Summary of the day …
Keir Starmer and top Labour colleagues are to stop taking clothes gifts from donors after days of controversy
Nigel Farage said the Conservative brand is “bust” during a speech at the Reform UK conference where he also said the first few weeks of Starmer’s government have been ‘truly shocking’
The Reform UK leader also said the party did not welcome “bigots” as other speeches during the day targeted immigrants, drag queens and vegans
In his speech at the event, Richard Tice, deputy chair of Reform UK, which is run by Farage as a private company, criticised people for falling for cults. Multi-millionaire Rupert Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, gave an ugly speech which punched down on minorities and leaned into antisemitic conspiracy theory tropes
Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick wrote for the Daily Mail a piece which the paper said argued “mass immigration and woke culture have put England’s national identity at risk. Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London described it as “unashamed ethnonationalism/racism from Jenrick”
A report by Labour Together warned that Labour must focus on the NHS and cost of living to keep former Tory voters who backed Starmer’s party in July onside
Thousands of jobs could be at risk and dozens of government construction projects paused as ISG, one of the UK’s largest contractors, filed for administration
Price comparison websites and energy brokers will be regulated in a bid to end their alleged “license to scam”, the energy consumers minister Miatta Fahnbulleh has said
Members of the largest trade union in the NHS in Scotland have voted in favour of a 5.5% pay rise offered by the Scottish government
Scotland’s first minister John Swinney met today with the newly appointed chair of Great British Energy Jürgen Maier
Polling by Savanta has found that half of the UK public say that it will be unacceptable for Labour to continue blaming the Conservatives after a year in government, while Ipsos say their latest survey shows half of Britons are disappointed with what Labour have done in government so far
My colleagues Peter Walker and Ben Quinn have filed this report from the Reform UK conference today …
Keir Starmer and top Labour colleagues to stop taking clothes gifts from donors
Pippa Crerar and Rowena Mason report for the Guardian
Keir Starmer and his top team will no longer accept free gifts of clothes from Labour donors, as it emerged that Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner also received donations for work outfits.
After the row over the Labour peer Waheed Alli funding Starmer’s work wardrobe, the prime minister is understood to have decided he will not take donations to pay for clothes in future.
Alli had given him £2,435 worth of glasses and £16,200 worth of work clothing, as well as a stay in a £18m penthouse luxury apartment. Starmer may have broken parliamentary rules in failing to declare clothes bought for his wife by Lord Alli within 28 days of receiving them.
The Guardian can also reveal that Rayner, the deputy prime minister, was given a donation for work clothing from Alli in June. This was declared a donation in kind from the peer worth £3,550, without saying it was for outfits. She is understood to have contacted the registrar of interests to give a fuller description of the donation.
Reeves has accepted a donation of £7,500 from a donor, Juliet Rosenfeld, since the beginning of last year, which was used to pay for clothing, but it did not amount to a donation in kind.
It is understand that Rayner and Reeves have also decided not to take any future donations of this kind for clothing.
Read more here: Keir Starmer and top Labour colleagues to stop taking clothes gifts from donors
Farage: first few weeks of Starmer government have been 'truly shocking'
Speaking at the Reform UK conference today, Nigel Farage started his speech with a visual gag about the prime minister accepting glasses as a gift, and went on to describe the first weeks of Keir Starmer being in Downing Street as “truly shocking”.
The Clacton MP said:
As for Labour, I mean, goodness me. Have you ever known a new prime minister get off to a worse start than Keir Starmer? It’s truly shocking. I mean, the message of “things can only get worse” is hardly inspiring, is it?
Farage went on to claim “We’re living in a state with two-tier policing. We’re living in a state with two-tier justice” and said that people had “had enough already” of Starmer’s leadership of the country.
Starmer, Rayner, Reeves will no longer accept donations for clothes – reports
Some breaking news at the moment that Labour have announced Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves will not accept any further donations for clothing.
More details soon …
As somebody who has covered a lot of US politics as well as UK politics it is interesting the extent to which Reform UK adopt Trump-esque talking points that they hope will resonate here.
There has clearly been a bloc of voters in the UK – chiefly in England it must be said – who regardless of whether Nigel Farage’s vehicle is branded Ukip, the Brexit party or Reform UK, will vote for a party that positions itself as “anti-establishment” and claims to be suspicious of or against international treaties, courts and supra-national organisations. Whether doubling-down on attacks on immigrants, the LGBT community and citing antisemitic conspiracy tropes while trying to drag more people to vote for them is going to work as a strategy in the UK remains to be seen.
Nigel Farage says Reform UK does not care about people’s skin colour or sexual orientation, they believe in meritocracy. Earlier Rupert Lowe MP said it was nice to speak at an event with “a paucity of rainbow lanyards”.
