Angela Rayner says next Labour government will make misogyny a hate crime
Sir Keir Starmer said a Labour government would reverse the Conservatives’ Rwanda policy even if sending asylum seekers to central Africa is judged legal and small boats crossings decline.
Grilled on the small boats crisis on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, the Labour leader was asked if he would stop Rwanda flights if they had already started up and Channel crossings had been reduced.
“Yes – I think it’s the wrong policy. It’s hugely expensive. It’s a tiny number, a tiny number of individuals who go to Rwanda. And the real problem is at source.”
He also claimed a Labour government could boost the UK’s economic growth “within months” of taking office, said nurses and doctors would be willing to do more overtime to fulfil his NHS plan, and vowed to get 1.5m homes built in five years.
Sir Keir also warned his party not to become “giddy” at the conference today despite the by-election triumph this weekend.
“It is not going to be giddy, it is not going to be ‘job done’,” Sir Keir told the Observer.
UK ‘not a trickledown nation’
Britain “is not a trickledown nation,” Angela Rayner said.
She added: “In my lifetime, growth used to be in the hands of the communities of Britain. In their graft, came wealth.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 11:45
‘Labour is already delivering in power’
Angela Rayner told the conference: “The reality is that Labour is already delivering in power.
“Our movement has never been so unified, so focused in one aim: to give Britain its future back.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 11:43
Sunak is ‘just Ken’ in Truss’s Barbie world- Rayner
Angela Rayner began by making digs at the Tories.
Speaking to the conference, she said: “Now we have a prime minister refusing to hand over his WhatsApp messages.
“Throughout all of it, the PM simply can’t stand up to his country against his Party. He’s apparently planning another reshuffle.
“And of course, Liz Truss was back. One thing was clear last week. We all know he’s just Ken in her Barbie world.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 11:42
Labour Party conference begins
The Labour Party conference has begun as Angela Rayner takes the stage.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 11:40
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner is due to speak imminently. Stay tuned while we give live updates.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 11:25
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 11:00
Sunak and Starmer world clouds: ‘Rich versus Nothing’
Word clouds collected by the BBC show what the public apparently think of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 10:35
Tory minister ‘peddling conspiracy theories’, says Wes Streeting
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said Tory cabinet minister Mark Harper should “apologise” for “peddling conspiracy theories”.
He told Sky News that Harper was “peddling conspiracy theories as if he’s been doom-scrolling TikTok trying to find the most bonkers things to say from the conference platform.”
“What are these people doing? And how on earth does this address the biggest crises in our country?”
Harper has told the Tory conference he wanted to crack down on “15-minute cities” and said it was “sinister” that “local councils can decide how often you go to the shops”. Local councils cannot decide how often you go to shops.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 10:25
Word cloud suggests public think ‘nothing’ of Labour leader
Confronted with a word cloud that suggested the public thought “nothing” about Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader said the party’s conference was a chance to change their minds.
He told the BBC: “I’ve had a lot worse thrown at me in my life”, but added: “That is why this week is so important for us.
“We come here to this, the last conference before a general election, to set out our positive case.”
He added: “We are bang on schedule, we have already set out in five missions what we are going to do, so we’ve already answered that question.
“What we need to do here in Liverpool is to bring it together, to weld together the reassurance that people need in times like this with the hope that they want built on top of that.”
That meant “not just fixing the problems but taking our country forward”.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 10:17
Starmer will reverse Rwanda policy even if flights start and small boats decline
The Labour leader insisted that putting Channel migrants on one-way flights to Rwanda was the “wrong policy” as he kicked off his party’s crucial conference in Liverpool.
Sir Keir also claimed a Labour government could boost the UK’s economic growth “within months” of taking office, said nurses and doctors would be willing to do more overtime to fulfil his NHS plan, and vowed to get 1.5m homes built in five years.
Our political correspondent Adam Forrest reports:
Maryam Zakir-Hussain8 October 2023 10:09