Markus Andrews

Andy Burnham has taken a swipe at Keir Starmer for focusing on internal battles over Labour’s party rulebook rather than taking the fight to the Conservatives at this week’s annual conference in Brighton.The Greater Manchester mayor said he was “impatient” to hear a “convincing vision” from Labour about how it would improve the lives of people in the north, warning that voters will stop listening if the party fails to put forward clear plans soon.Sir Keir avoided defeat in a series of votes at the Brighton gathering, where a substantial majority of delegates backed plans to make it harder for fringe candidates to get onto the ballot paper in a leadership election and to implement in full the recommendations of a report into the handling of antisemitism under his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.But broader proposals to end one member, one vote selection of the Labour leader, in favour of a return to an old-style electoral college giving more weight to MPs, were never put to conference after failing to win support at the party’s ruling National Executive Committee.Mr Burnham’s comments come after Labour voters named him over Mr Starmer as their preferred choice for party leader, in a poll for The Independent.Speaking to the BBC, he insisted that he supports Sir Keir and is “not in the fray” for leadership speculation because he is not currently an MP.But he warned that the party leader risked missing “a very big opportunity” to capture voters’ attention if he fails to set out a clear set of policies this week.Mr Burnham said that now was not the right time for Labour to be focusing on changes to the way its own internal procedures work.“I think out of a pandemic, people are not interested in the minutiae of rule changes within political parties,” said Burnham, whose former seat of Leigh in Greater Manchester was one of the red wall constituencies to fall to Tories in the 2019 election.“I don’t think they ever have been, but they’re particularly not interested in that now. This conference should be all about turning outwards and putting on the table a big alternative.”He added: “It would be a mistake to leave this week still fighting the internal battles, with all of the focus there, and not setting something out that can lift people.”Mr Burnham said that voters, particularly in the north, were becoming “less and less convinced by the government” and by Boris Johnson’s promises to “level up” disadvantaged areas.But he warned: “There’s an opportunity there in front of Labour, but it really, really needs to take it. It needs to set out on in specific terms on important issues, what it would do. Obviously, the leader and the shadow cabinet need to connect with the public in this through their speeches. And we can’t afford to leave Brighton not having done that.“All eyes are on Labour this week. And it’s not a week to say ‘We’ll set our plans at the election’, it is a week to say ‘Here’s what we’re going to do to give you a better alternative to this Conservative government’.”If Mr Starmer fails to do this, he warned, “I don’t think the voters give you repeated chances to capture their attention … If we don’t get into that space this week, we will have lost a very big opportunity.”Sir Keir welcomed Sunday night’s votes in Brighton, which will increase the nomination threshold for future candidates for the leadership from 10 to 20 per cent of MPs, making it far more difficult for a left-winger like Mr Corbyn to get onto the ballot paper.The threshold for triggering a reselection battle for Labour MPs will also be raised to 50 per cent of local membership, making it harder for them to be removed by activists as election candidates.The moves were backed by a margin of 54-46 per cent of delegates, while the implementation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission recommendations was backed by 74-26 per cent.Starmer said: “I’m delighted that these vital reforms have passed. They represent a major step forward in our efforts to face the public and win the next general election.“This is a decisive and important day in the history of the Labour Party.  I promised to tackle antisemitism in our party. We’ve now closed the door on a shameful chapter in our history. I want to acknowledge the courage of all the people who spoke up against it.“As I promised when elected as leader, the Labour Party is now relentlessly focused on the concerns of the British people and offering them a credible, ambitious alternative to this government.“This is a crucial step forward for party I lead and am determined to see in government. And in the coming days you’ll hear us set out ideas on how we win the next election.” More

The UK could experience a “national shortage” of turkeys in the run-up to Christmas due to the impact of Brexit, an industry leader has said.The chair of the Traditional Farm Fresh Turkey Association (TFTA) said a labour shortage following the UK’s exit from the EU could lead to fewer turkeys on supermarket shelves. Her comments echo warnings from poultry farmers, who have previously said serious staff shortages could affect how many turkeys are available at Christmas.It was estimated last month there were nearly 7,000 job vacancies in the poultry industry.Kate Martin from the TFTA said: “This year it’s looking like there is a national shortage of turkeys when we’re talking about supermarket shelves, rather than buying direct from your farm.”She added: “It is the supermarket shelves that will be emptier on turkeys this year than they have been before, only because there have been less turkeys placed on the ground, only because the big processers know that they will not get them processed.”The chair of the TFTA, which represents producers of high-end free range turkeys, also said there had been an “absolutely unprecedented number of orders” coming in this year.