Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of hypocrisy after photographs resurfaced of him at a protest backing a £15 minimum wage two years ago, as he pursues a lower minimum today.
Frontbencher Ian Murray said the resignation of Andy McDonald over the wage row appeared to be a “planned sabotage” of the Labour Party Conference.
Diane Abbott, former shadow home secretary, said Mr Murray’s suggestion was “nonsense”. “It is a fact though that Keir Starmer supported £15 an hour until recently, and he’s been on protest demanding it,” she said.
Former leader Jeremy Corbyn today attacked the stance of the Labour party under Sir Keir Starmer. Writing in the i,he said Sir Keir and his team had shown “they want to prop up, not challenge” the “wealth and power of the few”.
In a speech later today, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, is set to invoke the famous Blair-era slogan “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” while pledging to tackle antisocial behaviour if elected.
He will accuse the Conservatives of being “soft on crime and soft on causes on crime” in a knowing reference to the New Labour pledge.
Labour will never ‘defund the police’
A Labour government would never “defund the police”, the shadow home secretary said.
Black Lives Matter protesters have called for money to be taken from the police and invested in community programmes, education and mental health care.
They said diverting funding would make society safer.
But Nick Thomas-Symonds today said: “No Labour home secretary will ever defund the police.
“That’s not our party, that’s the Tory party, and they have spent 10 years defunding our police.”
The shadow home secretary used his conference speech to present Labour as the party of law and order.
Labour promises ‘biggest ever’ strategy to improve child health
Shaun Lintern, health correspondent, goes over the key healthcare pledges from the Labour conference:
Sadiq Khan needs 24/7 protection due to ‘colour of his skin’
The mayor of London said he needs 24/7 protection due to his faith and ethnic background.
Sadiq Khan said he at first denied the offer of police protection when elected in 2016 but changed his mind when officers said those close to him could be at risk.
He said 51 police officers on a team protect him “around the clock” and he revealed his staff had been offered counselling to deal with the “vitriol” that was levelled at him.
Mr Khan said he was inspired to speak openly about his protection and the reasons for it by footballers who pushed back against racist abuse.
He said: “I’m not going to allow these racists and these Islamophobes to intimidate me, and I’ll never bow to them.
“The mayor of the greatest city in the world needs protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week because of the colour of his skin and the god he worships, that can’t be right.”
Tories ‘soft on crime’ and Priti Patel ‘never delivers’
Nick Thomas-Symonds turned a Blair-era phrase around to attack the Tories in his conference speech.
New Labour pledged to be “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime”. Today’s Conservatives, the shadow home secretary said, were “soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime”.
He lambasted Priti Patel’s record as home secretary, saying she “likes to talks tough but she never delivers.
“She says she backs our frontline police officers and staff but then insults them with a pay freeze.
“It’s no surprise that she has lost the confidence of 130,000 rank-and-file officers represented by the Police Federation, who are the undisputed voice of policing.
‘Bring back neighbourhood policing’: Shadow home secretary pledge at Labour conference
A Labour government would “bring back neighbourhood policing”, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said in his Labour conference speech.
The Police Federation welcomed the pledge. John Apter, the federation’s chair, said reducing neighbourhood policing was a tough decision that had to be made due to austerity.
Mr Thomas-Symonds said Labour would also introduce new laws targeting domestic abusers and county lines drugs gangs.
‘Build back better’ just ‘blah blah blah’ to Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg jibed at Boris Johnson’s climate rhetoric as she addressed the Youth4Climate summit in Milan.
She used soundbites from speeches by the prime minister such as “build back better” before dismissing them as “blah, blah, blah”, to applause from the crowd.
“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words that sound great, but so far have led to no action,” she said.
NHS being privatised ‘by the backdoor’, says Labour
Jonathan Ashworth said the government was creating a “two-tier health system” as people take out loans and crowdfund to pay for private operations to beat the NHS backlog.
“A two-tier health system, privatisation by the backdoor. That’s the Tory threat to our NHS. That’s what we’re fighting and that’s why we’ll rebuild our NHS in every community across the land,” he said.
‘People will die’ unless health and care workers prioritised for petrol, Labour warns
Labour has called for health workers to be given priority for petrol.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said patients could die if doctors, nurses and other hospital workers were delayed or unable to get to work due to queues at petrol stations.
Labour ‘more united’ than people think
Jonathan Ashworth said the Labour Party was “more united” than people think, after Andy McDonald resigned from the front bench.
The shadow health secretary told BBC Radio 4’s World at One he was “sorry that Andy has resigned” and added he could “see why he is frustrated” because “something in his policy area” had not been adopted.
He added: “I have seen the Labour Party more divided than this”, and confirmed that this was under Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Ashworth said: “There was waves of shadow ministerial resignations and you know what – with no disrespect to various colleagues who resigned from the front bench – I think they thought it would create a political earthquake and it didn’t.
“Resignations don’t always have the impact which – with respect to our colleagues – they think they are going to have.”
Labour delegate ‘transphobically abused’ at conference
Cries of “shame” were heard in the Labour Party conference hall after one delegate said she suffered transphobic abuse in the centre from a fellow delegate.
Patricia Hannah-Wood, a councillor of Pendle Labour Party, said: “On Sunday evening … I was in the loo downstairs with a few of my colleagues from the northwest when I was transphobically abused in this conference centre by one of our sisters in this conference hall now.
“It should not happen, we have got an anti-bigotry and anti-bullying policy in the Labour Party. We need it to be enforced.”
