Early evening summary
Delegates at the Labour party conference have voted to include a commitment to proportional representation in the manifesto for the next election – even though Keir Starmer has already ruled out the idea. (See 6pm.)
The Green party has welcome the Labour conference’s decision to vote to put a commitment to proportional representation in the manifesto. (See 6pm.) Zack Polanski, the Green’s deputy leader, said:
It’s promising to see Labour members vote overwhelmingly to join with the rest of Europe and embrace modern, fair and proportional elections in the UK. However, it’s disappointing that Keir Starmer appears to remain unmoved by the democratic rights of his own members.
The Labour leadership needs to honour the wishes of members – as well as a growing number of unions and many Labour MPs – by ending their defence of a broken first-past-the-post system.
Two-party politics is long dead. We are in an era of multi-party politics, particularly for those who support progressive centre-left policies. It is in the interests of both Labour and the majority of the British public for their party to embrace PR.
If Keir Starmer does not listen to his members and back PR, it will leave him ensuring future Tory victories.
Updated
Labour conference votes to put pledge to introduce PR in manifesto - despite Starmer already ruling it out
The proportional representation motion has been carried.
There is quite loud cheering – even though Keir Starmer has said he will ignore the vote, and not include PR in the Labour manifesto.
The motion says:
Labour must make a commitment to introduce proportional representation for general elections in the next manifesto.
During his first term in office the next Labour government must change the voting system for general elections to a form of PR.
Labour should convene an open and inclusive process to decide the specific proportional voting system it will introduce.
There is a long history of Labour leaders ignoring conference votes they don’t like – even though conference is supposedly meant to be the supreme policy making body in the party.
But that does not mean votes of this kind are always pointless. Opinion on policy shifts over time, and at the very least this makes the case for PR harder to ignore.
As my colleague Jessica Elgot has pointed out (see 8.19am), the Labour manifesto could include some ambiguous waffle that does not commit the party to PR – but that could keep open the option of a move in that direction were Starmer to change his mind.
Updated
The “in conversation” has just ended. “You’ve all got fringes to go to,” Lucy Powell says.
But first they have to vote on the afternoon composites, including PR.
Updated
Starmer says mini-budget means Tories can no longer be party of aspiration, because they only care for those at top
Keir Starmer says the reaction of the markets against the mini-budget is not abstract. It means investors think their investments are at risk.
He says the Tories can never again claim to be the party of sound finances. He says Kwasi Kwarteng would never have been able to get a plan like that past Rachel Reeves. Her fiscal rules are like iron, he says.
And he says the mini-budget also means the Tories can never claim to be the party of aspiration, because they are holding back the aspirations of millions of people and only favouring those at the top.
Updated
Johnson 'all about character', Truss 'all about ideology', says Starmer
Keir Starmer urges Labour members to “enjoy just for one minute” that they got rid of Boris Johnson. That gets a round of applause.
He says Johnson was “all about character”. Liz Truss is “all about ideology”.
He says it is astonishing that Truss thought lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses would help people with the cost of living.
And he objects to the idea that the only people who grow the economy are those at the very top. He says this approach does not work, and it is immoral.
And he says the people how grow the economy are people like bus drivers, software engineers and teachers.
The “in conversation” has turned from football to politics, and Gary Neville says he was shocked by the mini-budget last week. And he suggests that the reason why Liz Truss opposes a windfall tax on energy companies is that she once worked for Shell.
Updated
Starmer says cross-party support for independent football regulator not guaranteed with Truss as PM
Starmer says he recently visited the Hillsborough memorial at Anfield. He says, with his son now going to football matches, he found it extraordinarily moving reading the names and ages of the people who were killed. He says when Labour gets into power, it will set up an independent regulator for football. (See 4.51pm.) He says this will bring justice for Hillsborough.
He says there was cross-party support for the report by Tracey Crouch proposing a regulator. But he thinks the plan is now under threat, because Liz Truss is ideologically opposed to “anything that looks like regulation”.
Updated
Starmer and Gary Neville in conversation
Keir Starmer is in conversation now with Gary Neville, the former England footballer and TV pundit. They are appearing with Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary. Earlier I said it was not clear who was interviewing whom, but now we know. Powell is moderating, and pitching questions to Starmer and Neville.
Starmer sounds a bit star-struck. He can’t stop laughing.
Powell asks him if he has any advice for Neville.
Starmer says coming into politics a bit later in life was helpful. He says Neville’s experience would stand him in good stead.
(But Neville said earlier today he does not want a career in politics. See 2.56pm.)
'No, nay, never' - Ian Murray restates Labour refusal to do deals with SNP
Labour will never do any deals with the SNP, the shadow Scottish secretary, Ian Murray, said in his speech. He told delegates:
[The SNP] don’t want to make devolution work.
They don’t want a Labour government.
Conference, let me be very clear – the SNP are not our friends – they exist for one reason only - to rip Scotland out of the UK.
And don’t forget, at the last election Nicola Sturgeon encouraged people in England to vote Green, not Labour.
So let me reiterate Keir’s message - No deals with the SNP.
None.
No, nay, never.
The only deal we want to make is directly with the Scottish people.