Having watched a lot of political speeches over the years it ended on a quite an odd note there about his debanking and complaining about DEI, but Farage is speaking again tomorrow to close the event, which is presumably when he will finish with more of an exhortation for people to volunteer as candidates and become councillors.
Nigel Farage is now complaining about Alison Rose getting another job after he raised his debanking campaign and she resigned. He says her new job is in diversity and inclusion. These are very US Republican talking points.
Farage: the Conservative brand is 'bust and broken'
Nigel Farage launches a personal attack on the people vying to be the next Conservative leader although he does not name any of them directly.
He makes a joke based on James Clevery’s name and how Farage perceives his IQ. He laughs about Kemi Badenoch claiming that working at McDonald’s for a week made her working class. He suggests that Tom Tugendhat has been campaigning as a Liberal Democrat, and says that Robert Jenrick is saying things that people in the hall would agree with but has no conviction and would lead a divided party anyway.
He says “I don’t give a damn” who becomes Tory leader.
Nigel Farage describes the audience as “4,000 good folk” which appears to confirm that the attendance is in line with what Reform UK was briefing. Ticket prices ranged from £20 to over £1,000 to be at the event.
Farage says the party is aiming to field 2,000 candidates in county elections next year.
Party conferences sometimes focus a little bit on the nuts and bolts, and Nigel Farage has spent a long time here talking about shareholder structures. He boasts that in two months Reform UK has set up more than 250 new constituency associations. He says they don’t want “bigots” in the party. Speeches today at the NEC have repeatedly punched down on minorities and cited antisemitic conspiracy tropes.
Nigel Farage asks the audience to give Richard Tice a round of applause while slightly negging him by saying he had kept Reform UK going along, but it was not being big enough or rich enough or organised enough when the general election came. Farage says his job is to professionalise and democratise Reform UK. Up to this point, Nigel Farage has run Reform UK as a private company.
Nigel Farage’s speech at the Reform UK conference starts all about him and his decision to return to frontline politics. He says since 2019 and the Boris Johnson-era that there had been a “complete breach of trust with the British public on a truly historic scale”. He said he was upset about the damage it did for democracy and says with some grievance that he had stood the Brexit party down in 2019 against Johnson.
Nigel Farage is making two speeches at the Reform UK conference, one is about to start, and then he makes the closing speech tomorrow. He is being introduced to the stage like a boxer’s entrance to the ring with a soundtrack of Eminem’s Without Me looped around this verse …
Now, this looks like a job for me
So everybody, just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty without me
There are towers of sparklers going off on stage. He has definitely had a look at the Donald Trump rally playbook. Earlier today it was reported that Reform UK were expecting 4,000 paying customers at the event. Farage starts with a visual gag about having some glasses that he has paid for – unlike Keir Starmer’s – and says he doesn’t think there has ever been a political conference “this fun”.
Zia Yusuf finishes by saying Reform UK are aiming to put Nigel Farage in Downing Street in 2029 to usher in a new age of hope and prosperity for the country, and says they will “Put British people first”.
Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf says “it is no exaggeration that the world would look very different if it wasn’t for our little island”. Maybe he had the Parthenon in mind during this passage.
Chair Zia Yusuf of Reform UK has claimed that the party structures of Labour and the Conservatives are “corrupted”. Yesterday Nigel Farage announced that he is going to give up running Reform UK as a private company.
The Reform UK conference is running behind schedule. Chairman Zia Yusuf is on next. Nigel Farage will follow. I’ll bring you the key lines as they emerge.
In his speech, Richard Tice, deputy chair of Reform UK which is led by Nigel Farage, criticises people for falling for cults, among which he counts “the cult of mass immigration” and “the cult of net zero”.
He described Ed Miliband as the most dangerous person in the government and rails against solar panels. He praises the UAE and Saudi Arabia for extracting oil and gas as fast as they can.
Tice drew warm applause for a long passage criticising Keir Starmer at the start of the speech. He has definitely hit on a Trump-esque formula of trying to give people hashtaggable nicknames. I’m old enough to now have nostalgia for #ZaNuLieBore in the late 1990s.
There appear to have been some technical issues with the sound in the hall and Tice says “that’s the establishment trying to cut me off”.
Lee Anderson criticises wide range of groups in conference speech
Lee Anderson MP is speaking now at the Reform UK conference. So far it has been a checklist of the usual suspects targeted by the party. He has attacked drag queens in schools, the “under-nourished grey-haired vegans” of Just Stop Oil, immigrants, Black Lives Matter, renewable energy and so on.
Anderson is one of those politicians that tells feely-stories that people want to hear and that are too vague to factcheck. For example, he claims that Just Stop Oil shut down “the whole of the capital city” and the London police just did the Macarena in response. The audience are lapping it up.
