Labour conference live: Starmer to tell UK there is ‘light at the end of this tunnel’ in keynote speech

Sir Keir Starmer is being urged by several cabinet ministers to sack the top civil servant in Whitehall immediately and stamp his authority on the new Labour government.

Knives are out for cabinet secretary Simon Case, who has been accused of undermining the prime minister and being responsible for briefings against his chief of staff Sue Gray.

Our political editor David Maddox has the full story:

Wes Streeting has joked that Sir Keir Starmer’s embattled senior aide Sue Gray had “shot JFK” and “no one should earn more than the prime minister” amid a row over her salary.

The health secretary made light of suggestions of mounting acrimony at the heart of government as he spoke at an event on the sidelines of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

Speaking to a crowd at the gathering hosted by think tank Labour Together, Mr Streeting: “I want to welcome the BBC’s conviction that no one should be paid more than the prime minister, that no one should receive hospitality, and that we should judge performance on social media mentions.

“Be careful what we wish for, comrades.”

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story:

I never know quite where I stand when it comes to Angela Rayner. On the one hand she’s a witty, well-informed paragon of working-class excellence, whose presence in Downing Street is a testament to both her own perseverance and the notion that in the UK, hard work reaps vast rewards no matter your background, writes Ryan Coogan.

On the other… well, she does say a lot of really weird stuff, doesn’t she?

The deputy PM kicked off proceedings at the first day of the Labour conference in Liverpool today with an optimistic, at times emotional speech on housing, worker’s rights, and the party’s vision for the future.

Labour has been rocked by a series of self-inflicted blunders. During party conference in Liverpool, the PM must act fast to set things right:

More young people in England are reaching “crisis point” and being admitted to hospital for their mental health, a report has said.

There are “significant” geographical disparities in the range of services available to young people, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) added.

A paper from the think tank, funded by charity the Prudence Trust, found that the range of services available does not appear to be related to the number of young people in an area.

It said NHS England data shows the number of young people aged 11 to 25 admitted to hospital for mental health reasons rose by a fifth to around 150,000 between 2017 and 2023.

Admission episodes rose by around a third during the same period, which suggests more young people are “reaching a crisis point and experiencing multiple admissions”, according to the report.

The study investigated the availability of non-specialist mental health services – those delivered outside NHS community mental health settings and inpatient settings – for young people.

These include drop-in services, wellbeing cafes, peer support and youth groups, and services provided through schools.

Researchers found significant geographical variation in the range of non-specialist services available to young people as well as in levels of awareness around the services that exist.

Rachel Reeves has defended her acceptance of £7,500 of clothing donations from friend Juliet Rosenfeld.

She told Times Radio: “Juliet and me have been friends for a long time, and she said to me about a year-and-a-half ago ‘I want to help you in the election campaign and the thing I’d really like to do is make sure that for big events and for the campaign trail, you’re smart and well turned out’.

“I really appreciated that, she’s made a big difference to me. That’s not something that I’m going to do in government.”

She added: “I can understand that to a lot of people it looks a bit odd. I get that.”

The chancellor also defended Angela Rayner’s department’s hiring of a taxpayer-funded photographer.

She told Times Radio: “All government departments under all governments have press officers and communications budgets.

“It’s not a personal photographer.”

Rachel Reeves has admitted people might “find it odd” that Labour MPs have received clothes as gifts.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, she denied that she was gifted the suit she was wearing.

Asked if she paid for the suit she was wearing, she said: “I did, the suit is from Hobbs and I bought it and I will be wearing it for my conference speech this afternoon.

“But I understand why you asked the question, and I can understand why people find it a little bit odd that politicians get support for things like buying clothes.”

She also defended MPs or shadow ministers accepting freebies like concert or football match tickets.

The chancellor pointed out that she has been to events like the First Night of the Proms with prominent BBC figures.