Updated
Nandy says Labour wants to see more people in social housing than in private rented sector
Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, told delegates in her speech that Labour wanted to make social housing the second most common form of housing again. She said:
The Tories have turned housing into a racket.
Incentivising speculation and profiteering while millions languish on waiting lists in cold damp homes.
So we will mend the deliberate vandalism of our social housing stock.
Because the idea of a home for life handed on in common ownership to future generations.
Is an idea worth fighting for.
Council housing is not a dirty word.
So today, I can announce we will be the first government in a generation to restore social housing to the second largest from of tenure.
This will be our mantra.
Council housing, council housing, council housing.
We’re going to rebuild our social housing stock and bring homes back into the ownership of local councils and communities.
According to the latest English Housing Survey, 65% of households in England in 2020-21 were owner-occupiers, 19% were in the private rented sector and 17% were in the social rented sector.
Updated
There are almost twice as many people saying they have confidence in Keir Starmer and Labour to tackle the cost of living crisis as there are people saying they trust Liz Truss and the Tories to deal with it, new polling from YouGov suggests.
Confidence in Liz Truss/Tories to tackle the rising cost of living
— YouGov (@YouGov) September 26, 2022
A lot/some confidence: 19%
Not much/no confidence: 72%https://t.co/utcI04UX76
Confidence in Keir Starmer/Labour to tackle the rising cost of living
A lot/some: 36%
Not much/none: 54%https://t.co/mj8gfj8L8h
Lucy Powell confirms Labour will set up independent statutory regulator for football
At the Labour conference event where Keir Starmer and Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary will appear with Gary Neville (see 2.56pm), which will start shortly, Starmer and Powell will confirm Labour’s commitment to an independent statutory regulator for football. Powell said:
Football brings our country together. Clubs are at the heart of communities, and great sources of identity and pride in our towns.
The meteoric rise of the Premier League has put English football at the top of the world, but the benefits are not being fairly shared in the football pyramid. Without financial oversight and regulation, many clubs have been left open to transient owners taking big gambles with their club’s future. Despite bigger revenues than ever coming in to football, the financial sustainability of the pyramid has never been more at risk.
The government is abandoning the football community, particularly across the north and Midlands, which are calling out for reform. Labour will legislate for an independent regulator to safeguard the long-term sustainability of football.
Updated
Kwarteng decides Westminster will have to wait another eight weeks for OBR's verdict on mini-budget
Economists, currency traders, MPs and everyone else will have to wait another eight weeks until they can read the Office for Budget Responsibility’s verdict on the mini-budget, the Treasury has announced. The OBR will publish its next economic forecast on Wednesday 23 November. That will coincide with Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor, announcing his medium-term fiscal plan on that day.
Kwarteng was strongly criticised for not allowing the OBR to produce a forecast alongside his mini-budget on Friday. If the OBR had been allowed to do one, it is likely that it would have said that Kwarteng was on course to break his fiscal rules, that the tax cuts announced were inflationary, and that any impact the tax cuts had on growth would not be enough to compensate for the significant increase in borrowing.
Kwarteng was able to avoid an OBR forecast because he decided not to treat the Friday statement as a formal budget. He had been expected to hold a formal budget later this year, but the Treasury has said that now it will be in the spring. As a proper budget, it will be accompanied by a further OBR forecast.
Updated
Labour delegates urged to back PR to end 'trickle-down democracy', where power just rests with marginal seats
In the debate this afternoon the motion on proportional representation was moved by David Ward, a delegate from Ashford CLP who was head of policy for John Smith when he was Labour leader. Ward said said the current electoral system allowed the Tories to get away with measures like last week’s “obscene budget prioritising protecting bankers’ bonuses and and cutting taxes for the rich”. He went on:
The Tories can get away with this because our current electoral system lets them. Their trickle-down economics are underpinned by a trickle-down democracy, a system which hands all the power to a small number of voters in marginal swing seats, leaving millions of us unrepresented at Westminster.
The result is a government which bears no resemblance to the one that most of us voted for.
All of us in the Labour party on social justice and a more equal society. That must be based on the fundamental principle that all votes should count, no matter where they are cast.
We know there is overwhelming support for proportional representation across our party and within the wider labour movement. And that’s why today we are asking conference to make a historic commitment in favour of fair votes.
Supporters of PR sometimes argue that it forces parties to cooperate. Johanna Baxter, who is chairing the conference this afternoon, may have been making a subtle dig against it when she pointed out that there were three motions being debated on electoral reform “because at the composite meeting they could not find consensus for a single motion”. The three motions cover standards for MPs and the abolition of the House of Lords.
Updated
Andy Burnham might be the darling of recent Labour conferences, but no one has told Boris Johnson’s former transport adviser, who has condemned the Greater Manchester mayor for what he called “cowardice and feebleness” in traffic policy.
Speaking at a fringe event in Liverpool, Andrew Gilligan, who oversaw policies including active travel and buses for Johnson as London mayor and then in No 10, used Burnham as an example of how, he said, local leaders could slow down a shift away from motor transport.
Burnham, who Gilligan mockingly described as “the great radical, the new Labour hero”, has pushed back against a scheme to charge high-emission vehicles entering the city, which has now been delayed.