He calls Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, a “disgrace”, says he will never apologise to “that man”, and says he should be “booted out of office”. London has elected Sadiq Khan three times.
It is more of a standup routine than a political speech. He theatrically rips up a reminder to pay his TV Licence on stage to chants of “Rip it up”. He claims at one point that the UK has invented 51% of inventions invented in the last 1,000 years[CITATION NEEDED].
Updated
Rupert Lowe has finished his speech by criticising democracy because among other things women will want to be treated like men and foreigners will want to be treated like natives. He said that without Reform UK, British people will lose their way of life to the “subversive forces” against them. Among them he lists the World Economic Forum, the Bilderberg Meeting, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization. This section is laced with antisemitic conspiracy tropes.
I’m only watching on video, not in the hall, but Rupert Lowe has been generating applause in the room by promising to end things and leave things. The biggest cheers went to defunding the BBC and abolishing 20 mph speed limits. There were also cheers for reversing devolution, leaving the ECHR, and repealing the 1997 Human Rights Act and the 2010 Equality Act. There is slightly less applause when Lowe moaned about FSMA2000, possibly because it is not such a household name. This has been an ugly speech punching down on minorities.
Updated
Multi-millionaire Rupert Lowe has started his speech at the Reform UK conference with a jibe at the LGBT community, by saying it is welcome to be speaking somewhere where there is “a paucity of rainbow lanyards” on display.
He has also mentioned “Orwellian virtue-signalling double-speak”, and there were huge cheers in the room when he criticised the “entire Covid response pandemic” as a scandal and he claimed people had been forced to take an experimental jab.
People hiss and boo as he lists Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson as having undermined the Restoration Settlement of the 1660s with constitutional changes in 1997. He’s clearly read Liz Truss’s book.
There were boos in the room for a mention of Keir Starmer before Lowe started, as deputy co-leader Dr David Bull gave a lengthy critique of the prime minister accepting gifts and donations.
Updated
Aletha Adu is a political correspondent for the Guardian
Keir Starmer won the election because of a ruthless focus on winning over people who voted Conservative in 2019, but the party has been left with a “fragile coalition” of supporters who will abandon them if they fail to deal with the cost of living crisis and the NHS, a thinktank has found.
In a report by Labour Together, a highly influential Starmerite thinktank, researchers concluded voters had “cautiously hired” the prime minister “on a trial basis”, and he was “liable to prompt dismissal” if his government deviated even slightly from focusing on voters’ priorities.
The thinktank reported their findings to key No 10 figures, including Pat McFadden and Morgan McSweeney, in a Cabinet Office meeting last week.
The researchers, who are regarded as the government’s “critical friend”, said they were honest and direct about the challenges they believed lay ahead for Starmer’s top team.
Officials were told that if the government did not deliver for voters, who have become more transactional than ever, they could easily face the same fate the Conservatives did after the 2019 election.
The report is based on a survey of 10,000 people across the country in polling and small focus groups, asking them why they voted the way they did. Labour Together had decided to launch this assessment of Labour’s performance once the general election was called in May, regardless of the result at the ballot box.
Read more from Aletha Adu here: Labour must focus on NHS and cost of living to keep former Tory voters, study finds
They have had a long two hour lunch at the Reform UK conference. The Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe is down to speak at 3pm, and he has been vociferously defending himself on social media today after an article in the FT claimed there had been a backlash from some MPs about Lowe giving his MPs salary away to charity.
In the piece by George Parker and Anna Gross, two anonymous MPs are quoted. One from Labour said “It’s all very well for him to do this, but of course there are some people who think MPs shouldn’t be paid and that we should do the same,” while a Conservative MP said “He’s a multi-millionaire and he’s not really an MP in the way that most of us are.”
In a post on social media Lowe said in his defence:
I donate my entire net MP salary to Great Yarmouth charities, I put no pressure on other MPs to do the same. If other local MPs don’t like it, tough. If all goes well, they’ll be out of a job at the next election anyway.
Next up for my donation? A local charity that is providing hot food, warm spaces and other necessary support for pensioners in Great Yarmouth who have been abandoned by this cruel Labour government. Each month, different local charities will be chosen for my donation. Those complaining should speak to them.
You can enjoy watching this afternoon’s session of the Reform UK conference on their YouTube channel if you’d like. Nigel Farage is speaking at 4pm. Lee Anderson and Richard Tice are also speaking before then. I’ll bring you any key lines that emerge.
Cabinet Office implements 'detailed contingency plans' as construction firm ISG heads for collapse
Jack Simpson is a business reporter for the Guardian
Thousands of jobs could be at risk and dozens of government construction projects paused as ISG, one of the UK’s largest contractors, filed for administration.
