Andy Burnham says nationalising railways ‘a no brainer’ – as it happened

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, at a fringe event with the Guardian on the opening day of the annual Labour party conference in Liverpool Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

7.58pm BST

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6.56pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Keir Starmer has vowed to reinstate the top tax band for people who are paid more than £150,000 a year while keeping the planned cut in the basic rate of income tax, minutes after Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, said both should be restored.

• Starmer has unveiled plans to turn the UK into an independent green “superpower” before 2030.

• Burnham has said that renationalising the railways should be a “no-brainer” for Labour. At a Guardian fringe event at the conference, he said Labour needed to give voters a clearer idea of what it would do if it won the election. Nationalising the railways was a “no-brainer”, he said. (See 5.54pm.) He also suggested the party should propose rolling out nationally the £2 cap on bus fares he is introducing in Greater Manchester, building more affordable housing, offering social care on NHS terms and prioritising the interests of young people. And he said Labour should include proportional representation in its manifesto. How Britain is governed is not a niche issue but a core issue, he said. Delegates have voted to have a debate on PR. (See 3.34pm.) But, ahead of the vote, Starmer has said he will not put PR in the manifesto.

• Liz Truss plans to radically reshape the UK economy with even more tax cuts and fewer regulations, Kwasi Kwarteng, her chancellor, has said, declining to set a limit on how much public debt could be incurred in the process.

• Kwarteng has tried to play down concerns that ministers plan to tear up a series of environmental regulations in their push for growth, after a furious backlash from wildlife and green groups.

• Mark Fullbrook, Liz Truss’s new chief of staff, is being paid for through his lobbying company in a move that may help him minimise tax.

Andy Burnham in conversation with the Guardian editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, at the Labour conference in Liverpool. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Updated at 7.00pm BST