to name a council proposing what Harper vowed to oppose. He could not, but said such things are “coming up in discussions online”. pic.twitter.com/A3RLp8KnXx
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 2, 2023
And then Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, told the conference this afternoon:
Nobody should have their bank account closed because someone else decides they’re not politically correct. We’ll tighten the law to stop people being debanked for the wrong political views.
That shouldn’t take long. The Financial Conduct Authority said it found no evidence that this actually happens.
UPDATE: Emily Maitlis from the News Agents podcast sums this up well.
Upsum of rhetoric so far at #cpc23
Tory MP: No one should have their children eaten by lions. It’s horrifying .
Questioner: but no one is suggesting that ?
Tory Mp: no. But people are concerned. So we must make clear we are the party of anti child eating lions !
Upsum of rhetoric so far at #cpc23
— emily m (@maitlis) October 2, 2023
Tory MP: No one should have their children eaten by lions. It’s horrifying .
Questioner: but no one is suggesting that ?
Tory Mp: no. But people are concerned. So we must make clear we are the party of anti child eating lions !
Updated
Cutting back on HS2 gives the impression that the Conservatives are “giving up on the north” even if axing the project isn’t unpopular in itself, according to new research by the thinktank, More in Common.
Levelling up remains a silver bullet to uniting the 2019 Tory coalition which united a diverse range of Conservative voters, many of whom have drifted away from the party, the same research also found.
In particular, changes to HS2 and much less talk about levelling up risks alienating a voter cohort dubbed “loyal nationals”, made up of socially conservative people who had previously voted Labour.
Many were found to feel their areas have been long neglected and that levelling up was the reward for their switch to the Conservatives in in 2017 and 2019.
The same polling suggests just 27% of people view tackling political correctness and so-called ‘woke’ issues as one most important issues in the run-up to the election.
'End this shambles', Burnham tells Sunak, as he demands clarity on HS2
Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, has told Rishi Suank to “end this shambles” about HS2 now. Speaking at a hastily-arranged press conference, he said:
People are meeting in rooms yards from where we’re standing now about decisions that will affect the future of the north of England for the rest of the century.
But nobody in government deems that they should pick up the phone to the leader of Manchester city council or to myself, and, quite frankly, for the city that’s hosting this conference, and we’re pleased to do that, I don’t think that is really any way to treat people.
End this shambles, you can’t take decisions of this magnitude in the way that you’re doing.
We’re at the ‘unplanned press conference’ stage of Conservative Party conference.
— Caitlin Doherty (@_CaitlinDoherty) October 2, 2023
Andy Burnham here to speak on HS2 speculation pic.twitter.com/NEKbhFaQdO
Updated
Cancelling HS2 would be 'final nail in coffin' for levelling up, says West Yorkshire mayor
Tracy Brabin, the Labour West Yorkshire mayor, says cancelling HS2 would be the “final nail in the coffin” for levelling up. In a statement she said:
It now looks increasingly likely that our worst fears about HS2 will be confirmed.
The government has left us hanging by a thread for weeks as mayors from across the country urged the prime minister to think again before cancelling the Northern leg of this vital infrastructure project.
Any such decision, made without northern leaders, would damage the fortunes of the region and the whole of the country for generations to come — wiping out investment and undermining our reputation across the world.
Pulling the project now would be a scandalous waste and would represent the final nail in the coffin for any notion of levelling up.
Sunak accused of presiding over 'chaos' as Tory conference braced for news HS2 Manchester leg being scrapped
Rishi Sunak is now expected to confirm that he will shelve the Manchester leg of HS2 before the end of the Conservative party conference.
Speaking at a fringe event at the conference, Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, said this would be “profoundly depressing”. He said:
This will be remembered as the conference when they pulled the plug on us.
What gives them the right to treat people here in Greater Manchester and the north of England as second-class citizens?
We’re growing faster than the UK economy. We’re a success story and then, behind you, you have got people working against you.
And other parties issued statement condemning the move.
Wera Hobhouse, the Lib Dem transport spokesperson, said:
Rishi Sunak using a conference in Manchester to cancel the Northern leg of HS2 would make Liz Truss look like a political genius. Yet again, a Conservative Party conference has become mired in chaos while the country suffers.
Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, said:
This fiasco shows the Conservatives are too divided and too distracted to take this country forward.
After weeks of chaos and indecision on the biggest infrastructure project in the country, Rishi Sunak’s relaunch is now coming off the rails.
And the SNP’s transport spokesperson, Gavin Newlands MP, said:
This just confirms that there’s no chance of this Tory UK government ever delivering high speed rail to Scotland, and that none of their promises should ever be taken seriously.
Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
Sunak’s Commons majority in peril as 60 Tories join Liz Truss group
Sixty Conservative MPs have joined Liz Truss’s Growth Group, imperilling the government’s majority in parliament, as Rishi Sunak was warned by former cabinet ministers “we cannot accept the status quo”, Aubrey Allegretti reports.
Jenrick says government needs to encourage families to have more children
Robert Jenrick has called for British families to have more children to help fund and look after an ageing population, after criticising Boris Johnson’s government for encouraging low-skilled workers to come to the UK.
The immigration minister said the government needed to “encourage more families to have children” as he suggested there should be further cuts in the number of care visas issued to migrant workers.
During a Policy Exchange fringe event at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Prof Matthew Goodwin called for a “mature conversation about how we could encourage families to have more children” and help reduce demand for migrant workers.
Jenrick told party members:
I agree strongly with the last point about families. We do need to encourage more families to have children. And that’s why the prime minister’s intervention earlier in the year on childcare was important.
That’s why we need to build more homes so that young people can settle down and have a family life. And there’s a lot of evidence that the lack of housing is one of the reasons people are settling down and having kids later on in life. I think the gentleman who mentioned student accommodation [taking up local housing stock] just reinforced the point that that migration does need to come down because it’s having real world implications in communities right across the country.
