A summary of today's developments
Sir Keir Starmer in his party conference speech in Liverpool said Labour would invest more in the NHS but the damage done by the Tories means “this time the rescue will be harder than ever”. He says Labour will also set a target to get home ownership up to 70%. (It is currently 65% in England.)
Starmer said Labour would set up Great British Energy – a new company – within the first year of government. It would take advantages of the opportunities for clean power and would be publicly owned. He said: “Many European, Asian, and American countries have public generating companies, like EDF in France and Vattenfall in Sweden, which partner with the private sector to increase capacity and build clean energy at scale.” The TUC and the CBI both welcomed the proposal.
Labour MP Rupa Huq has offered the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, “sincere and heartfelt apologies” for her “ill-judged” comments describing him as “superficially” black. Huq has had the Labour whip suspended. The MP said: “I have today contacted Kwasi Kwarteng to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies for the comments I made at yesterday’s Labour conference fringe meeting. “My comments were ill-judged and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone affected.”
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, called for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for his “crime of aggression”.
Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said Keir Starmer’s speech today was “a start” but that he should be bolder.
Water bosses could go to jail if they deliberately mislead investigations into water pollution, Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, told the conference. He mentioned the new penalties as he used his speech to say the next Labour government would “finally hold water bosses personally accountable” for their failures to stop sewage discharges.
Updated
Parly is reporting that Peter Bone is no longer deputy speaker of the House of Commons.
Peter Bone is no longer deputy leader of the House of Commons. https://t.co/bJayRYpBio
— PARLY (@PARLYapp) September 27, 2022
