Keir Starmer confirms Labour’s plan to reintroduce top rate of 45p on income tax
Sir Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham are at odds over the Tory income tax cut as the Labour Party conference got underway in Liverpool.
Labour’s leader said he would reverse the decision to get rid of the top rate of tax for the highest earners, but would keep the planned 1p cut.
“I’ve long made the argument that we should reduce the tax burden on working people,” Sir Keir told the BBC ahead of the party conference.
Meanwhile Mr Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, said he believes both should go. “I don’t think it’s a time for tax cuts, it’s a time to support people through this crisis,” he told Sky News.
The income tax changes were announced in the chancellor’s mini-Budget earlier this week, which has faced criticisms that it looks set to mainly benefit the wealthy.
Kwasi Kwarteng sought to defend his tax cuts on Sunday, saying they would “favour people right across the income scale”.
Labour government ‘will advance equality’, Dodds says
Anneliese Dodds has told the Labour Party conference said the next Labour government will match the record of the last one to “advance equality”.
“We will act to eradicate gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps,” the shadow women and equalities secretary said.
“We will bring in strong family-friendly rights. We will measure what we do and be accountable for it - equality impact assessing every budget.”
She also reiterated Labour‘s commitment to making the women and equalities brief a secretary of state-level role and to make misogyny a hate crime.
Mick Lynch criticises government anti-strike plans
Mick Lynch, the RMT union boss who is at the Labour Party conference, was interviewed on LBC this morning.
He criticised the government’s new anti-strike action plans in a clip that can be watched here.
Mick Lynch criticises government's new anti-strike action plans
Labour ‘ready to govern’, party chair says
Labour can “unite the country” and “clean up our politics”, party chair Anneliese Dodds said as she set out a series of policies aimed at winning the next election.
The plans contained in the policy review include a decade-long commitment to overhaul social care, a promise to recruit 6,500 new teachers and extend statutory maternity leave.
The Stronger Together policy review - unveiled at the party’s conference in Liverpool - is based on 12 months of consultation with Labour’s frontbench teams and extensive discussions with unions and party members.
She said it was Labour’s “roadmap to a fairer, greener future” for the UK.
“From tackling the cost of living and climate crises to building a stronger, more secure economy, delivering a new deal for working people to investing in high-quality public services and safe and secure communities, this report shows that Labour is ready to govern and ready to take on the challenges the country faces,” Ms Dodds said.
Anneliese Dodds says Labour is ‘ready to govern’ at party conference
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Images from Labour Party conference
Let’s take a look at the images coming out of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool so far:
Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner have taken to the stage for the Labour Party conference
(Getty Images)
Union boss Mick Lynch is at the Labour Party conference
(AFP via Getty Images)
The Labour Party conference has kicked off in Liverpool
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Merchandise is on display on the first day of the Labour conference
(AFP via Getty Images)
Kwarteng refuses to confirm changes to immigration rules
Moving away from the Labour Party conference for a moment, Kwasi Kwarteng has refused to confirm the government is planning to change Brexit immigration rules.
Kwasi Kwarteng refuses to confirm changes to Brexit immigration rules
Angela Rayner unveils ‘fair work standard'
Angela Rayner has revealed Labour’s plans for new standards and rights for workers.
The party’s deputy leader outlined a “fair work standard” that would “underpin a new fair work code for the public sector, guaranteeing fair conditions, job security, wellbeing, proper training, rights at work, and union access”.
Ms Rayner said: “We will also create a fair work gold standard to champion the very best of employers, and a Labour government will be on the side of the self-employed too.
“We will give genuinely self-employed workers the right to a written contract and timely payment by law so they aren’t left out of pocket and chasing invoices.
“Because our fair work standard will raise standards for all.”
Angela Rayner unveiled Labour’s plans for workers’ rights
(AFP via Getty Images)
Labour ‘will oversee wave of insourcing'
Angela Rayner has told the Labour Party conference her party would promote insourcing.
“The Tories have become too dependent on handing away our public services on the cheap, and now we are paying the price,” the shadow secretary of state for the future of work said.
“We will oversee the biggest wave of insourcing for a generation.”
She added: “Today I can announce that before any service is contracted out, public bodies must show that the work could not be better done in-house.”
Angela Rayner took to the stage at the Labour Party conference
(AFP via Getty Images)
Kwarteng hits more tax cuts could be on the horizon
Kwasi Kwarteng has hinted of more tax cuts ahead - and ruled out any limit on government borrowing - as he appeared to shrug off criticism of his mini-Budget ‘gamble’.
Labour says it would reinstate 45p tax rate
‘Impossible to imagine Britain without Queen,’ Starmer says
Sir Keir Starmer paid tribute to the Queen at the Labour Party conference.
“The late Queen Elizabeth II was this great country’s greatest monarch,” he said.
“She created a special, personal relationship with all of us. A relationship based on service and devotion to our country.”
The Labour leader added: “Even now, after the mourning period has passed, it still feels impossible to imagine a Britain without her.”
Here are some images as the party conference paid tribute to the monarch:
Sir Keir Starmer pays tribute to the Queen during the Labour conference
(AFP via Getty Images)
Angela Rayner and Sir Keir Starmer take part in a minute’s silence for Queen Elizabeth II
(AFP via Getty Images)
Minute silence for Queen at Labour conference
Labour has held a minute’s silence for Queen Elizabeth II and sung the National Anthem at its party conference:
Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin is there and shared this on Twitter: