‘Don’t forget, don’t forgive’: Keir Starmer calls to oust Tory government
Liz Truss’s government has “lost control of the British economy”, Sir Keir Starmer has alleged, after the pound fell to an all-time low in the wake of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget.
His Labour conference speech came shortly after Mr Kwarteng told City bosses that he is “confident” in his tax-cutting economic plan, insisting: “Our approach will work”.
The Bank of England warned on Monday that interest rates could be hiked “by as much as needed” to control inflation, as mortgage lenders temporarily withdrew deals for new customers and traders banked on rates hitting nearly 6 per cent next year, sparking some fears of a future housing crash.
Despite the pound rallying slightly on Tuesday, one former senior BoE official urged bosses to consider holding an emergency meeting.
“The key thing is, if you call it, you have to take significant action,” said the bank’s former deputy governor for monetary policy, Professor Sir Charlie Bean, adding: “The lesson is you go big and you go fast.”
Analysis | How Kwasi Kwarteng’s budget damaged the economy and what will happen now
With the government’s economic policy – described as a “doomsday cult” by the chief economist of the world’s largest wealth manager UBS – having sent the pound tumbling, our policy correspondent Jon Stone takes a look at how Friday’s mini-Budget has damaged the economy:
How Kwasi Kwarteng’s budget damaged the economy and what will happen now
Policy Correspondent Jon Stone unpacks how unfunded tax cuts pulled the rug out from under the UK economy
‘A government-in-waiting’: Political journalists react to Starmer speech
Here is some of the reaction from political journalists to Sir Keir Starmer’s speech at the Labour Party conference, in which he claimed his was “the party of the centre ground”.
Pippa Crerar of The Guardian said that “for the first time in years”, Labour actually sounds like a government-in-waiting.
ITV’s Robert Peston said there were “enough ovations to make a dictator proud”.
According to the New Statesman’s Rachel Wearmouth, the reaction across the Labour Party is broadly positive.
Emily Ashton, of Bloomberg, described a “real belief here that Labour can win next election”.
Sources in Rupa Huq’s local party call for her to lose whip after calling Kwarteng ‘superficially’ black
Sources in Rupa Huq’s local Labour party have called for her to lose the whip after she called chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng “superficially” black, reports The Independent’s Whitehall editor Kate Devlin .
In comments apparently made during a fringe event at the Labour conference, the MP for Ealing Central and Acton can be heard discussing the chancellor’s private school background, before adding that “you wouldn’t know he is black” when hearing him speak, in audio published online.
Here is the full exclusive report:
Sources in Rupa Huq’s local party call for her to lose whip in racism row
MP prompts racism row at party conference
Bank of England chief economist says pound slump will ‘require significant response’
The Bank of England’s chief economist Huw Pill has told a conference that the slump in the value of the pound will require a “significant monetary policy response”.
In a statement to Barclays-CEPR International Monetary Policy Forum, Mr Pill tried to reassure those present that the Bank of England had a watchful eye on current events, as well as “a very good understanding of its mandate to maintain price stability and its remit to bring inflation to its 2 per cent target”.
My colleague Holly Bancroft has more details:
Bank of England chief economist says pound slump will ‘require significant response’
The Bank of England’s chief economist has said that slump in the value of the pound will require a “significant monetary policy response”.
Starmer declares Labour ‘party of the centre ground’
Sir Keir Starmer concluded his speech at his party’s conference by claiming that Labour are the “party of the centre-ground”.
But he warned that the Tories will “stop at nothing” in a bid for a fifth term.
“Conference, on climate change, growth, aspiration, levelling-up, Brexit, economic responsibility we are the party of the centre-ground,” he said, echoing Tony Blair as he added: “Once again, the political wing of the British people – and we can achieve great things.”
Sir Keir continued: “Let’s not kid ourselves: the next two years will be tough. The Tories want a fifth term and they will stop at nothing to achieve it. And because of their record, because of the state of Britain, they are getting desperate. With so little that’s good to defend, they will lash out.
“We need to be prepared, disciplined, focused, spend each day working to earn the trust of the British people. Meet their attacks with hope, provide the leadership this country so desperately needs.