In the biggest collapse of a UK construction company since Carillion, the ISG chief executive, Zoe Price, confirmed in an email on Thursday that the company had filed for administration and shut down all of its sites.
ISG is involved in 69 live central government schemes, including several projects as part of the Ministry of Justice’s plan to increase the capacity in Britain’s prisons by an extra 20,000 spaces.
It is also working on schemes for the Department for Work and Pensions and several school building projects.
The Cabinet Office said it had implemented “detailed contingency plans” and departments were working to ensure sites were safe and secure.
Read more here: More than 3,000 jobs could be at risk as construction firm ISG heads for collapse
My colleagues Peter Walker and Ben Quinn are at the Reform UK conference today, which is being held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. Reports this morning suggested Reform UK were expecting about 4,000 paid ticket holders to attend.
The queue for food at the Reform conference is the longest I’ve ever seen, and that includes music festivals. This is the back and it goes right around the corner. I counted 200+ people in it. pic.twitter.com/bhL1xTtVyC
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 20, 2024
The event is now in the middle of a two hour lunch break in the main hall, but there are fringe panels taking place.
A fringe event at the Reform conference about the nanny state is currently hearing from a man from tobacco giant JTI. Oddly enough, he doesn’t seem in favour of the nanny state. pic.twitter.com/h2A80rOjCn
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 20, 2024
Earlier TV personality Ant Middleton warned the country was on the brink of civil unrest.
PA Media quotes him saying:
What’s British identity? British culture. What’s British culture? British history. So why is that being eradicated? Why is that being trampled all over? Why aren’t we allowed to be the umbrella culture of this country? The moment we lose our identity, guess what we lose? Our purpose, our focus, our direction. What happens when we don’t have an identity? We get confused.
PA Media reports he went on to say he lost his identity and got confused after leaving the military.
Ant Middleton - ex solider & TV presenter - at the Reform UK conference talking about looming ‘civil unrest’
— Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) September 20, 2024
‘We are on the edge .. violence has hit the streets’ pic.twitter.com/2AgH2SYcb3
Middleton was dropped by Channel 4 in 2021. At the time the channel said its “views and values” did not align with those of the former soldier after on social media he called Black Lives Matters protesters “scum” and told people to ignore safety measures implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Updated
Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has met today with the newly appointed chair of Great British Energy Jürgen Maier, alongside Chris Stark, who heads up the UK government’s Clean Power 2030 unit.
The SNP leader is quoted by PA Media saying:
Clean, green energy represents a massive opportunity for Scotland. Not only does it help tackle climate change but it can be a huge stimulus of jobs and prosperity for Scotland for decades to come.
We welcome the creation of Great British Energy and Clean Power 2030, and now it is up to Scotland to maximise the investment and opportunities that will come to projects in Scotland from these initiatives. It is a chance we will grasp with both hands.
In May, prior to the general election, Swinney warned that “a lot of what I hear of Labour’s energy plans will result in a significant loss of employment in the north-east of Scotland in the oil and gas sector and I don’t want to be part of that.”
Members of the largest trade union in the NHS in Scotland have voted in favour of a 5.5% rise offered by the Scottish government.
Unison said 89% of balloted members voted for the deal, but warned the government against “complacency”, saying ministers need to be “far better at dealing with the annual pay round”.
PA Media reports Unison Scotland lead organiser for health, Matt McLaughlin, said: “There’s considerable anger that it’s taken 200 days to get an offer on the table.”
Green Party of England and Wales MP Ellie Chowns has been promoting on social media her work on attempting to clear up pollution from rivers the originates from industrial poultry farming.
In a post, Chowns, who was elected to represent North Herefordshire in July, said:
We’re calling on the govt to clean up rivers affected by industrial poultry production. Intensive farming has increased the levels of phosphates finding their way in to our rivers: devastating wildlife and plants. Companies mustn’t profit from pollution.
Chowns has agreed to present to parliament a 30,000-strong petition on cleaning up the River Wye and other rivers organised by the charity Soil Association, and has tabled a parliamentary question on the issue.
Government set to put new regulations on energy price comparison websites
Price comparison websites and energy brokers will be regulated in a bid to end their alleged “license to scam”, the energy consumers minister has said.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, MP for Peckham, said a new framework to regulate third-party intermediaries could end hidden fees “and other unethical tactics”.
Energy watchdog Ofgem published a report earlier this year which found examples of business stakeholders’ “mis-selling concerns”, for example, being “locked into a contract at higher prices than they needed to be for multiple years, which can severely impact business viability”.
Fahnbulleh said:
We will bring these intermediaries under control and put an end to hidden fees and other unethical tactics. A new regulatory framework, coupled with clear rules and standards, will restore trust and protect consumers while helping to build an energy market fit for the future – one where these organisations help people save money through fairer practices and show them the best ways to reduce their carbon footprint.
