Keir Starmer speech live: PM hails changed Labour Party as he tells conference big decisions are not easy

Nearly half of Britons have voiced their disappointment with the new Labour government, following “sleaze” allegations, controversy over Sue Gray’s salary, and a heated debate over cuts to the winter fuel allowance. Now it’s time to have your say…

Is your “honeymoon” with Labour over? How have recent events impacted your opinion of Starmer and his government?

Share your thoughts by adding them here — we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in.

…how disappointing (and hypocritical), writes Emma Clarke. When it comes to taxpayers’ money and ‘gifts’, accountability is key:

As a row is sparked over whether the deputy prime minister has or hasn’t hired someone to document her working life, Simon Mills takes a look at everyone from Barack Obama to Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage who has done the same and hears how ‘tacky and tawdry’ it can be on the other side of the lens:

GB Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Sir Keir and Labour had promised in the lead-up to the election that GB Energy – which he has described as an “investment vehicle” – would have its headquarters north of the border, sparking speculation and repeated questions over where it would be located.

In his first speech to the Labour Party conference since entering Downing Street in July, the prime minister said the agency “could only ever be based in one place in Scotland”.

Addressing delegates in Liverpool on Tuesday, he said: “We said, GB Energy, our publicly-owned national champion, the vehicle that will drive forward our mission on clean energy, we said it belonged in Scotland, and it does.

“But the truth is, it could only really ever be based in one place in Scotland.

“So today, I can confirm that the future of British energy will be powered as it has been for decades, by the talent and skills of the working people in the Granite City, with GB Energy based in Aberdeen.”

Sir Keir Starmer has been branded a “useless liar” by the public in a damning poll released ahead of his Labour conference speech, Archie Mitchell writes.

A Savanta word cloud showed the words most commonly associated with the prime minister were overwhelmingly negative.

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to cut immigration but rejected claims that the summer’s rioters were “one and the same” as people with legitimate concerns about migration.

Addressing the Labour conference for the first time as prime minister, Sir Keir condemned the “violent thuggery” seen on Britain’s streets over the summer, saying: “The country sees you and it rejects you.”

He said he would “never accept the argument… that millions of people concerned about immigration are one and the same thing as people who smashed up businesses, targeted mosques, attempted to burn refugees, scrawled racist graffiti over walls, Nazi salutes at the Cenotaph, attacked NHS nurses and told people with different coloured skin, people who contribute here, people who grew up here, that they should ‘go home’.

“No, people concerned about immigration were not doing that, because they understand that this country, this democratic country, is built on the rule of law, the ballot box, the common understanding that we debate our differences.”

Drawing loud applause from the audience in the conference hall in Liverpool, the Prime Minister promised: “I will never let a minority of violent, racist thugs terrorise our communities.”

He went on to stress that the debate about immigration was about “control”, not “the worth of migrants”.

Sir Keir Starmer said people must “face the storm” in order to make a “Britain built to last” as he warned of further tough decisions to turn the country around.

In his first Labour Party conference speech as prime minister, Sir Keir set out plans to “clear out the Tory rot”, with a new era of political leadership creating a country “renewed by respect and service”.

In a speech briefly disrupted by a pro-Palestine heckler, he said the “wounds of trust” left by the Conservatives needed to be healed as he acknowledged that addressing that legacy would require unpopular decisions.

“If they were popular, they’d be easy.

“But the cost of filling that black hole in our public finances, that will be shared fairly,” he told activists in Liverpool.

“We will get the welfare bill down because we will tackle long-term sickness and support people back to work.

“We will make every penny work for you because we will root out waste and go after tax avoiders. There will be no stone left unturned.”

But there would be “no return to Tory austerity”, he said.

Sir Keir Starmer’s address to the 2024 Labour Party Conference saw him promise to rebuild Britain “brick by brick” after fourteen years of Tory government, telling conference delegates his government will create a “Britain that belongs to you”.

But what exactly was announced? We look at the key developments from the prime minister’s speech below:

Sir Keir Starmer has called for parties in the Middle East to “pull back from the brink” and for a ceasefire in Gaza amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel.

The prime minister told the Labour Party conference: “This is a time when great forces demand a decisive government prepared to face the future. We can see that again in the Middle East today.

“So I call again for restraint and de-escalation at the border between Lebanon and Israel. Again, all parties to pull back from the brink.

“I call again for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the return of… the hostages, and a recommitment to the two-state solution, a recognised Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.

“And that’s the message I will take to the UN General Assembly when I travel there later today, alongside our steadfast support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.”

Labour has faced pressure to suspend arms export licences to Israel after a UK assessment found there was a “clear risk certain military exports to Israel might be used in violations of international humanitarian law”.

The government suspended around 30 licences from a total of approximately 350 earlier this month.

During Sir Keir’s speech, a protester shouted “children of Gaza” from the crowd.

The prime minister replied: “While he’s been protesting, we’ve been changing the party. That’s why we’ve got a Labour government.”