After the event, Jenrick told the Guardian:
We want to have a higher birthrate as a country. With an ageing society it is critically important.
There are lots of reasons we’re not unique as a country for that. It is across the western world. The things that government can do is improve childcare, and above all housing, because there’s a massive link between how late people eventually settle down and the ability to have kids.
Coffey criticised after saying she's 'fed up' with right to roam campaign
Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, let rip at the right to roam campaign during a fringe meeting.
Addressing the British Association of Shooting and Conservation, she said:
I’m frankly fed up with the right to roam campaign. The only things that have rights to roam are farmers, their pigs and cattle.
She also told the room that it was her department that stopped the prime minister tightening rules on selling shotguns after the Plymouth shooting.
Her comment prompted this response from the environmental campaigner Guy Shrubsole.
Therese Coffey casually dismissing the rights of millions of people to access nature, and rather foolishly discounting the votes of the 62% of the British public who’d rather like a Scottish-style @Right_2Roam in England..
Therese Coffey casually dismissing the rights of millions of people to access nature, and rather foolishly discounting the votes of the 62% of the British public who'd rather like a Scottish-style @Right_2Roam in England...https://t.co/fE91kOL1M1
— Guy Shrubsole (@guyshrubsole) October 2, 2023
Updated
Keegan to consult on minimum service levels in universities
The government is to consult on minimum service levels in universities, the education secretary Gillian Keegan has announced during her speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester.
It follows a long-running and still unresolved dispute between university workers and their employers over pay and conditions, which has resulted in widespread disruption to lectures and marking.
The government says minimum service levels legislation is intended to balance the ability of workers to strike with the rights of the public who expect essential services they pay for.
Keegan condemned the “constant” strike action in universities by members of the University and College Union and told the conference it was “outrageous” that students had missed out on education for which they pay. She went on:
Today I am announcing that we will consult to introduce minimum service levels in universities so that they have the tools to make sure that students get the teaching they deserve.
She also confirmed reports that the government would introduce new guidance designed to ban mobile phones from schools, saying:
One of the biggest issues facing children and teachers is grappling with the impact of smartphones in our schools.
The distraction, the disruption, the bullying – we know that teachers are struggling with their impact and we know that they need support so today we’re recognising the amazing work that many schools have done in banning mobile phones, and we’re announcing that we will change guidance so that all schools follow their lead.
As Pippa Crerar points out, one of her predecessors announced the same thing two years ago.
Thought it sounded familiar pic.twitter.com/O2peG3ydin
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 2, 2023
Updated
Badenoch defends Brexit, calling it 'perhaps greatest ever vote of confidence in project of UK'
Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, is regularly at or near the top of the ConservativeHome survey of Tory members about how cabinet ministers are performing. That is why she is currently favourite to be the next Tory leader.
Her speech to the Tory conference is unlikely to harm her rankings. Her delivery was a bit flat, but it was full of lines that will go down well with activists. Here is a summary.
Badenoch defended Brexit, calling it “perhaps the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom”. Until now Brexit has hardly been mentioned in the main platform speeches. But Badenoch, whose job includes negotiating post-Brexit trade deals, rejected claims it has held back the UK economy. She said:
Ministers in other countries tell me about supply chain issues affecting everything from getting car components to stocking supermarket shelves. They tell me about how they are coping with unfilled vacancies as societies from Germany to Japan get older.
But it is only when I am back in the UK that l am told that all these issues are down to Brexit.
Our political opponents are obsessed with viewing every problem as Brexit. Relentlessly talking down our country.
So as your business and trade secretary, I’m here to set the record straight.
They told us Brexit would hold back our recovery from the pandemic and we have the worst economic performance in Europe. Wrong.
The UK’s recovery from COVID has outpaced France and Germany. This year we overtook France to become the third 3rd largest manufacturer in Europe.
They tell you ‘Our exports have dropped to an all-time low’. Wrong. This year we rose from the world’s 6th to 5th largest exporter of goods and services.
They told you that Brexit would be the end of the City. Wrong. London remains the top financial investment destination in Europe. Far from losing jobs in the City, they are at a record high. 8% more today than in 2019 …
Brexit was perhaps the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom - and we will soon be asking the country to trust that this project is safe in our hands.
The last line was curious. Two of the four components of the UK – Scotland and Northern Ireland – voted against Brexit, and there are ground for thinking that over the next decade or so it might hasten the break-up of the UK, by encouraging Irish reunification or Scottish independence.
She accused Labour of telling black people society was against them. Badenoch is also minister for women and equalities and she said:
Last year I published a report [the Sewell report] that told the truth about race in the UK. Labour didn’t like it. They want young people to believe a narrative of hopelessness.
A narrative that says there is no point in trying, because British society is against you and you’re better off asking for reparations.
A narrative that tells children like mine that the odds are stacked against them. I tell my children that is the best country in the world to be black - because it’s a country that sees people, not labels.
Conservatives want young people to be proud of their country when others want them to be ashamed. It wasn’t a tough decision for us to reject the divisive agenda of critical race theory. We believe as Martin Luther King once said, people should be judged by the content of their character - not the colour of their skin. And if that puts us in conflict with those who would re-racialise society, who would put up the divisions that have been torn down - well, Conference, all I can say is: bring it on.
She attacked Labour over trans issues. She said:
Next week, Labour will tell the country that it is ready for government. But ladies and gentlemen, let me ask you this if Labour MPs can’t tell us what a woman is, what else aren’t they telling us?
Updated
Tory West Midlands mayor Andy Street says cancelling phase 2 of HS2 would be blow to investor confidence
Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of West Midlands, has shown his visible anger with the dithering over HS2, saying investors would only trust a country and government if they had consistency, saying:
If you tell the international investment community you are going to do something. you bloody well have to stick to your word.