The government is launching a consultation which ends in mid-November.
There is some new Marina Hyde for your enjoyment …
Away from Reform’s conference, Labour has blamed a “dire economic inheritance from the previous government” on a jump in government borrowing last month.
Official figures today show public sector debt hit 100% of gross domestic product in August for the first time since the early 1960s.
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said the borrowing figures were “far worse than expected”, having come in higher than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The MP said the Treasury was facing a black hole in public finances that it was “going to have to address in the Budget” with “difficult decisions around taxation, welfare and spending” to come.
James McMurdock, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, has spoken at the Reform UK conference. He had only paid to join Reform UK two months before the election. He got a loud cheer in the hall after demanding that foreign-born prisoners in prisons in England and Wales be deported.
Claiming “There are people in this very room who will be Reform MPs alongside me in 2029,” there were also loud cheers when he said “The momentum is absolutely on our side. Nigel, or as I should call him the Honourable Member for Clacton, and Richard, the Honourable Member for Boston and Skegness, are the people to lead us into Downing Street. We will then be ready to welcome Nigel Farage, not just as a member of parliament, but as the prime minister.”
Ann Widdecombe is speaking next, followed by television personality Ant Middleton, and then lunch is scheduled between 1pm and 3pm. I’ll bring you key lines later when Reform UK’s other MPs are speaking.
Incidentally I’ve been emailed by someone called David and gently chided that he believes technically the National Exhibition Centre where the event is being held isn’t actually in Birmingham, it is in fact claimed by Solihull. This appears to have opened an entire can of worms, as Marston Green also has a claim.
Dr David Bull, Reform UK’s co-deputy leader, has opened their conference in Birmingham. He said the party was new and had achieved an incredible result in the general election by obtaining over 4m votes. There were huge cheers when he claimed they were the fastest growing party in the history of British politics, and claimed Reform UK has nearly 80,000 “members”, which is close, he said, to the number that the Conservatives have.
There were boos from the audience for the electoral system, as he said that Liberal Democrats had a much higher number of MPs despite having fewer votes. He also said that the mainstream British political parties had “betrayed the British people” in the way they had implemented leaving the European Union. Bull was briefly an MEP for the Brexit party.
PA Media reports that leader Nigel Farage received a standing ovation when he entered the hall.
There are about 5,000 people watching the start of the Reform UK conference in Birmingham via their YouTube channel. James McMurdock MP and Ann Widdecombe are the first up to speak. You can watch it here if you would like …
As incredible as it may seem, there are still six weeks left of the Conservative party leadership contest. Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat remain in contention to replace Rishi Sunak as the official leader of the opposition.
In campaigning today Cleverly has been promoting what he claims is his record of delivery, Tugendhat has been congratulating some newly elected Conservative councillors, declaring that “it’s clear people are already rejecting Labour leadership”, and Badenoch has been promoting her recent interview with GB News’ Christopher Hope with a knowing wink emoji about her comments that working at McDonald’s making her working class which caused an online stir earlier this week.
It's not enough to say you'll do something, you have to actually deliver on your promises.
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) September 20, 2024
Great to be in Sidcup last night talking to members about my record of delivery as Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and as Chairman of the Party. pic.twitter.com/KqflSE48be
Congratulations to Tim, Ryan, Susan, Thomas, Jack, and Mazi on their by-election wins!
— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) September 20, 2024
You will all be remarkable councillors, and serve your communities with integrity.
Across the country, it's clear people are already rejecting Labour leadership. pic.twitter.com/MxkWUwmBzX
🔗 Check out my full interview with @christopherhope as I talk about my earlier life, working at McDonald’s, becoming working-class …😉,
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) September 20, 2024
losing my dad….and how the Conservative Party needs to pick a champion for Conservative values as its next leader!https://t.co/nSPUAbVRXj
Jenrick, meanwhile, has written for the Daily Mail. In what the paper describes as a “hard-hitting article”, it says he has claimed “mass immigration and woke culture have put England’s national identity at risk.”
Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London has described it on social media as “unashamed ethnonationalism/racism from Jenrick”
Unashamed ethnonationalism/racism from Jenrick
— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) September 20, 2024
"A nation should put its own citizens first. But when half of all social housing in London is occupied by those born abroad, it's clear this isn't always happening."
Vast majority *are* British citizenshttps://t.co/0ddk7nasHZ pic.twitter.com/x8u6JyArn1
Here are some of pictures from the Reform UK conference which is starting today in Birmingham.
Heathrow Express staff are to launch a 48-hour strike on Monday in a dispute over pay. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said its members overwhelming rejected a 3.5% pay offer.