The city, Gilligan said, has the highest levels of asthma and lung disease in the country. He went on:
Despite winning every single one of the 215 wards of Greater Manchester last year, despite winning 67% of the vote to 19%, [Burnham] still hasn’t had the political strength to charge a few vans and taxis a few quid for driving into central Manchester.
That is the kind of level of cowardice and feebleness that we’re dealing with. He can talk the talk, but actually walking the walk, even in a tiny way – he’s not up for it.
Burnham has argued that factors including Covid and supply chain issues made it harder for people to upgrade older vehicles.
Updated
PR works for Wales, first minister Mark Drakeford tells Labour conference
In the conference hall delegates have just started debating a clutch of motions including composite eight, the one saying Labour would include a commitment to proportional representation in the next manifesto.
Earlier, in the Wales report section, Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, used his speech to back PR. He said:
First of all, the Senedd, with its unbroken Labour governments, has always been elected by proportional representation, a system put on the statute book – twice! – by a Labour government at Westminster.
And, in a special conference, earlier this summer, over three quarters of the entire Welsh party voted to strengthen the proportionality of our voting system, to make sure that every Labour vote will count towards creating that next Welsh Labour government.
And secondly, conference, while Labour has always formed the government in Wales, we’ve never governed alone.
The fault line in Welsh politics runs right down the middle of the Senedd. On the one side, a reactionary, out-of-touch, deeply unloved Conservative party.
On the other side, those parties committed to social and economic progress.
Do the parties of the centre left agree on everything? Of course not.
But we focus on those areas where progressive parties can agree; a politics which recognises the dominant position of Labour, but which also recognises that no party has a monopoly on progressive ideas.
And, in the face of the dreadful decisions of last week, the obligation to do everything we can to take and exercise power on behalf of that great mass of decent people, the length and breadth of the UK is more powerful than ever.
Updated
Later this afternoon Gary Neville, the former England footballer and TV pundit, will be taking part in an “in conversation” event with Keir Starmer and Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, on the conference platform. It is not clear who is interviewing whom.
Earlier Neville told reporters he was shocked by the mini-budget. He said:
I didn’t support the tax cut that was given at the end of last week. I also didn’t support the removal of the cap for bankers’ bonuses. It was a shock, to be honest with you - I shouldn’t be shocked any more.
It didn’t feel like it was reading the room in this country, when people are desperately worrying over the winter about how they are going to heat their homes, how they are going to feed their families, that bankers are potentially going to increase their bonuses or that the highest earners in this country are going to be better off.
I don’t think people in this country at the highest-earner bracket were actually expecting favour, they weren’t asking for favour.
In the last Neville has left open the prospect of going into Labour politics. But today he ruled it out. He said he was not tempted by the prospect of being a Labour candidate in the forthcoming byelection in West Lancashire and he said a career in politics was not for him. He explained:
I have got no intention of going into politics at all. The reality of it is, I love what I do so much, I love what I do in football, I love what I do in Greater Manchester with the businesses that I co-own.
Updated
Lord Mandelson, the former Blairite cabinet minister, has suggested that voters could shift to Labour decisively at the next election, as they did in 1997. In an interview on Radio 4’s World at One, he said the mood in the party had improved considerably. He said:
I do feel there is vibrancy in the conference and among people here. There is not the sort of rancour that you experienced here when you came to conference during the Corbyn years, which was so factional. It really sowed so much poison and division amongst people in the party. It was like a permanent state of war going on. That has completely evaporated …
Mandelson also said he thought voters might be turning against the Conservatives wholeheartedly.
I think we may well be seeing a time at the next election, a sea change in attitudes among the electorate of the sort that we saw in 1997.
Mandelson was referring to a famous quote by James Callaghan, Labour prime minister in the late 1970s, who told an aide before the 1979 general election that ushered in 18 years of Tory government: “You know there are times, perhaps once every 30 years, when there is a sea-change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of. I suspect there is now such a sea-change – and it is for Mrs Thatcher.”
Updated
Delegates vote for bringing rail and Royal Mail back into public ownership, and for £15 an hour minimum wage
The Labour conference has voted for five composite motions aimed at committing the next Labour government to bringing rail and Royal Mail back into public ownership.
They included a motion moved by Unite saying rail services should be “run in the public interest under public ownership”. It also backed the right of Labour MPs to join picket lines. (See 9.50am.) It said:
Conference notes that a good way of showing solidarity with workers taking strike action is to visit them on picket lines … Conferences supports a negotiated settlement in the rail dispute and supports all Labour MPs attending picket lines until such an outcome is reached.
Delegates also backed a motion moved by the CWU saying the next Labour government should “bring Royal Mail back into public ownership, reunite it with the Post Office and create a publicly-owned Post Bank”.
And a motion moved by Unison calling for £15 per hour minimum wage was also among those passed.
Updated
Teaching union leaders make case for better school funding
Children will see larger class sizes, cuts to the curriculum and fewer extracurricular activities without additional funding for schools in England, education unions will warn at a fringe event at the Labour party conference on Monday.
They will also say the proposed below-inflation pay award of 5% for most school teachers and leaders will further reduce pay in real terms following a decade of pay erosion, fuelling a recruitment and retention crisis which has left schools struggling to fill vacancies and put teachers in front of classes.