Asked about the potential decision to cancel the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the rail line during a fringe event at the Conservative conference, Street said he did not know what the decision would be.
However, he said, consistency and certainty was “an absolute fundamental point”, adding: “It’s what drives investment.”
Street used the example of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year, saying local leaders of all political parties had worked collaboratively, adding: “So the link to HS2 is blindingly obvious.”
Tom Tugendhat challenges Tories in favour of ECHR withdrawal to explain practicalities
Several members of the cabinet have been saying they support the government not ruling out withdrawal from the European convention on human rights. Ministers in favour of the ECHR have been less vocal, but on Times Radio Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, challenged those on the other side of the argument to explain how they would deal with the practicalities. He said:
My position is really very simple. Which is there are many treaties around the world, if you want to leave one, please explain to me how you’re going to address the gaps that they create.
Now, people who’ve said they want to leave the convention, I can understand the argument. It does raise some pretty big questions, whether that’s about the Good Friday agreement, whether it’s about the devolved administrations, whether it’s about our relationships with other countries, including, in fact, the TCA [trade and cooperation agreement – the Brexit deal with the EU].
Asked if he was saying withdrawal would be a mistake, Tugendhat said:
I’m just suggesting these are really big questions and don’t throw around words unless you can answer the questions. And so what we need to do is make sure if you’re looking at the future in a different way, that’s fine. Set out the questions. Set out the answers.
Updated
How Hunt wants to reduce civil service numbers by around 60,000
This is what Jeremy Hunt said in his speech about freezing civil service recruitment.
We have the best civil servants in the world – and they saved many lives in the pandemic by working night and day.
But even after that pandemic is over, we still have 66,000 more civil servants than before.
New policies should not always mean new people.
So today I’m freezing the expansion of the civil service and putting in place a plan to reduce its numbers to pre-pandemic levels.
This will save £1bn next year.
And I won’t lift the freeze until we have a proper plan not just for the civil service but for all public sector productivity improvements.
Treasury sources have been suggesting that Hunt would be happy to see diversity and equality posts axed as part of this crackdown. But in practice that is not going to make much difference. There were 457,000 people in the civil service in June this year. The headcount was projected to grow by 40,000 next year, but Hunt is now freezing numbers at where they are now. Around 1,000 civil servants work on diversity and equality issues, the Treasury says.
When Hunt says he wants to get numbers down to pre-pandemic levels, that means getting the headcount down by around 60,000, to around 400,000, the Treasury is saying.
In his speech Hunt implied that it was Covid that pushed up civil servant numbers. But in fact Brexit is mainly responsible. The Treasury says new officials had to be hired to deal with the process and to perform government functions that were previously done in Brussels when the UK was in the EU.
Updated
No 10 says final decision on phase two of HS2 not yet taken
Downing Street is now saying that Rishi Sunak has not taken the final decision on phase two of HS2, Sky’s Beth Rigby reports.
On HS2 from No 10 spokesperson: “These reports are incorrect. No final decisions have been taken on Phase 2 of HS2”
On HS2 from No 10 spokesperson: “These reports are incorrect. No final decisions have been taken on Phase 2 of HS2”
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) October 2, 2023
Hunt claims the Tories are the only party prepared to take difficult decisions.
Rishi Sunak shows what can be achieved with education, aspiration and hard work, he says.
He ends:
It’s time to roll up our sleeves, take on the declinists and watch the British economy prove the doubters wrong.
And that’s the end of the speech.
It was remarkably short, and light. In the past a chancellor’s speech at party conference was a major political event. That was more of a footnote.
Hunt is now talking about the plans to restrict welfare payments. He says he supports Mel Stride in his review of work capability assessments.
And to ensure work continues to pay, the government will increase the national living wage to at least £11 per hour, he says. (See 8.12am.)
Updated
Hunt says he will act to ensure people do not get debanked because of their political views.
(In fact, they don’t, according to a preliminary review carried out by the Financial Conduct Authority.)
Hunt says he will freeze expansion of civil service
But one aspect of the review has already been decided, it seems. Hunt says he is going to freeze the expansion of the civil service until numbers are down to pre-pandemic levels. That should save £1bn, he says.
Hunt says the Institute for Fiscal Studies was wrong to say last week that higher taxes are permanent. (See 9.33am.)
The UK needs a more productive state, not a bigger state, he says.
He says the UK can stabilise government spending as a proportion of GDP if it increases public sector productivity by 0.5% every year.
John Glen, the chief secretary to the Treasury, will review how this can be done, he says.
Updated
Hunt claims higher borrowing under Labour will lead to higher taxes and higher inflation
Hunt says Labour will increase borrowing, and that will increase debt.
That means higher taxes, higher mortgages and higher inflation for families. That’s not an economic policy. It’s an economic illusion.
Hunt says he and Sunak want to make UK world's next Silicon Valley
Hunt says the ONS has recently revised its growth figures. They said the UK was the worst performing large European economy since the pandemic. But now the figures show the UK is one of the best.
But he says he and Rishi Sunak care more about the future than the past.
They want to make the UK the world’s next Silicon Valley.
Updated
Jeremy Hunt says he last spoke to the the conference five years ago, as foreign secretary.
He thought his time in politics was over. So it is good to see the PM getting the over-50s back into work, he says.
Updated
From Isabel Hardman of the Spectator
Hall a bit busier for Jeremy Hunt’s speech at Conservative Party conference pic.twitter.com/5cmIAD9HVW
— Isabel Hardman (@IsabelHardman) October 2, 2023
Updated
The anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray has been ejected from a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference, PA Media reports. PA says:
Bray was escorted from a meeting of the rightwing Bruges Group outside the secure zone in Manchester city centre after interrupting a speaker.
Wearing a blue pro-EU T-shirt, Mr Bray said: “Where are the Brexit benefits?”