PA Media reports general secretary Mick Lynch said “They are determined to secure fair pay and better working conditions. [Management must] return to the table with a meaningful offer.”
A Heathrow Express spokesperson said “There will be no disruption to Heathrow Express services as a result of this action.”
My colleagues Ben Quinn and Peter Walker are both in Birmingham for the Reform UK conference which is gradually wending its way to starting.
It is believed that about 4,000 people have paid to attend, with ticket prices ranging from £20 for young members, up to £1,025 if you wanted the platinum ticket that includes “Saturday morning champagne breakfast with Reform leadership and a photograph with Nigel Farage.”
Reform UK conference
— Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) September 20, 2024
The flagoff against Labour starts pic.twitter.com/4Vlcz6qa6w
Big queues to get in, and an early choice: the Bear Grylls Experience or the Ant Middleton Experience (the latter is speaking at Reform) pic.twitter.com/8TQuNUbsDW
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 20, 2024
Mel Stride, who has exited the Conservative leadership contest, but remains shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, has attacked Labour again over its decision to means-test winter fuel payments.
Stride posted to social media to say:
Labour ministers have now been forced to admit that 86% of pensioners in absolute poverty will lose their winter fuel payment this winter. It should not take me asking an official question, which they are required to answer, to get this information. No wonder they’ve been so reluctant to answer basic questions about the impact. They want the public to think those who really need support will continue to receive it. They knew the reality all along – but chose not to reveal it before parliament debated the issue.
Stride linked to an answer earlier this week from Labour’s Emma Reynolds, where she said “For the latest year 2022/23, 1.4 million pensioners were in absolute poverty AHC in the UK. Of these, 200,000 pensioners were in receipt of Pension Credit, approximately 14%.”
In his comments Stride did not address the issue of why the previous Conservative administration had presided over 1.4 million pensions being in “absolute poverty” during that period.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that people in England and Wales who do not receive pension credit or certain other means-tested benefits will no longer receive winter fuel payments. 53 Labour MPs did not vote with the government on the winter fuel payments decision when it was voted on it parliament.
Deputy chair Richard Tice has also attacked the government over this today, during his media appearances ahead of the Reform UK conference in Birmingham, which starts around noon-ish. He told viewers of GB News earlier:
I’ve got over 22,200 pensioners losing that winter fuel allowance, furious. I had a pensioner in Boston just two weeks ago literally shake my hand and burst into tears of fear as to whether or not she would see the end of winter because she was worried about being so cold. No, I think this Labour government has got no idea how to create growth, no idea actually, how to protect pensioners. They seem to view pensioners as people that they can dismiss.
There has been a couple of interesting bits of polling out this morning, neither of which make great reading for Labour ahead of their first annual conference while being in power for more than a decade.
Savanta have found that half of the UK public say that it will be unacceptable for Labour to continue blaming the Conservatives after a year in government, fewer than one in seven UK adults think there will be any noticeable improvement to life in the UK in that time, and that a third of the public say that Labour in government has been too negative about the challenges facing the UK.
Ipsos, meanwhile, saytheir latest survey shows half of Britons say that they are disappointed with what Labour have done in government so far, including a quarter of those who voted for the party in July. And Britons are slightly more likely to think the Labour government will change Britain for the worse (36%) than the better (31%). Keir Starmer’s personal approval rating has declined significantly.
Reform UK set to hold conference in Birmingham with Farage, Tice, Anderson all speaking
I mentioned that the main event “on diary” today is the Reform UK conference in Birmingham. According to the agenda, today delegates will be hearing from …
12.15 James McMurdock MP (South Basildon and East Thurrock)
12.30 Ann Widdecombe
15.00 Rupert Lowe MP (Great Yarmouth)
15.15 Lee Anderson MP (Ashfield, Reform UK chief whip)
15.30 Richard Tice MP (Boston and Skegness, Reform UK deputy chair)
15.45 Zia Yusuf (Reform UK chair)
16.00 Nigel Farage MP (Clacton, Reform UK leader)
TV personality Ant Middleton from SAS: Who Dares Wins is also speaking. Reform UK took 14.3% of the vote in July’s general election, and it is their first conference since having MPs elected – Anderson was elected in the previous parliament as a Conservative.
Lowe, Anderson and Tice have been extremely active in the media this morning. My colleagues Peter Walker and Ben Quinn published this interview with Tice earlier.
Richard Partington is the Guardian’s economics correspondent
UK national debt has hit 100% of the country’s annual economic output, the highest level since the 1960s, underscoring the challenge facing the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as she prepares for next month’s budget.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said the figures demonstrated the challenging state of the public finances left by the Conservatives, which would force Labour to take “tough decisions” to rebuild the economy.