“Because, as in 1956, 1964, 1997: this is a Labour moment.”
Labour ‘won’t work with the SNP under any circumstances’, Starmer says
Scotland needs a Labour government, Sir Keir Stamer has claimed, insisting that his party will not make a deal with the SNP “under any circumstances”.
He told delegates in Liverpool: “Conference, the challenges we face – the cost-of-living crisis, climate change, standing up to Putin – are common across our four nations.
“We saw off the threat of fascism and deadly disease, together. We built the NHS and the welfare state, together. But I don’t believe in our union just because of our history. I believe in it because of our future.”
He added: “Scotland needs a Labour government that can deliver change. But it also needs the power and resources to shape its own future, whoever’s in power in Westminster. And the SNP are not interested in this.
“For them, Scotland’s success in the UK is met with gritted teeth, seen as a roadblock to independence, and so, they stand in the way. We can’t work with them. We won’t work with them. No deal under any circumstances.
“A fairer, greener, more dynamic Scotland. In a fairer, greener, more dynamic, Labour Britain.”
Labour will ‘make Brexit work’, Starmer says
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed that a Labour government would “make Brexit work”.
He told the Labour conference: “The policy of my Labour government will always be to make Brexit work. It’s no secret I voted Remain – as the prime minister did.
“But what I heard, around the country, was people who thought we’d got our priorities wrong; who wanted democratic control over their lives but who also wanted opportunities for the next generation, communities they felt proud of, public services they could rely on.”
Sir Keir said he did not hear that Brexit was about “slashing workers’ rights” or lowering food standards, or ending redistribution, adding: “So I want to speak directly to the people who left Labour on this issue. Whether you voted Leave or Remain, you’ve been let down.
“And with Liz Truss, the Tories are changing the meaning of Brexit before your eyes.”
He added: “If you voted for a government to step in on your side, for better work, higher wages, more opportunities in your community, for an NHS that is modern and reliable. If you voted to take control of your life and for the next generation to have control of theirs, then I say to you: that is what I will deliver.
“I will make work pay for the people who create this country’s wealth. I will make sure we buy, make and sell more in Britain. I will revitalise public services and control immigration using a points-based system. I will spread power and opportunity to all.”
Labour to set up new publicly-owned company to ‘harness green energy’
Labour will set up a new publicly-owned green energy company as as a rival to foreign investors, Keir Starmer has announced.
Great British Energy would “harness the power of Britain’s sun, wind, and waves to cut energy bills and deliver energy independence”, the Labour leader told the party’s conference.
GB Energy would work “alongside the rapidly expanding private sector, to establish the UK as a clean energy superpower and guarantee long term energy security”, Sir Keir said.
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports:
Labour to set up new publicly-owned company to ‘harness green energy’
Great British Energy would “harness the power of Britain’s sun, wind, and waves to cut energy bills’, Keir Starmer says
Starmer sets out Labour target for 70% to own their own homes
A Labour government will set a target to ensure 70 per cent of Britons own their own homes, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed.
The party will also help “real” first-time buyers onto the property with a new mortgage guarantee scheme, the Labour leader told his annual conference in Liverpool.
Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has more:
Labour to set 70 per cent homeowning target, Keir Starmer announces
A Labour government will set a target to ensure 70 per cent of Britons own their own homes, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed.
Labour has ‘economic reason’ on its side, Starmer says
Labour will beat the Tories because the party has “fairness” and “economic reason” on its side, Sir Keir Starmer has claimed.
He told the Labour conference: “If they want to fight us on redistribution, if they want to fight us on workers’ rights, if they want to tell us working people don’t come first, we’ll take them on – and we will win.
“And we will win not just because we have fairness on our side but because we have economic reason on our side too. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work. Britain won’t be better off just because we make the rich richer. ”
He also suggested Kwasi Kwarteng had been “caught bang to rights” on the Tories’ economic record.
“We will fight the Tories on economic growth. Their record is appalling – the worst decade of growth in two centuries. Or, as the Chancellor puts it, ‘a vicious cycle of stagnation’, he said.
“Now, I have to say, as a former prosecutor, it always warms my heart when somebody caught bang to rights pleads guilty at the first opportunity.”