After briefly grappling with an audience member, he was escorted from the venue, continuing to protest and describing the attendees as “losers”.
He said: “Brexit benefits, my arse. What a load of bullshit, never heard so much crap in my life.”
Updated
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is about to give his speech to the conference.
Sunak has finally taken decision to shelve Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2, reports say
Rishi Sunak has formally decided to shelve the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2, ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, is reporting. For more than two weeks there have been reports saying this is what Sunak was going to do, but until recently ministers were claiming the final decision had not been taken.
I am told the PM has now taken the decision to shelve the Manchester leg of HS2. Confirmation, and detail of the re-allocation of funds to other transport projects in the north, will presumably come very soon.
I am told the PM has now taken the decision to shelve the Manchester leg of HS2. Confirmation, and detail of the re-allocation of funds to other transport projects in the north, will presumably come very soon. https://t.co/6uyamo8A4W
— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 2, 2023
Updated
Civil service review likely to recommend splitting role of cabinet secretary, Maude tells fringe meeting
Tory peer Francis Maude has signalled that splitting the role of cabinet secretary and stripping the Treasury of some finance powers are likely to be recommended in his review of the civil service commissioned by the government.
Maude suggested his review, expected to be published this autumn, would call for a dedicated head of the civil service with new powers separate from the cabinet secretary.
“The cabinet secretary is not the same as a powerful change manager,” he told a fringe event at Tory conference. “A dedicated head of civil service needs to be properly empowered.”
He also suggested that he could be making recommendations about breaking up the role of the Treasury. He said the UK’s central government structure was “archaic” and other countries had different government architecture. Maude said no other country has their finance powers in the same place as their economic strategy.
The former Cabinet Office minister was speaking on a panel with his successor, Jeremy Quin, the current paymaster general, who said this autumn would see the government bring forward new guidance on working from home for civil servants as part of a “relentless focus on driving productivity”.
He will also bring in new measures on performance-related pay for civil servants in order to “reward productivity” but denied that there would be a “direct link” between being present in the office and being paid more money.
Updated
At the “Great British Growth Rally”, Dame Priti Patel has just finished speaking. She said that Margaret Thatcher changed the UK for the better and that the Conservatives needed to adopt the same approach now. That was how they could differentiate themselves from the “socialist” Keir Starmer, she said.
Here are some extracts from Liz Truss’s speech to the “Great British Growth Rally”.
On corporation tax
I’m calling upon the chancellor at the autumn statement to put corporation tax back down to 19%.
And frankly, if we can get it lower, the better
What we know is that economic growth and making Britain grow again is not going to be delivered by the Treasury. It’s not going to be delivered by more public spending. It’s not going to be delivered by more regulation.
It is going to be delivered by giving business the freedom they need to succeed.
On government spending
It has not been higher since the 1970s. And in fact it was lower for most of the 1970s, apart from 1975.
So we need to acknowledge that government is too big, taxes are too high and we are spending too much.
On fracking
We are sitting on 50 years’ worth of sustainable gas.
Can you imagine, if we unleash that, what that will mean for households, what that will mean for businesses.
We can see from the United States that their energy bills are half what our energy bills are here.
Updated
Harper's speech on government's 'plan for motorists' - analysis
There were two elements of Mark Harper’s speech (see 12.23pm) that were notable: the specific policies, and the wider sense of what it represents for transport policy.
On the first, while most elements of the “plan for motorists” had been briefed (or leaked) in advance, he went further than before. Harper said that if councils did not follow his rules on making driving easier he would cut them off from DVLA records – basically, stop them levying fines for driving offences.
That is one of the few levers his department has, but it is also something of a nuclear option, and marks significant centralisation.
Harper also said that 30mph should be “the default” speed for urban areas, which goes further in his pushback against 20mph zones.
More generally, the idea of prioritising drivers over other road users arguably takes UK road policy to a place it last was in the 1970s or 80s. Ministers might not have wanted to talk about it openly, but for years the idea was to try to nudge people from urban areas from cars to other modes – whether public transport or active travel – where possible for shorter trips.
This is in part the carrot of bus and bike lanes, but also the stick of lower speed limits and traffic planning to make car travel a bit less convenient.
There is a good reason for this: mass driving in cities does not only cause pretty big economic externalities in terms of pollution, noise, danger, social dislocation and climate change, but there’s just not enough space for the growing number of cars on urban roads.
That is the paradox Harper faces – if his policies do, as seemingly planned, push more people to drive and fewer people to use buses, bikes or their own feet, then the roads will be worse for everyone.
In a speech yesterday in Manchester, Chris Boardman, the former Olympic cyclist who now heads the quango Active Travel England, noted that of everyone who now cycles in Greater Manchester all drove instead, they would fill every lane of the M60 in both directions.
This is a lesson governments worldwide learned in the 1960s era of mass road building. But we seem to be driving back to the past.
Updated
At the “Great British Growth Rally” Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, is speaking.
He tells the audience that when Liz Truss was prime minister, he proposed an idea that was too radical even for her. He proposed a flat tax, he says. He says according to Treasury figures, if all allowances went, you could bring the income tax rate to everyone down to 20%.
But that is based on Treasury figures, he says. Given Treasury figures are often unreliable, the calculation may not have been accurate, he says.
Updated
Culture secretary claims 'essence of our history' under threat from revisionist historians
Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, has never been seen as one of the fierce culture war proponents in the Conservative party. But in her speech to the conference she delivered a passage that sounded as if it had been drafted by Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM and former culture secretary, who is a leading Tory warrior against all things “woke”. She said:
Whilst our potential is important, so is our past … our history, our culture and our heritage.
In recent years the very essence of our history and the values that attach to this have come under threat.
There are some that want to cancel - those who seek to erase our history …shutdown a view they disagree with, rather than argue against it.