“Come Christmas, if you leave ordering your turkey from your local farm supplier, you are going to be out of luck,” she added.On whether Brexit is to blame, Ms Martin said: “We’re small producers, we use local labour, but for the big processors it is 100 per cent caused by a labour shortage.“This situation with turkeys is caused by the fact that European labour is no longer available to us, and they are skilled workers who have been coming to us for years.“People are now missing a whole host of their workforce that they have been training and investing in over the last however many years, and those workers are no longer available for us to use on a seasonal basis – they will go find work on mainland Europe instead.”Last month, the British Poultry Council (BPC) said its members had reported one in six jobs were unfilled because of EU workers leaving the UK due to Brexit.Paul Kelly, the managing director of KellyBronze, which produces free-range turkeys, told The Guardian: “There will be a massive shortage because companies cannot risk hatching turkeys and pushing them on the farm if they can’t get the workers to do the job.”He added: “It would be financial suicide. Turkey after Christmas Day is worth nothing.”Supermarkets and restaurants have recently been hit with food shortages linked to staff shortages and supply chain issues, including McDonald’s and Nando’s.Industry leaders have also warned the UK’s post-Brexit supply chain crisis risks causing problems at Christmas and lead to food shortages going into the next week.George Eustice, the environment secretary, said: “It is a top priority to ensure that there are enough workers across the country’s supply chains to make sure they remain strong and resilient.“We have listened to concerns from the sector and we are acting to alleviate what is a very tight labour market.”Additional reporting by Press Association More

Angela Rayner has defended calling Boris Johnson and Conservative ministers “scum”, insisting that she will only apologise when the prime minister retracts his past “homophobic” and “racist” remarks.Doubling down on her comments made on the first day of Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, the party’s deputy leader said on Sunday that “leaving children hungry” in the midst of a pandemic was “pretty scummy”.However, her remarks have provoked anger from Conservative cabinet ministers, including the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, who described them as “appalling”.In comments reported by the Daily Mirror, Ms Rayner told Labour activists she was sick of “shouting from the sidelines”, adding: “We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, misogynistic, absolute vile [inaudible] banana-republic, vile, nasty, Etonian [inaudible] piece of scum.”Conservative minister Amanda Milling said Ms Rayner’s comments were “completely unacceptable” and demanded she apologise. “As elected representatives we have a duty to lead by example,” added Ms Milling.Oliver Dowden, Conservative Party chair, added: “We need to make politics better, not drag it into the gutter. Let’s see if we get an apology.”Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer sidestepped calls for Ms Rayner to apologise.He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that he would speak with his deputy, adding: “Angela and I take different approaches, and that is not the language that I would use.”But there were signs of annoyance within the party’s upper echelons at the impact of the comments.One shadow cabinet minister told The Independent: “Being rude about Boris doesn’t work because there are a lot of people who voted for him who we want to vote for us.”Ms Rayner defended the attack, which was delivered during a reception at the conference, stressing that it was levelled at senior ministers and Mr Johnson rather than at Conservatives in general.“That was post-watershed with a group of activists at an event last night,” she told Sky News, adding that the prime minister had failed to apologise for his own previous remarks “that are homophobic, that are racist, that are misogynistic”.“When the prime minister uses language like calling Muslim women ‘letter boxes’, that has an effect,” she said. “The fact he hasn’t apologised for that … I don’t think he’s fit to govern.”Ms Rayner added: “Anyone who leaves children hungry during a pandemic and can give billions of pounds to their mates on WhatsApp, I think that was pretty scummy.“Let me contextualise it – it’s a phrase that you would hear very often in northern, working-class towns, that we’d even say jovially to other people – we’d say it’s a scummy thing to do. That to me is my street language … [meaning that] actually it’s pretty appalling that people think that’s OK to do.”In an apparent reference to Mr Johnson’s history of offensive comments in past newspaper columns – including comparing burqa-wearing Muslim women to “letter boxes” and describing gay men as “tank-topped bum boys” – Ms Rayner stated that she would only apologise if the prime minister also said sorry.“If the prime minister wants to apologise and remove himself from those comments that he’s made … then I will apologise for calling him scummy,” she said.Former Labour cabinet minister Andrew Adonis said that if Ms Rayner refuses to apologise, Starmer should say he no longer has confidence in her as deputy.Lord Adonis suggested that the incendiary comments were intended to get the ball rolling on a leadership election campaign.“The Labour Party’s leadership, at the moment, is very seriously divided and extremely weak,” the peer told Times Radio. “The fact that the deputy leader can descend into a gutter of name-calling – and the only reason I can see that she did it was in order to get going a leadership election campaign against Keir Starmer – is I’m afraid a pretty depressing commentary on where things are in what ought to be an alternative government.“The moment that Labour starts descending into the gutter like this, it will become unelectable. It’s as simple as that.” More

Piers Corbyn has disrupted a climate emergency debate on the fringes of the Labour conference, where his brother and former leader Jeremy Corbyn was appearing as a star panellist.The 74-year-old began heckling when the chair of the event — hosted by The World Transformed in Brighton — opened up to questions from younger members of the audience and people of colour.The request also prompted a second heckler to disrupt proceedings on Sunday, accusing event organisers of “assault” before he was promptly ejected and blocked from reaching the stage.The older brother of the former Labour leader, Piers, was seen handing out leaflets entitled “Stop Jabbing Children”, which falsely accuses the chief medical officer Chris Whitty of using “fake data”, alongside a separate climate science denying pamphlet claiming: “Man-Made Climate Change Does Not Exist!”.Another member of the panel received a rapturous applause, however, when she shot back at the hecklers, including Piers, saying: “You need to check what level of entitlement you have. You need to sit down and show some goddamn respect.”“Alright, so we need to carry on comrades, because we have a massive task ahead of us,” she added.Speaking after the end of the event, Piers, who was asked whether he could not just send his brother a text expressing his view, replied: “Well, he knows this, but he’s a prisoner of the trade unions going along with the Green New Deal”.Addressing activists during the event, the ex-Labour leader, who appeared onstage alongside Labour MPs Clive Lewis and Zarah Sultana, said: “The climate emergency is here, now, and real. The biodiversity crisis is here, now, and real.“The loss of habitat, the loss of wildlife, the loss of open space, the loss of insects, actually, is incredibly damaging to the natural world for all of us”He went on: “The reality of climate change is there — it’s pretty obvious. “Look at global weather patterns, look at global temperature rises, look at global sea level rises, look at increased flooding… and these 100-year storms are now coming up more and more frequently.” More

A government minister has wrongly claimed that maintaining the £20-a-week uplift to universal credit payments would cost “several pennies” on income tax.Chancellor Rishi Sunak is coming under intense pressure to abandon his plan to remove the increase to the benefit that was introduced at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic last year, although there has been speculation that he may soften the impact of the cut by reducing the “taper” rate at which the benefit is withdrawn as workers earn more.Transport secretary Grant Shapps today defended the chancellor’s refusal simply to maintain the uplift – worth £1,040 a year to around 6 million claimants, many of them in low-paid jobs, at a cost to the government of around £6bn a year – arguing that it would mean an unacceptable hike in income tax paid by workers.Mr Shapps told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “I think most people recognise that if it’s brought in for the pandemic, it’s going to end as we move back to people going back to work and more normal times.“We can’t keep all these things in place, otherwise you’d have to put several pennies on income tax to pay for the policy to run.”However, official figures released by HM Revenue and Customs in June this year showed that increasing the basic rate of income tax by 1p in the pound would raise £4.7bn in 2022/23 and £5.75bn in subsequent years. Hiking the higher rate by 1p would bring in an additional £1bn next year and £1.4bn in following years.Mr Shapps did not specify what he meant by “several pennies”, but the HMRC figures indicate that the cost of keeping the uplift would be little more than one percentage point in income tax, should the chancellor choose to fund it that way.Charities, unions and think tanks have warned that the removal of the uplift on 6 October will hit some of the UK’s poorest families hard at a time when energy bills are soaring and the end of the furlough scheme is expected to increase unemployment. The loss of disposable income for spending on essentials could undermine the UK’s economic recovery from coronavirus, they said.On Thursday, former prime minister Gordon Brown described the cut as “more economically illogical, socially divisive and morally indefensible than anything I have witnessed in this country’s politics”.But Mr Shapps said that it was important to take into account that salaries are increasing faster than the cost of living.“What we’re going to do is look at how the whole package of measures, everything that we do, reacts,” he said.“You mentioned some costs will be going up – that’s undoubtedly true – but fortunately I can also report that salaries are going up faster than that.“I think we’ve seen a 4.2 per cent increase in salaries this year.“We’ve got more people in work than even before the pandemic. A lot of people on universal credit are working, so it’s not unconnected.” More