Speaking ahead of the event, Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:
The issues of teacher pay, recruitment and retention, school funding, and pupil outcomes are all linked. Without adequate pay, we cannot recruit and keep the teachers we need, and without the money to pay them, schools will be unable to maintain current levels of provision and educational standards will be at risk.
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, criticised the government’s failure to fund the pay award. He said:
The spiralling energy bills, inflationary costs, and lack of funding for teachers’ pay this year means school leaders will be forced to make cuts that ultimately cannot help but negatively impact on the education and wellbeing of children.
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
Teaching is a great profession. However, after years of successive governments and numerous education secretaries, conditions, pay and school funding have so deteriorated that it is now one that many graduates are choosing not to enter or those currently teaching are choosing to leave.
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson is due to address the Labour conference on Wednesday.
Updated
Reeves says Labour would use revenue from reinstating 45% tax rate to hire more NHS staff
Reeves confirms that Labour would reinstate the 45% top rate of tax. And, for the first time, she says how Labour would use the money.
Labour would use the money to double the number of district nurses qualifying every year; to hire more than 5,000 new health visitors; to create an extra 10,000 nursing and midwifery places; and to implement the biggest expansion of medical school places in history.
Reeves ends her speech by saying a Labour government is on its way.
UPDATE: Reeves said:
I can tell you: with a Labour government, those at the top will pay their fair share.
The 45p top rate of income tax is coming back.
Here’s what we will do with that money.
The next Labour government will double the number of district nurses qualifying every year train. We will train more than 5,000 new health visitors. We will create an additional 10,000 nursing and midwife placements every year.
More than that: We will implement the biggest expansion of medical school places in British history doubling the number of medical students so our NHS has doctors it needs.
It will fall to us to fix the damage the Tories have done.
We have done it before and, conference we will do it again.
Updated
Reeves says public services are the foundation of a strong society.
In the past three years half a million people have left the labour market, and more than half of those have done so because of mental illness.
She says Labour has said it will guarantee people access to mental health treatment within a month.
Updated
Reeves says Labour will not waiver in its responsibility to fiscal responsibility.
Every policy it announces will be carefully costed and fully funded, she claims.
(But this morning she implied she would be happy to see a modest rise in borrowing, for example to fund cutting the basic rate of income tax to 19%. See 8.28am.)
Updated
Reeves says if she was chancellor now, she would bring together a national economic council, including businesses and unions.
She says Labour would abolish business rates. The current system is biased against small shops. A new system, fit for the 21st century, would lead to an immediate revaluation.
She says the industrial strategy set out by Jonathan Reynolds would help to ensure more things are made in Britain. (See 8.11am.)
If the government is serious about growth, it has to made Brexit work, she says. She goes on:
We have a deal that doesn’t even include a veterinary agreements. We are pioneers in creative industries but we have a deal which ties them in knots over visas. We are the second largest exporter of services in the world, but we have a deal that doesn’t include the mutual recognition of professional qualifications. So we will fix the holes in the government’s patchwork Brexit deal.
And instead of picking needless flop fights with our largest trading partner, we will work together with our neighbours and our allies in our national interest.
Updated
Reeves says Labour would turn minimum wage into 'genuine living wage'
Reeves praises what she describes as workers in the “everyday economy” – transport worker and delivery drivers, supermarket staff, NHS and care workers.
It is wrong to say these people are not wealth creators, she says.
Labour will protect workers’ rights, and strengthen them.
And on day one as chancellor she will tell the Low Pay Commission to set the minimum wage at a level that reflects the real cost of living.
She says this will amount to “a genuine living wage”.
Updated
Reeves says she dares any Tory MP to tell an NHS or care worker to their face that what the country needs is bigger bonuses for bankers.
Trickle-down economics is wrong, she says.
Trickle down is wrong because in a turbulent world, businesses need government as a partner. Trickle down is wrong because strong institutions and robust public finances provide the foundations for a strong economy. And trickle down is wrong conference because a strong economy needs strong public services. We will defeat the failed ideas of the past, with the focus, the ambition and the ideas for the future.
Updated
Reeves says in 12 years the Tories have failed to address the country’s problems.
They’ve had 12 years. Have they got growth up? No. Have they got inflation down? No. Have they got child poverty down? No. Have they got the NHS waiting lists down? No. And have they even got the debt and the deficit down? No. Conference, it’s 12 years of failure.
Updated
Reeves says she wants to buy, sell and make more in Britain.
She wants to see cranes going up, shovels in the ground, new jobs arriving.
She says this is a real plan for levelling up.
Reeves says she will be a responsible chancellor, and “Britain’s first green chancellor”.
She says Labour will generate all of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
The largest windfarm in Scotland has its blades made abroad, she says.
She says green energy jobs should be in the UK.
Labour will create a national wealth fund, she says, so when the government invests in new industries, the taxpayer will get a share. See 8.11am for details.
Reeves accuses Tories of 'unilateral energy disarmament'
Reeves says Labour will not waver in its support for Ukraine.
But actions by the government have made the energy crisis work.
We are feeling the consequences of a 12-year Tory experiment in unilateral energy disarmament.
She says fracking is not the answer. “With Labour, it will not happen.”