Those who would apply a two dimensional filter of moralist outrage on actions or statements, rather than understanding the nuance of language, or the context of history.
These people cast Churchill as villain, not as the man who kept Britain free.
Unlike some of those in the Labour party, I am not ashamed of our great country’s culture, its people or its past. I do not want to bring down our statues or our monuments.
I believe in the British people.
What some call culture wars, I say, is standing up for our principles.
(This passage seemed contradictory. Frazer complained about people having a binary view of historical figures, but then in the next sentence did exactly the same thing herself, suggesting that it was wrong to criticise Churchill’s views on race because he won the war.)
Frazer also said she was opposed to publishers “sanitising books” and that she would be “shortly publishing new guidance on retain and explain for statues – so that rather than tearing down our history we can understand it.”
Updated
Ranil Jayawardena, who was environment secretary when Liz Truss was prime minister, is speaking at the “Great British Growth Rally” now. He is calling for more investment in infrastructure.
Truss claims tax cuts could be used to incentivise building of up to 500,000 homes a year
Truss says homebuilding is being held up by rules protecting newts.
She says tax breaks should be used to incentivise more housebuilding. These policies could lead to up to 500,000 homes being built a year, she says.
This is one of the lines briefed overnight. (See 10.54am.)
Asked what tax cuts could be used to incentivise more housebuilding, an aide told me earlier that Truss was referring to a range of taxes, like business rates, enhanced capital allowance, enhanced structures and buildings allowance, employer national insurance contributions relief, and stamp duty land tax. He said this is what Truss was proposing when she called for investment zones in the mini-budget during her premiership.
Truss said that if the government could build on this scale, it would bring down house prices, which would cut the amount the government had to spend on housing benefit.
Updated
Nigel Farage, the former Ukip and Brexit party leader, is at the rally for the Liz Truss speech. This is from my colleague Aubrey Allegretti.
Nigel Farage says Rishi Sunak’s big conference speech is his “last chance to turn the ship around”.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) October 2, 2023
Adds there’s a “bigger battle going on” behind the scenes for the leadership of the party after Sunak. pic.twitter.com/XhUoq4kAQl
Truss says she is making the case for three policies: axing tax, cutting bills and building homes.
Truss addresses Tory activists at 'Great British Growth' rally
Liz Truss is addressing the Great British Growth rally now. I’m in the audience in a big reception room at the Midland Hotel, where she is speaking. The room is packed, and there was a long queue to get in, reaching almost to the door of the hotel.
Truss was introduced by Liam Halligan, who got a loud round of applause as he introduced himself as the economics and business correspondent for GB News. There was a second round of applause when he said Truss had been elected by the party members, “unlike ….” We did not hear the rest of the sentence because the clapping was too loud.
UPDATE: From Aubrey Allegretti.
Four Tory MPs do their best to keep a straight face, as the first speaker at Liz Truss’s growth rally reminds those in the room she was the members’ choice in the leadership race against Rishi Sunak.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) October 2, 2023
Updated
Harper says councils in England could be cut off from DVLA database if their traffic management 'overzealous'
Mark Harper, the transport secretary, used his conference speech to give more details of the government’s fightback against the so-called “war on motorists”. Here are the key points.
Harper said that councils in England that are “overzealous” in their use of traffic management system could be cut off from the DVLA database. That is a significant threat because it would mean they would not be able to use it to enforce, and collect revenue from, fines. Harper said:
First of all, I’m calling time on the misuse of so-called 15-minute cities.
There’s nothing wrong with making sure people can walk or cycle to the shops or school, that’s traditional town planning. But what is different, what is sinister and what we shouldn’t tolerate is the idea that local councils can decide how often you go to the shops and that they ration who uses the road and when and they police it all with CCTV.
So today I am announcing that the government will investigate what options we have in our toolbox to restrict overzealous use of traffic management measures including cutting off councils from the DVLA database if they don’t follow the rules.
He said the government would change guidance to say councils can only impose 20mph speed limits if they have “good reason”.
It can’t be right these schemes are imposed without proper local consent. So we will change the guidance to ensure that councils properly listen to what local people say. But we will go further, 20-mile-an-hour zones are a good way to protect schools or quiet residential streets…
But for some councils and indeed for some countries are yet another way to punish drivers as blanket measures. The evidence is clear. This makes little difference, it may actually increase pollution and risks motorists ignoring 20mph zones where they are needed.
So we will change the Department for Transport guidance, requiring councils to only use 20mph zones where there is a good reason and underlining that 30mph is the default speed limit on urban roads.
He said the government wanted “to put a stop to some councils using unfair fines as a money spinner” and to stop them “profiting from traffic offences”.
He also said traffic lights would be rephased. Summarising other measures in the government’s plan, he said:
There is much more: we will make it easier and cheaper to drive and ride, to park and to use transport sensibly. To cut down on jams we will tune up traffic lights to help junctions flow and restrict 24-hour bus lanes where they aren’t appropriate. And our plan includes a new national parking platform, ending the need to instal numerous apps just to park your car, as well as a comprehensive package of measures to help councils tackle the menace of potholes.
Updated
Northern Powerhouse Partnership chief tells minister at Tory fringe event he's 'sick of being lied to' about HS2
The head of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, the main voice of business groups in the north of England, has said he is “sick of being lied to” about HS2, in a notably awkward fringe event also attended by the rail minister, Huw Merriman.
A visibly angry Henri Murison said there was a need for honesty that cancelling the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2 would have a knock-on impact for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), a separate project aimed at better connecting northern cities to each other.
The idea has been floated that cutting HS2 could be mitigated by investing more in NPR. But Murison said it was dependent on the HS2 link reaching Manchester. He said:
Why on earth would the government not be more honest about the fact that if you cut HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester, you’d have to put £15bn back in the NPR budget to avoid cancelling NPR as well?