Labour’s northern mayors should not have been left off the agenda at the party’s annual conference in Brighton, Andy Burnham has said.The Mayor of Greater Manchester said it was “regrettable” that no mayor except London’s Sadiq Khan had been invited to address the party’s annual gathering with a speech.Speaking at a packed event on the fringes of the conference Mr Burnham, who is seen as a potential future leader, said the lack of voices representing the region suggested the party wasn’t “serious about winning back the North of England”.Mr Burnham also used his appearance to spell out the skeleton of an alternative national policy platform, calling for a universal basic income, guaranteed housing, and more affordable public transport in the regions. Labour leader Keir Starmer, who Mr Burnham implicitly criticised as struggling to land blows on the government, has been criticised for not having a clear enough policy vision for the country.”It is, I think regrettable that no Labour metro mayor outside of London has been asked to address this conference from the platform,” he told the fringe event hosted by the Progressive Economy Forum.”I think Sadiq [Khan] should have a conference speech from the platform: he’s mayor of our capital city, and he’s doing a damn fine job for being mayor of our capital city. “But if this party is serious about winning back the North of England why is Steve Rotheram not standing up there, why is Tracy Brabin our first woman metro mayor not addressing this conference from the platform?”Mr Burnham appeared to indirectly criticise Labour’s top team in Westminster for not pushing the government enough on its planned cuts to Universal Credit.”Rather than cutting Universal Credit, we should be expanding it further now, so that everyone has got enough to live on and nobody has to worry about feeding their kids,” he said.”Why in this particular moment, did it take a footballer from Manchester to say that with clarity directly to the government? Thank God he did, and he spoke for thousands of people not just in our region but across the country.”Mr Burnham is the most high-profile metro mayor not to have been given a speech at conference despite his outspoken national role during the Covid-19 pandemic.Spelling out a broad policy platform, he said: “The market has not provided a good home for everybody, the market has not provided affordable transport for everybody.”So let’s start changing the way we think building up from the bottom and first principles close to home for everybody. But I would also go further and say a universal basic income.”Under a universal basic income workers would get a guaranteed payment no matter whether they were in or out of work. Mr Burnham said the current benefits system was “set up to failure” and caused insecurity, which led to anxiety and mental health problems. An exclusive Savanta ComRes poll for The Independent published on Sunday found that Andy Burnham is the preferred choice as Labour leader, not only of voters in general but also among the party’s own supporters.The findings – and Mr Burnham’s comments at the fringe event – will intensify pressure on Sir Keir this week to show he can make a breakthrough with the electorate in time for a general election, which is expected in 2023.He has previously criticised Labour for not giving enough airtime to metro mayors, in 2017 branding the party’s annual conference “Londoncentric”. More

Grant Shapps has sparked an angry row after claiming hauliers have “created” the fuel shortage crisis, despite the government admitting to a lack of lorry drivers.The transport secretary was accused of a “disgraceful attack” and of “shamefully passing the buck” for the queues at filling station forecourts, as the worsening situation threatened to engulf the government.Mr Shapps also appeared to blame the public for the problems by panic-buying petrol and diesel “when they don’t need it”, insisting there are adequate stocks.The controversy blew up afterThe Mail on Sunday newspaper quoted a government source arguing the Road Haulage Association (RHA) is “entirely responsible for this panic and chaos”.The transport secretary backed the claim, saying: “There was a meeting which took place about 10 days ago, a private meeting, in which one of the haulage associations decided to leak the details to media.“And that has created … quite a large degree of concern as people naturally react to those things.”Calling the leak “irresponsible”, Mr Shapps told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme: “The good news is there is plenty of fuel. The bad news is, if everyone carries on buying it when they don’t need it, then we will continue to have queues.”But the RHA hit back quickly, pointing out its managing director Rod McKenzie had not even been at the meeting where a BP executive had discussed stock levels.“He was not, as the government source claimed, ‘aware of the comments’ and certainly did not ‘weaponise’ them in subsequent TV interviews,” a statement said.“Indeed he repeatedly stressed the need not to panic buy and that there were adequate fuel stocks.“The RHA believes this disgraceful attack on a member of its staff is an attempt to divert attention away from their recent handling of the driver shortage crisis.”Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrat business spokesperson, said: “Grant Shapps is shamefully passing the buck for the government’s own failures.