Labour’s green energy plan is the only solution, she says.
Reeves recalls meeting a constituent in April last year who was freezing, because she could not put her heating on. Her hands were purple, and freezing. She was afraid to put the heating on because she was worried about the bills.
Reeves says she often thinks of this being the reality for people.
Labour backed a windfall tax to address the problem. But the PM spent months resisting, she says.
Rachel Reeves says prices will go up and cost of borrowing will rise as result of mini-budget
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, starts with an attack on Kwasi Kwarteng for the mini-budget announced on Friday.
She says the message from financial markets was clear on Friday. Today that message is “even more stark”.
The fall in the value of sterling means prices will go up.
It means the cost of borrowing for government will go up.
And the cost of borrowing for families will go up too, she says.
All for what? For tax cuts for the wealthiest, she says.
Jonathan Reynolds also used his speech to set out his plans for Labour’s industrial strategy. He said:
Our Industrial Strategy will deliver clean power by 2030, taking the action needed on the climate emergency and keeping good jobs in Britain for decades to come.
We will harness data for the public good ensuring it isn’t just held by corporate gatekeepers but used to benefit us all.
We will bolster our national resilience ensuring our supply chains and working people are never again left so exposed to global shocks.
Finally we will value the care sector for what it is – an essential part of our economy, ending the job insecurity too often associated with this vital work.
Updated
Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, is addressing the conference now. He started with a joke that has been much used by progressives over the summer, but he delivered it well. He told delegates:
There was a time when the Tories believed they were ‘the party of business’. Now they are just in the business of parties.
After twelve years of misrule, they have failed British business. On their watch business investment is the lowest in the G7, economic growth is set to be the lowest in the G7. We’ve had the worst squeeze to real wages of any country in the G7.
Don’t just take make my word for it. Ask them. They admit it.
The new chancellor said they have presided over a ‘vicious circle of stagnation’. The new prime minister said our public services are in a state.
Frankly, when the Tories find out whose been running this country for the last 12 years, they are going to be furious!
Highlights from Ed Miliband's climate crisis speech
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change and net zero secretary, has delivered his speech to the conference. He did not have anything new to announce, but it was a textbook example of how, with a sharp script and passionate delivery, a short speech to a party conference can be a very good one, even without news content. Here are some extracts.
On Liz Truss
Labour led the way in January with the call for a windfall tax.
Labour led the way in August with the call for an energy price freeze.
Now Liz Truss said she won’t have a windfall tax because she says it is a “Labour idea”.
For the first time in recorded history, Liz Truss has got something exactly right.
On the climate crisis
The climate and nature crisis is caused by our burning of fossil fuels.
The energy bills crisis is caused by the fact we are exposed to the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices wherever we get our gas from.
And the crisis of energy security comes from the scramble for gas triggered by global events.
So all these crises have the same ultimate cause: our dependence on fossil fuels.
And all of them have the same solution.
Low-cost, homegrown zero carbon power
The price of solar and wind energy is nine times less than that of gas.
This is the defining truth of our age.
This is the undeniable truth of our age.
It is cheaper to save the planet than destroy it
On the Conservatives
Friends, who broke the energy system?
They did.
Who banned onshore wind in England leading to higher gas imports and more expensive energy?
They did.
Who said cut the green crap and drove up bills?
They did.
Who cut home insulation to twenty times less than under Labour?
They did.
Who deregulated the energy market leaving 32 companies to go bust?
They did.
If you want to mend the broken energy system, I’ve got an idea: let’s start by getting rid of the Tories who broke it.
On the dividing lines between the parties
And it cuts to a deeper truth: the goal of the next Labour government won’t just be to tinker round the edges.
The hour is too late, the moment is too serious.
The next Labour government will deliver fundamental reform to the institutions of our economy.
An economy built by the working people for working people.
As it says on the party card: wealth, power and opportunity in the hands of the many not the few.
So here is the election choice.
Lower energy bills with Labour, higher bills under the Tories.
Energy security with Labour, energy insecurity under the Tories.
Millions of green jobs with Labour, the opportunities squandered under the Tories.
Leading the world again in tackling the climate crisis with Labour, climate delay, denial and destruction under the Tories.
Updated
Privileges committee says Pannick's critique of its inquiry into Johnson based on 'misunderstanding of parliamentary process'
The Commons privileges committee, which is carrying out the investigation into whether Boris Johnson misled MPs about Partygate, has published a report this morning rejecting the claims from Lord Pannick that its inquiry is “unfair” and “fundamentally flawed”. In its 12-page report, the committee says:
We reject Lord Pannick’s criticisms. The view of our impartial legal advisers and clerks, which we accept, is that his opinion is founded on a systemic misunderstanding of the parliamentary process and misplaced analogies with the criminal law.
UPDATE: Here is our story on the report.
Updated
Shadow minister’s border poll remarks alarm Northern Ireland’s unionists
Northern Ireland unionists have expressed alarm after the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Kyle, said he would be prepared to call a referendum on Irish unity if certain conditions were met, my colleague Rory Carroll reports.
Conservation groups are “seriously alarmed” that the government has been emphasising growth at the expense of climate action and the recovery of nature both of which are essential to the long-term stability of the UK and the planet, said Shaun Spiers, director of the Green Alliance UK thinktank and chair of Greener UK, a coalition of 12 environmental organisations.