“When we came into office, we inherited an economy that wasn’t working for working people. Today’s data shows the highest August borrowing on record, outside the pandemic. Debt is 100% of GDP, the highest level since the 1960s,” he said.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the government’s debt pile as a share of gross domestic product increased by 4.3 percentage points over the year to August to reach a size equal to the annual value of everything produced in the economy.
Government borrowing – the difference between public sector spending and income – was £13.7bn, an increase of £3.3bn on the same month a year earlier, and the third highest August deficit since monthly records began in January 1993.
The latest snapshot of the public finances from the ONS showed that while tax receipts grew strongly in August, this was outweighed by higher expenditure – largely driven by benefits uprating and higher spending on public services due to increased running costs and pay.
Read more of Richard Partington’s report here: UK debt hits 100% of GDP, the highest level since 1960s
Tice defends Farage's record of appearances in parliament
Richard Tice has been out beating the drum for Reform UK in a series of media appearances ahead of their conference later today. He defended leader Nigel Farage’s record of appearances in parliament, claiming that “no one works harder than Nigel Farage.”
Farage has spoken seven times in parliament since he was elected.
Speaking to PA Media, Reform UK’s deputy chair said:
As leader, you’ve got a huge job, because you’re campaigning everywhere. You’re sorting out the professionalisation with the chairman and so we’re sharing and sharing alike and that’s an important part of it. You can’t be everywhere all the time. It’s really difficult. But let me tell you, no one works harder than Nigel Farage.
Tice also defended Farage’s interest in campaigning abroad during the US election, telling PA Media:
As a leader of a party that is now becoming mainstream, international affairs, our relationship with our most important, strategic international partner – the US – is very important and the world will be a safer place if Donald Trump wins the presidential election. Nigel’s strong relationship with Donald Trump is actually to the benefit of this country and it’s quite right that he cements and strengthens that.
In a busy morning for him, Tice has also appeared on GB News, where he claimed that Reform UK, which was third in the July general election on vote share, he said that his party was the true opposition to the newly elected Labour government. He told viewers:
No one’s got more visibility, frankly, than Nigel on social media. I’m getting millions of views on mine. The other three MPs, likewise. We’re out there. We’re making a noise. Frankly, we are the real opposition. The Tories have vacated the premises, we hardly ever see them in the House of Commons.
I’ve spoken 16 times, I’ve challenged the zealot-in-chief, Ed Miliband. I’ve challenged the home secretary. I’ve challenged the health secretary on the failings of the NHS. So look, we’re holding them to account. That’s what people expect of opposition parties.
Yesterday Farage was embroiled in a row after he claimed he received official parliamentary advice against holding in-person surgeries for his constituents in Clacton – then his claim was immediately called into question by parliamentary insiders.
Updated
Phillips: government will deliver pilot scheme on 999 call handling of domestic abuse in 2025
On the morning media round Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, was also promoting government plans to embed specialist teams in police forces’ 999 control rooms with experience to deal with calls about domestic violence.
She told Sky News:
We have to stop this happening in the first place, and the government has a mission to halve the incidences of violence against women and girls in a decade.
And so much of that work is going to have to be about the prevention of perpetration, the changing of attitudes around healthy relationships within education, this is a mission that is going to take every Government department.
I don’t want to just give somebody who’s taken a beating a good [999] call. I want them not to take that beating in the first place.
Phillips said she was in discussions with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) over how many stations would be included in a pilot scheme, expected to launch in 2025.
In her appearance on Times Radio, PA Media reports Phillips said:
Actually working with police over the last couple of weeks, I think for the first time I am noticing how much they recognise there is a national emergency [of violence against women and girls], a total national emergency, and they are, I have to say, quite delighted that the Government is putting quite so much priority into it.
And so we will work with police forces across the country and from the centre to make sure that when we are asking them to do things, that can be delivered safely and reasonably.
I’m not going to do what the last government did, where they just announced a load of things that then meant nothing changed on the ground, literally nothing.
In comments released overnight, home secretary Yvette Cooper said “What we’ve seen is if there is proper domestic abuse expertise [on 999 calls], it means that you can get the right response to the calls that come in and proper understanding of the seriousness of domestic abuse as a crime and how lives are at risk.”
A domestic abuse protection order pilot is due to be launched in November that will place tougher sanctions on domestic abusers if they fail to stay away from their victims
Health secretary Wes Streeting has given a blunt one word answer on social media to a call by the Institute of Economic Affairs to “abolish the NHS” and replace it with a form of social insurance. “No,” said Streeting.