I think what I’d ask from the minister is a bit of honesty. When he talks about the priorities of HS2, does that mean that NPR will be lost as well?
Merriman, who was sitting a couple of spaces down from Murison at the fringe event, had previously refused to comment on the fate of the Birmingham to Manchester leg – but indicated fairly strongly he had grave doubts about it. He said:
The problem with HS2 is, of course, well documented. It has gone over budget and it has gone over time. But we are delivering HS2 right now. I know people talk about spades in the ground – there are tunnel-boring machines in the ground.
But it is a project that has been beset with difficulties. If all of the budget goes on increased costs for HS2, then it gets lost for other parts that HS2 is not coming.
Updated
Claire Coutinho, the energy security and net zero secretary, told the conference that she was announcing additional funding to improve insulation for social housing, as well as plans to encourage more solar panels to be placed on industrial rooftops.
She said:
We are… working to reduce pressure on rural communities by making it easier for solar panels to be installed on industrial rooftops, warehouses, car parks and factories.
We’ll cut through the planning red tape that limits the amount of solar businesses can currently install, protecting the countryside, boosting renewables.
Today I can announce we’re allocating a further £80m to insulate thousands of social homes, saving families on average £240 each year, supporting the most vulnerable, reducing their bills, protecting our environment.
'New Conservatives' group launch campaign to include ECHR withdrawal in next Tory manifesto
If the Conservative party lose the election, it is assumed that there will be a leadership contest and that it will be won by a candidate from the right. The party is already far more rightwing than it was in the David Cameron era, but given what it known about the views of the membership, it will head further in that direction.
But which rightwing faction will prevail? The free-market, low tax libertarians led by Liz Truss? Or the culture warriors more interested in “faith, family and flag” politics who are led by the New Conservatives?
By chance, both groups are out in force today. The Trussites are holding a rally at 12.30pm. And at 3pm the New Conservatives are holding a rally with a large cast of speakers, including Sir Jake Berry, Sir Bill Cash, Miriam Cates, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Sir John Hayes, Danny Kruger, Dame Priti Patel, Sir John Redwood, and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.
(The two groups overlap. Rees-Mogg and Patel are speaking at both events.)
The New Conservatives are proposing five “pledges”. In a news release issued overnight, they say these plans should “make up the backbone of the next Conservative party manifesto”.
The five proposals are:
Replace Labour’s European rights and equalities laws with a new British framework for rights and freedoms.
Cut taxes for families, small businesses, and entrepreneurs.
Reduce immigration by halving the number of visas awarded to migrant workers, foreign students, and their families.
Stop students who fail their A-levels from getting taxpayer-funded loans to attend university, and invest in apprenticeships instead.
Ban gender ideology in schools and ensure parents’ rights to oversee the sex education their children receive.
The New Conservatives admit their first proposal in means withdrawal from the European convention on human rights.
They have also released polling suggesting that all five policies are popular.
But, significantly, the polling on withdrawal from the ECHR did not ask people if they favoured withdrawal from the ECHR. Instead it asked people if they were in favour of replacing “the current European system of human rights laws applied in Britain with new British laws that protect rights like free speech but enable the government to promptly deport illegal migrants”. Put like that, repondents were in favour by 54% to 27%.
This illustrates how the results of polling on a topic like the ECHR depends hugely on how the question is framed. If you ask people if they are in favour of foreign judges being allowed to have the final say over UK migration policy, they are not so keen. But if you ask them if they want the UK to join Russia and Belarus in leaving a Europe-wide human rights body, then support of the convention tends to tick up.
Updated
The environment secretary has praised Rishi Sunak’s decision to roll back on net zero.
Thérèse Coffey said at a Countryside Alliance event that his decision to scale back some net zero policies “just showed we have one of the strongest ever prime ministers thinking about the countryside, which is no surprise, because he is a rural MP”.
She went on:
There are some places where it’s just not going to work to have a heat pump at all. So I think the prime minister showed we are listening. We showed that we have acted, because we are rooted in reality.
Updated
Truss to call for tax cuts in rally at Tory conference
Liz Truss, the former PM, will be speaking at a conference fringe event only about an hour before Jeremy Hunt delivers his keynote speech as chancellor. Her speech as party leader last year was an attack on what she claimed was the “anti-growth coalition” and it sounds as if we will be getting much the same from her again today in a speech presenting tax cuts as the route to growth. It will be her only intervention at conference.
The fringe meeting is called the “Great British Growth Rally”. Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Ranil Jayawardena, who served in her cabinet, and Dame Priti Patel, the former home secretary, are also speaking.
Truss’s office has sent out some advance extracts from what she is expected to say. There is nothing in the release suggesting she is going to talk about why her premiership ended so badly. Instead, here are the key points.
She will claim that tax cuts could be used to incentivise the building of up to 500,000 homes a year. She is expected to say:
There are too many politicians who say we need to build more homes and then baulk at removing one line of regulation. Newt protection or bat bridge anyone?
If we really want houses to be built, we’ve got to incentivise it. We’ve got to give local communities the freedom to create housebuilding zones with no red tape through the offer of lower taxes. And we should reduce taxes in these areas enough so that we are building something like half a million homes a year.
This is what Conservatives are supposed to believe in: cutting red tape, lower taxes and trusting that markets will find the solutions we all want.
She will call for fracking to be allowed in the UK again, saying it “could cut family gas bills by as much as half”.
She will claim that her low-tax policies would make people better off. She is expected to say:
We’ve got to get better at translating ‘growth’ into what it means in day-to-day terms for people, businesses and families. It means a better standard of living so that people have more disposable income to go on holiday, buy a new car or support their children.
She will say the Tories should “stop taxing and banning things, and start producing and building things”. That seems to be a reference to reports that Rishi Sunak wants to in effect ban the next generation from ever buying cigarettes.