Spiers said it’s “quite odd” key stakeholders have yet to meet with government, or the new secretary of state, and are instead relying on Tweets, and public statements of reassurance that the government won’t repeal environmental protections.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng appeared on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show to downplaying concerns that the government will tear up environmental regulations in their push for growth. “We’re not going to relax environmental rules,” said Kwarteng.
In response, Speirs said:
Well, if you’re not … what is the investment zones about, which are planning regulation free zones? What is the shift to talk about food production rather than restoring nature in farming policy if there’s no threat?
Spiers is particularly concerned about the government’s pace in reviewing over 2,000 pieces of EU law, 517 of which are from Defra. He said:
In itself, it’s not a stupid thing to review EU law. There’s just the pace of it and the fact that it comes with a whole lot of rhetoric about the need to sweep away regulation to generate growth, and that’s what’s concerning.
Updated
Haigh restates Labour's commitment to taking railways back into public ownership as contracts expire
Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, received a sustained round of applause from delegates this morning when she used her speech to restate Labour’s commitment to renationalisng the railways. She said:
Under the Conservatives, British railways have become a cash machine for companies and foreign governments.
No matter the performance, failure will always be rewarded.
The truth is, the Conservatives still worship the dogma that has let this country down.
They will always give the operators one more chance.
And shareholders one more pay-day.
They will do whatever it takes to prop up a failed system.
Because to do anything else would be to admit their ideology is wrong …
Conference, the days of tinkering around the edges of a system that has so clearly failed the public are over.
That’s why an incoming Labour government will end this farce.
We will end this failed experiment.
We will cast aside the tired dogma that has failed passengers.
We will improve services and lower fares.
And yes conference, Labour in power will bring our railways back into public ownership as contracts expire.
In one respect Haigh was just restating existing Labour policy. But in the summer Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, seemed to rule out rail renationalisation, and Keir Starmer hinted that he agreed with her, and so the fact that the policy has survived is significant. That explains why the cheering was so loud.
Ashworth proposes employment service reform to get more people into work
At the Labour conference Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow work and pensions secretary, was scathing about the mini-budget in his speech to the conference. He said:
[The Conservatives] tell us they are ripping up the orthodoxy but it’s the same old Tory orthodoxy back – that wealth will trickle down and a rising tide lifts all.
We’ve seen that story before. It means more sinking beneath the waves. It sees pay and conditions worsen. It leads to the offensive, grotesque fiction of ministers telling us that to make bankers work harder, pay them more but to make working people work harder, pay them less.
Promising that a future Labour government would cut child poverty, just as the last one did, he ended with a quote from Nelson Mandela: “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity but an act of justice.”
In his speech Ashworth also said that Labour would “reform jobcentres and employment services to help more people into work as we target our ambition of the highest employment in the G7”. It was a short speech, and Ashworth did not give any more details to delegates, but the party has issued a press release to the media with more detail. It says a future Labour government would:
Significantly reform employment services to reach to groups who need support including the over 50s, and the long-term sick.
Reform jobcentres and support GPs, housing associations and community groups to easily direct people to employment support.
Offer targeted and specialist help to those with long-term ill health and the over 50s.
Create freedom for local partnerships to decide how best to design services, moving away from rigid, national contracting and ensure resources to help people find work are closer to local communities.
Updated
Move to allow Corbyn to stand again as election candidate while suspended by PLP voted down by 59% to 41%
The Labour party has released the results of the card votes on the various internal party rule changes debated yesterday. The debate focused mostly on a proposal that would have allowed Jeremy Corbyn to stand again as a Labour candidate at the next election, even though he is currently suspended by the parliamentary Labour party. This was defeated by 59% to 41%.
There were majorities against both in the constituency Labour party section of the electoral college, which voted 62% against the proposal, and the trade union section, which voted 57% against.
All the party rule changes backed by the national executive committee were passed. Some were very obscure and technical, but there is a summary of some of the more significant ones here.
Updated
Unite general secretary says she thinks Starmer accepts his original hardline stance on picket lines gave wrong impression
In June, as the RMT union launched what has become an ongoing series of strikes, Keir Starmer ordered Labour frontbenchers and shadow ministerial aides not to join picket lines. This infuriated leftwing Labour MPs and some union leaders, notably Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite.
At one point it looked as if there might be a huge row at conference about whether shadow ministers should or should not be allowed to join picket lines. But, in an interview with the Today programme this morning, Graham suggested that a truce of sorts has been agreed – even if the two sides do not entirely see eye to eye.
Graham said that what mattered was not so much whether MPs were on picket lines, but what the original order from Starmer’s office said about his approach to strike action. She explained:
My issue about this … isn’t necessarily around one person on a picket line because, quite frankly, that isn’t the issue. The issue is the mood music [ordering shadow ministers not to join picket lines] suggests. It suggests a mood music that being on the picket line is somehow a bad thing. It’s a naughty step situation.