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) September 20, 2024
Jess Phillips: Starmer has lived by the rules and is breathing down people's necks to make sure everybody does
Jess Phillips has defended prime minister Keir Starmer over accusations that he has taken too many gifts while being a politician, saying he has lived “entirely by the rules” and was breathing down the necks of his ministers to make sure they were doing the right thing.
The Home Office minister and MP for Birmingham Yardley told Times Radio this morning:
The prime minister has lived entirely by the rules that have governed every single member of parliament, certainly since I’ve been there – he received gifts and things, and he declared them. Let me tell you, it feels like he’s breathing down my neck to make sure that we’re doing things right in my department.
We get invited to theatre performances and things, and you go along and you support the arts, and people want you to go to their things because they want it supported.
So if you can find me a politician who has never done anything like that, has never ever, you know, gone to their local theatre to watch something then, well, I think they’re lying to you.
Asked whether she would accept similar gifts to the prime minister, Phillips rather jokingly replied “I don’t like the Arsenal.”
There is also more news on troubled water company Thames Water. Some of the companies biggest lenders are considering easing repayment terms as it fights for survival.
It has said it has enough cash to keep its operations running until the end of May next year, but has announced it was seeking fresh repayment terms.
Thames Water was privatised by the Margaret Thatcher Conservative government in 1989. The company has continued to pay out dividends to shareholders in recent years despite accruing a debt exceeding £14bn.
You can read a report on the latest development from Anna Isaac here: Thames Water lenders ponder easing repayment terms as it fights to survive
The UK government has borrowed over £6bn more than forecast so far this financial year, after a jump in borrowing last month.
The Office for National Statistics has reported that the UK borrowed £13.7bn in August, which is £3.3bn more than in August 2023.
It’s the third highest borrowing for any August since 1993, and more than £1bn higher than the £12.4bn City economists had expected.
Read more on our business live blog: UK consumer confidence tumbles as households fear ‘painful’ budget; UK debt hits 100% of GDP – business live
PA Media is carrying some more quotes on the threat that financial penalties might be applied to Serco for a failure to electronically tag all of the prisoners released in England and Wales as part of the new Labour government’s attempt to deal with the prison overcrowding crisis it inherited from Rishi Sunak in July.
It quotes a Ministry of Justice spokesperson saying:
We are holding Serco to account to address delays in fitting some offenders with tags, and will apply financial penalties against the company if this is not resolved quickly. While this issue is ongoing, we have prioritised tagging domestic-abuse offenders to make sure their licence conditions, such as staying away from their victims, are strictly followed.
For its part, Serco has said:
Since we took over the electronic monitoring contract in May we have been working hard to reduce the number of people waiting to have a tag fitted. We work closely with the MoJ and the probation service to fit tags swiftly and prioritise cases based on risk profiles.
Where an individual is not at home when we call to fit a tag the time taken can be longer. We prioritise making another visit so that people are tagged as soon as possible.
Minister: Serco could face 'penalties' for delays in fitting released offenders with tags
Jess Phillips has suggested that Serco could face “penalties” for delays in fitting some offenders with electronic tags after they have been released from prison.
PA media reports she told LBC News radio “It’s not the Government who has made the backlog in tags, it is a contract signed with Serco in May this year.”
Yesterday it was reported that prisoners freed early to ease overcrowding in jails have not been fitted with electronic tags despite it being a condition of their release, prompting criticism from a parliamentary watchdog.
Phillips said:
I have been in meetings with regard to ensuring that … any perpetrators of domestic abuse, are put to the top of the list, to ensure that they are being fitted with those tags.
The prisons minister, I believe, has had some pretty robust meetings, and is meeting with Serco today, but the contract certainly has in it the allowances for there to be penalties.
I’m almost certain that in this case, that unless something massively improves very, very quickly, that all of those things will be considered.
Officials have declined to say how many of the 1,700 prisoners in England and Wales who were allowed out after serving 40% of their sentences last week were not given tracking devices. It is understood to be “hundreds” rather than “dozens”, a source told the Guardian.
Welcome and opening summary …
Good morning, welcome to our live UK politics coverage for Friday. Here are your headlines …
Jess Phillips has said Serco may face penalties over the failure to put electronic tags on early release offenders
Ministers and union leaders are to hold crunch talks over Labour’s workers’ rights plans
Senior ministers have said that “appalling” rows over Sue Gray must stop
Richard Tice has said Reform UK can learn from the Lib Dem’s ground campaigning operation
UK consumer confidence has falled sharply amid fears of a forthcoming “painful” budget
The main “on diary” event today is the Reform UK conference in Birmingham. The party had the third-highest vote share in July’s general election, and all five of its MPs are expected to speak today. Events will begin shortly after midday and run until around 5pm.
It is Martin Belam with you. The best way to get in touch with me, especially if you spot typos, errors and omissions is by email: martin.belam@theguardian.com.