She will call for corporation tax to be cut.
Updated
In an interview with GB News this morning Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, said that “no tax cuts are possible in a substantial way at the moment”. But he stressed that he did want to bring them down when he could. He said:
If I gave a big tax cut this year, it would be inflationary because you’d be putting money in people’s pockets, which would boost up demand, which would ultimately mean prices go up as well. So this is not the right time.
But as a Conservative, do I want to bring down taxes? Yes, I do. And what I’ll be saying is we’re prepared to take the tough and difficult decisions for the long term that mean that we do have a lower taxed economy and with Rishi Sunak you have a leader who doesn’t shy away from those difficult decisions.
Updated
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross claims he is confident party can gain seats in Scotland at election
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, claimed this morning that he was confident that his party would gain seats in Scotland at the general election.
As PA Media reports, the party currently holds six seats in Scotland, concentrated in the north-east of the country and in the borders, after losing seven constituencies in the 2019 election.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Ross said:
I’m very confident that the Scottish Conservatives can hold on to the seats we currently have and make gains.
We saw a recent byelection in South Ayrshire where the Scottish Conservative vote went up by 20% …
People could see in these seats where the Scottish Conservatives are the main challengers to the SNP, they want to ensure that the SNP are told how poorly they are running the country at the moment and how disastrous Humza Yousaf’s leadership has been.
As PA Media reports, Ross was referring to a byelection in Girvan and South Carrick, where the Conservatives’ first preference vote rose by 19.5% last month compared to 2022. However, two independent candidates in the previous council election accounted for 37.2% of the vote, while none stood in the by-election.
Updated
'I wouldn't use her words' - Hunt implicitly rejects Braverman's critique of multiculturalism
In an interview with TalkTV this morning, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, implicitly rejected what Suella Braverman said in her immigration speech last week about multiculturalism having failed.
Asked about the speech, Hunt, whose wife is Chinese, said:
I am married to an immigrant and I’ve always believed that we benefit massively as a country from welcoming the brightest and best from all over the world.
Suella Braverman wouldn’t use my words, I wouldn’t use her words.
But she’s absolutely right that the social contract that makes Britain one of the most tolerant countries in the world when it comes to immigrants depends on fairness.
Rishi Sunak (here) and Priti Patel, the former home secretary, (here) are among the many Tories who have criticised what Braverman said about multiculturalism in her speech. But there have been much more support for her call for the UK to be willing to consider leaving the European convention on human rights.
Updated
Hunt says he does not accept IFS claim government mainly to blame for higher taxes, and that they're permanent
In a report last week the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the current parliament was likely to mark “a decisive and permanent shift to a higher-tax economy”.
In its report, it also said that although this was partly because of the pandemic, government decisions taken before Covid were a more important factor. It said:
Only during and in the immediate aftermath of the two world wars have government revenues grown by as much as they have in the period since 2019. To some extent, this ought not to be a surprise: the Covid-19 pandemic represented the most significant economic dislocation since the second world war. But while the response to the pandemic and its after-effects does explain some of the tax rises announced in recent years, it is far from the only – or even the most significant – explanation. Instead, tax rises have largely been the consequence of a desire for higher government spending on things that pre-date the pandemic (such as manifesto promises to expand the NHS workforce and hire more police officers, and a September 2019 declaration to be ‘turning the page on austerity’).
In his interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, said he did not agree with the IFS on both these points.
Asked about the IFS saying government decisions, not Covid, were primarily to blame for taxes rising, he said:
I disagree with that analysis. One of the biggest reasons that we’ve had to see taxes go up is because our debt interest payments have gone up as a result of the energy shock. That has an enormous pressure on the public purse.
The other thing I disagree with the IFS on – normally I don’t disagree with them, I do this time – is their suggestion this is a permanent rise in the level of taxation. I don’t believe it has to be. If we are prepared to take difficult decisions about the way we spent taxpayers’ money, to reform the deliver of public services, to reform the welfare state, there’s a chance to bring taxes down. But there aren’t any short cuts.
Updated
Hunt refuses to endorse Sunak's claim that inflation is a tax
While Rishi Sunak is generally more honest than Boris Johnson, and more realistic than Liz Truss, he is sometimes prone to talking nonsense and there was a good example yesterday when, in his interview with Laura Kuenssberg, he claimed that inflation was a tax.
Sunak said that the best tax cut he could deliver for the nation was a cut in inflation. When Kuenssberg correctly pointed out that inflation isn’t a tax, Sunak became agitated and irate, told her that he completely disagreed and said: “Inflation is a tax. It’s a tax that impact the poorest people the most.”
What he meant was that it functions like a tax – a point he made later when he said “it effectively acts as a tax” – but factually what he sought to lecture Kuenssberg on economics was wrong.
This morning, in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Jeremy Hunt refused to defend Sunak’s claim that inflation is a tax.
Hunt was being interviewed by the GMB presenter Ed Balls, a former Labour shadow chancellor, who said that even if inflation were to fall from 10% to 5%, prices would still be rising. How was that a tax cut?
Hunt claimed that was not what Sunak said. Halving inflation would mean take-home income would be higher than otherwise, he claimed.
Balls said, with prices rising, people would still be worse off. Hunt did not challenge this. “Everyone is made worse off by high inflation, and that’s why it must be our number one focus to bring it down,” he said.
Balls asked Hunt again to confirm that that was not a tax cut. Hunt did not contest that, but he said “reducing inflation compared to the level it would have been [means] that people’s household income is higher than it otherwise would have been”.
Updated
As Helena Horton reported yesterday, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, flew from London to Manchester for the Conservative conference.
Asked about this on BBC Breakfast this morning, Hunt said:
I took a BA flight because I was told that my train had been cancelled.
He also said that he would probably be driving home on Wednesday because there is another rail strike that day.