Graham is not at the Labour conference (she says supporting her members in disputes is her priority). But she said she had a detailed conversation with Keir Starmer last week, and that she meets him regularly. She said it was a mistake for Labour to imply strikes were wrong. And she implied that Starmer accepts that his original instruction to frontbenchers was wrong. She said:
The party who is there to stick up for workers should not give the impression – that’s the problem, it gives the impression – that they are saying picket lines are not the place to be. And I think that it was unfortunate. I think it was a mistake. I think, to be honest with you, Labour knows it was a mistake. And I don’t actually think it’s holdable.
Starmer said he did not want to see Labour frontbenchers on picket lines because the role of a Labour government would be to settle disputes in the national interest, not to take sides in disputes. But recently he has refused to repeat his original call for frontbenchers to avoid picket lines, and in his interview with Laura Kuennsberg yesterday he stressed his support for the right to strike. He said:
When people go on strike it is a last resort at the end of negotiations. And I can quite understand how people are driven to that … I support the right of individuals to go on strike, I support the trade unions doing the job that they are doing in representing their members.
Starmer also said the most important thing he could do to help workers on strike at the moment was to “usher in a Labour government”.
Yesterday Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, also said what mattered to her were Labour’s policies, not whether its MPs were on picket lines, suggesting that there is a collective desire from union leaders to close down this argument.
Momentum delegates claim procedural trick used to stop energy/water nationalisation motion being put to vote
Momentum delegates have accused Labour of “rigging the system” and alleged their delegates were not told about a meeting to agree a motion on nationalisation that they were entitled to attend.
The grassroots group said the motion now does not include demands for public ownership of energy and water in the vote this afternoon – though trade union delegates having included rail and Royal Mail nationalisation.
Momentum said their delegates were not informed of the time or location of a compositing meeting they were entitled to attend, so the wording from their motions was automatically ruled out.
The exclusion of energy nationalisation is likely to be the topic of angry debate on the conference floor. In a statement, one of the delegates, Dom Lindsay, said:
I’m incredibly disappointed that as delegates we’ve been excluded from this key part of the conference’s democratic process.
This is an unprecedented move silencing members’ voices. Our CLP sent us here to Liverpool to promote our motion on public ownership and a Green New Deal, but we’ve been unfairly denied that right.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have not endorsed nationalisation of any key industries. Conference today will see a number of key votes on policies which have not yet been endorsed by the leadership, including electoral reform and a Unison-backed, GMB-endorsed motion for an inflation-proof payrise and a £15 per hour minimum wage.
Updated
John McDonnell backs PR, saying working with other parties fine because government should reflect views of majority
John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, told the Today programme this morning that he used to support the first past the post electoral system, but that he became a supporter of proportional representation about 10 years ago when he concluded “we can’t go on like this because the system is so unfair”.
He explained:
The last general election demonstrated that – an 80 seat majority, but based upon not that great a difference between the political parties. So I think there comes a time when you need to review your constitutional arrangements. We need a fairer voting system – simple as that.
McDonnell said PR would not inevitably lead to coalition government. But he said Labour should be “honest” about the merits of having a government with broad support.
When we go into government next time, we want to be a government that’s based upon a majority of the views of the population. And if that means other parties having a role in that government, I’m not averse to that.
I still think Labour will get an overall majority in the next election.
But we’ve got to say to people, we need a fair voting system, because we need a government that actually does represent the people.
We’ve just got the most extreme rightwing government in our political history as a result of a first past the post system. I don’t want to go through that again.
Kearney turns to the national wealth fund announcement. (See 8.11am.)
Q: That is a long-term plan. It won’t help people with the cost of living crisis now, will it?
Reeves says she makes no apology for thinking and planning for the long term. There is a global race for the jobs of the future, she says. She says there is no reason why the UK cannot win that.
And that’s it. The Reeves interview is over.
Updated
Reeves suggests Labour would use extra borrowing to fund cut in basic rate of income tax to 19%
Reeves says the government is using tax policy to help those at the top while interest rate policy will penalise people at the bottom.
Q: But Labour is supporting the tax cuts in the budget?
Reeves says Labour opposed the national insurance increase in the first place.
But she says the party also supports “targeted tax increases”.
Q: It will cost £5bn to fund the 1p in the pound income tax cut. How will you fund it?
Reeves says Labour would introduce a windfall tax.
Q: You are already using that for the energy package.
Reeves says Labour does not support the tax cutting package in the round.
She says those with the broadest shoulders should make a bigger contribution.
Q: So how are you going to fund the income tax cut?
Reeves says in an emergency situation it is justified to borrow. But what is wrong with the government’s plan is the scale of the borrowing.
A Labour package would not have been on the scale of what was announced on Friday.
Reeves says Kwarteng made sterling's plight worse at weekend when he 'fanned the flames' with unfunded tax cuts hints
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, is now being interviewed on the Today programme by Martha Kearney.
Reeves starts by talking about the fall in the value of the pound, which she says is incredibly concerning. She suggests Kwasi Kwarteng “fanned the flames” yesterday by suggesting that there could be more unfunded tax cuts to come.
It is incredibly concerning. I think many people had hoped over the weekend things would calm down but I do think the chancellor sort of fanned the flames on Sunday in suggesting there may be more stimulus, more unfunded tax cuts, which has resulted overnight in the pound falling to an all-time low against the dollar.