Updated
Q: What is happening on social care? You promised reform, but nothing has happened?
Hunt says he allocated more money for social care last year.
Q: That’s not structural reform.
Hunt says, at the next election, Rishi Sunak will say to the country that he is the person to fix difficult problems. And he has done that already – for example, with the Windsor framework, which solved very complicated problems relating to the Northern Ireland protocol.
And that’s the end of Hunt’s today interview.
Q: You want to make the public sector more effective. But there are reports today that doctors are making profits from going on strike, because they can charge so much for strike cover.
Monday's TIMES: Doctor handed £7,900 to cover one strike shift#tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/FeIQKAwH4F
— Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) October 1, 2023
Hunt says he wants to do things differently. In the past the Treasury has focused on short-term savings. For example, it might cancel an IT project. But that drives up costs in the long run.
He says he wants to reduce the amount of time doctors spend on admin.
Q: How are you going to change the work capability assessment (the test used to determine if people can get sickness benefits)?
Hunt says Mel Stride will set out the details in due course. But the intention is to ensure that people with medical conditions do not get parked on benefits. Could the government help them more by giving them treatment first?
Q: Do you think there are people gaming the system, turning down reasonable job offers?
There may be, says Hunt. “I don’t know.” But he says there is a social contract, where there is a safety net, but people are expected to work if they can.
Hunt says he would like to cut taxes but to do so now 'would be inflationary'
Q: Are you going to force benefit claimants to work?
Hunt says the government cannot force people to work. But there are people who have been out of work for more than a year. The government will review sanctions. But it will also increase the value of the national living wage.
Q: Taxes are going up for people on low wages, because thresholds are not going up.
Hunt says he accepts overall taxes have gone up. In his speech, he will chart a path to get them down. There will be a choice in politics, he says, because Labour is no proposing to cut taxes.
Q: So your message to Liz Truss is you won’t cut taxes now. What do you say to Michael Gove, who wants tax cuts before an election.
Hunt says he would like to cut taxes, but to do so now would be inflationary. Cutting inflation gives a boost to people, he says.
Updated
Q: Can you say when we will hear about HS2 to Manchester?
Hunt says he cannot answer that now. But he says, when the government makes an announcement, it must address why it costs 10 times more to build high speed rail in the UK than in France.
Updated
Nick Robinson is interviewing Jeremy Hunt on the Today programme at 8.10.
Q: You say you want to take long-term decisions in the national interest. But Liz Truss said exactly the same last year?
Hunt says the government had turned a corner over the past year. There are no short cuts, he says. The UK recovered faster than France and Germany after the pandemic. And inflation is down from 11%, he says.
Updated
Jeremy Hunt says national living wage to rise to at least £11 an hour next year
Good morning. One reason why the Conservative party conference is difficult for Rishi Sunak is that, when Tory members were last given the chance to vote in a leadership contest, last summer, they voted for Liz Truss, not Sunak. As Truss’s premiership was collapsing, she appointed Jeremy Hunt as chancellor, despite the fact that he was also beaten in the preceding leadership contest, in 2019, by Boris Johnson. Hunt remains in post, and today he is delivering his first speech to the conference as chancellor. In Tory election terms, the government is quite literally being led by two losers.
In normal circumstances it would be easy to overlook this, but today the only person at the conference who has actually won a Tory leadership contest in the last decade, Truss herself, is speaking at a fringe event. It is the only speech she will be giving. The former PM clearly wants to be a powerbroker in the party in the event of a likely election defeat, and the rally will be a measure of how much support there is for the rightwing, free market faction she champions.
This morning Hunt has been doing a media interview round. As Pippa Crerar and Rowena Mason report, overnight he announced that the minimum wage was going up and that sanctions for benefit claimants were being tightened.
The Tories have also released this excerpt from Hunt’s speech about the increase in the national living wage. Hunt will describe the national living wage as “another great Conservative reform”. While not quite a lie, this is monstrously misleading (in line with some of the claims Rishi Sunak was making yesterday). The national living wage is essentially the minimum wage, which was introduced by Labour after 1997 in the face of strong opposition from the Conservative party and which has turned out to be one of the most successful labour market reforms of the last 30 years. George Osborne renamed it the national living wage in 2015 when he made it more generous for the over-25s (now the over-23s), but it is not the same as the living wage set by the Living Wage Foundation.
Hunt will say:
Today I want to complete another great Conservative reform, the national living wage.
Since we introduced it, nearly 2 million people have been lifted from absolute poverty.
That’s the Conservative way of improving the lives of working people. Boosting pay, cutting tax.
But today, we go further with another great Conservative invention, the national living wage.
We promised in our manifesto to raise the national living wage to two thirds of median income – ending low pay in this country.
At the moment it is £10.42 and hour and we are waiting for the Low Pay Commission to confirm its recommendation for next year.
But I confirm today, whatever that recommendation, we will increase it next year to at least £11 an hour.
A pay rise for over 2 million workers.
The wages of the lowest paid over £9,000 a year higher than they were in 2010 – because if you work hard a Conservative government will always have your back.
Here is the agenda for the day.
8.30am: Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, speaks at a Rusi fringe meeting.
11am: Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, opens proceedings in the main conference hall. Other speakers in the morning are Mark Harper, the transport secretary, at 11.15am and Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, at 11.30am.
11am: James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, speaks at a fringe meeting on China.
12.30pm: Liz Truss, the former PM, speaks at a fringe event called the Great British Growth Rally. Other speakers include Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, and Dame Priti Patel, the former home secretary.
2pm: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, delivers his conference speech. The other afternoon platform speakers are Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, 2.15pm, Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, at 2.30pm, Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, at 2.45pm and Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, at 3pm.
3pm: Miriam Cates, Danny Kruger, Sir Jake Berry and Sir Iain Duncan Smith are among the speakers at a rally organised by the New Conservatives.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
Updated