She says Kwarteng and Liz Truss are like two gamblers in the casino. She goes on:
Here’s the thing; they are not gambling their money, they are gambling all our money.
Q: Do you expect interest ratest to go up?
Reeves says she was an economist before she became a politician; an interest rate rise is what the markets expect, she says.
Updated
This afternoon delegates at the Labour conference will debate a motion saying Labour should go into the next election committed to proportional representation. At conference last year 80% of constituency Labour party delegates voted in favour of a similar motion, but it was narrowly defeated because the unions were overwhelmingly opposed. However, over the last 12 months some unions have changed their thinking and now the PR motion seems likely to pass.
These are from my colleague Jessica Elgot on what is coming.
New - Labour’s proportional representation motion tomorrow has been agreed - “Labour must make a commitment to introduce proportional representation for general elections in the next manifesto.”
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 25, 2022
The motion also says: “During its first term in office the next Labour government must change the voting system for general elections to a form of PR. Labour should convene an open and inclusive process to decide the specific proportional voting system it will introduce.”
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 25, 2022
The big HOWEVER is that although this is likely to pass, Starmer is himself opposed and could still leave it out of the manifesto
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 25, 2022
My own view FWIW is the manifesto will not include specific electoral reform but there will be a door open to do it if the party want to, such as “Labour will strengthen our democracy”
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 25, 2022
Labour says it would create new national wealth fund, with initial £8bn to invest in new industries
Overnight Labour has announced two business related policies.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, says Labour would create a national wealth fund to invest in new industries. This would allow the taxpayer to own a share of the wealth and get a return on the investment, she says. In a statement overnight she said:
The next Labour government will create a national wealth fund so that when we invest in new industries, in partnership with business the British people will own a share of that wealth and the taxpayer will get a return on that investment. When I say I want to buy, make and sell more in Britain I mean it.
The Liberal Democrats might argue that this is one of their ideas; at their spring conference last year, Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, proposed a sovereign green wealth fund to fund green energy projects.
In a briefing, the Labour party said it would put an initial £8bn into its fund. It said:
Alongside private investment, that financing means shovels in the ground for UK projects including eight new battery factories, six clean steel plants, nine renewable-ready ports, the world’s largest hydrogen electrolyser plant and net-zero industrial clusters in every region of the country.
Labour’s plan will build British industries in every region of the UK – with the plan for offshore wind alone injecting investment into nine clusters: Forth and Tay, Humber, East Anglia, Solent, North West and North Wales, Belfast Harbour, North East Scotland, North East England and the Celtic Sea.
The party also said it would use the UK Infrastructure Bank to run the fund.
Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, says Labour would revive the industrial strategy council (which was disbanded by Kwasi Kwarteng when he was business secretary) and put it on a statutory footing. Its stratategy would have four missions: “delivering clean power by 2030; harnessing data for public good; caring for the future; building a resilient economy”. In a statement Reynolds said:
A hallmark of this Conservative government has been to act in the heat of the moment and lurch from crisis to crisis. We know business can’t operate like that.
The strategy addresses a range of concerns facing business and workers including Labour’s plans to bolster Britain’s supply chains from future shocks, transform skills, and make Brexit work.
Updated
Rachel Reeves says drop in pound confirms mini-budget ‘reckless’ head of Labour conference speech
Good morning. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor has been giving interviews this morning, but the news agenda is still dominated by the mini-budget from Friday – the most transformative budget from a chancellor for decades – and in particular the market reaction to it. After a weekend when the markets were closed, currency trading has resumed and the pound is sinking, as a direct response to what Kwasi Kwarteng said three days ago. My colleague Graeme Wearden has all the details on his business live blog.
In her interviews this morning Reeves has said the fall in the value of the confirms how reckless the mini-budget was. She told Times Radio:
I started my career as an economist at the Bank of England and, like everybody else, I’m incredibly worried about what we’ve seen both on Friday with market reactions to the chancellor’s so-called mini-budget and to the reaction overnight …
The idea trickle-down economics - making those at the top richer still - will somehow filter through to everybody else has been tried before, it didn’t work then, it won’t work now.
So, financial markets are unimpressed, the British public are unimpressed and the chancellor and the prime minister need to take note because they’re not gambling with their own money, they’re gambling with all our money, and it’s reckless and it’s irresponsible as well as being grossly unfair.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.15am: Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow work and pensions secretary, gives a speech at the start of a debate on motions covering the economy, infrastructure and pay. This will include speeches from Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, at 10.20am; from Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, at 11.40am; and from Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, at 11.45am.
12pm: Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, speaks.
2.15pm: Jo Stevens, the shadow Welsh secretary, speaks, followed by Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister.
2.35pm: Steve Rotheram, the metro mayor for Liverpool, speaks.
4.30pm: Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, speaks at the beginning of a debate on motions covering social care, equalities and electoral reform. One of the electoral reform motions says Labour should promise proportional representation in its manifesto.
4.35pm: Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, speaks, followed by Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader.
4.55pm: Peter Kyle, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, speaks.
5.10pm: Keir Starmer and Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, are questioned by Gary Neville, the former England footballer turned TV pundit.
5.50pm: Delegates vote on the motions debated in the afternoon, including the PR one.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
Updated