“The Conservatives have repeatedly ignored calls from businesses to address the shortage of drivers. It is a bit rich for ministers to now blame the public and the road haulage industry for the mess we find ourselves in.”Jim McMahon, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said: “It beggars belief that the transport secretary is seeking to blame others for a crisis entirely of the government’s own making. These problems have been growing for years and the Conservatives have done nothing to address them.”Mr Shapps comments came after the announcement of emergency visas for foreign lorry drivers to come to the UK to ease the crisis was dismissed as a damp squib.As expected, the offer will be made to 5,000 HGV drivers – plus 5,500 poultry workers – but the visas will run out Christmas Eve, triggering criticism they are too little, too late.Keir Starmer suggested 100,000 foreign drivers are needed – the RHA estimate of the shortfall – saying: “We are going to have to do that. We have to issue enough visas to cover the number of drivers that we need.”The Labour leader said: “I’m astonished the government, knowing the situation, is not acting today. The prime minister needs to say today what he is going to do.” More

Sir Keir Starmer has faced a furious backlash from the Labour left after he ruled out nationalising Britain’s biggest energy companies, a major departure from the party’s position under Jeremy Corbyn.Defying Starmer’s leadership, Labour delegates voted in favour of energy firms being taken into public ownership at the party conference in Brighton on Sunday.It marks a second conference defeat for the Labour leader, who was forced to water down his planned shake-up of leadership election rules.Labour activists and left-wing MPs accused Starmer of breaking his own promises after he pledged during last year’s leadership campaign to “support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water”.Diane Abbott, shadow home secretary under Corbyn, said: “Campaigning for the leadership, Keir Starmer said he was in favour of common ownership. It was one of his ten pledges.”Owen Jones accused Starmer of “saying things to get elected he doesn’t really mean”, adding: “He’s violated the explicit promises he made to get elected leader. This is dishonesty – and it destroys faith in democracy”.Asked on BBC’s Andrew Marr Show whether he would nationalise the big six energy companies if Labour wins power, Starmer replied: “No.”Claiming he had not given up on his previous commitment to “common ownership” of energy, the Labour leader said: “When it comes to common ownership, I’m pragmatic about this. I do not agree with the argument that says we must be ideological.”“Where common ownership is value for money for the taxpayer and delivers better services, then there should be common ownership,” Starmer added – before pointing to the NHS Track and Trace system as an example of the kind of service Labour would keep in public hands.But Labour delegates on the conference floor voted overwhelming in favour of a “socialist green new deal” motion – explicitly backing public ownership of energy companies. The motion also called for the creation of millions of green jobs and publicly-owned green investment banks.Gaya Sriskanthan, co-chair of the Momentum, welcomed the result: “This is a turning point. The grassroots have had enough of timid centrism and have overwhelmingly endorsed transformative socialist policy that meets the crises of the 21st century head on.”“Starmer has spent long enough running away from his ten pledges, it’s time to support transformative policy. Labour members back bold solutions, the leadership needs to follow suit.”Chris Saltmarsh, the co-founder of the Labour for a Green New Deal campaign, also hailed the result. “Despite efforts to block this motion and stifle party democracy, members have demonstrated the strength of support for a transformative climate agenda.”Urging the leadership to heed members’ wishes in the next manifesto, the activist added: “[Starmer] should re-state the ambitious pledges of his leadership campaign, and put the green new deal at the heart of his agenda.”Labour MP Jon Trickett also urged Starmer and his team to listen to the conference vote. “Democracy must prevail,” he tweeted.Although the votes of delegates are supposed to shape party policies, the leadership does not always follow conference motions when it comes to writing the manifesto.Ed Miliband, the shadow energy secretary, told the conference on Sunday that Labour wanted to see a green Britain “where public and alternative models of ownership” play a role in the energy sector.On Saturday Mr Miliband had been more explicit, telling The Independent: “We do believe there is an important role for public ownership.”A video shared by the Green New Deal Rising group showed Starmer ignoring a young climate activist who asked whether he backed the TUC’s proposal to invest £85bn to create more than one million green jobs.Recent Opinium polling shows that the majority of the public support the idea of bringing energy companies into public ownership: 53 per cent of people support the measure, with just 15% per cent opposing.Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng indicated earlier this week that he would be prepared to appoint a “special administrator” that would see some firms taken under the government’s wing – effectively nationalising them on a temporary basis.The government is reportedly considering ways to step in to save some of biggest Britain’s energy companies if they struggle to cope with surging gas prices.A separate motion for the Royal Mail to be returned to public ownership also passed at the conference on Sunday. Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said the motion “reasserts Labour’s commitment to public ownership”.Unite’s Tom Murphy said problems in the country will “not be solved with belief in the market alone”, adding: “It’s vital that as we face the recovery and the long-term transition of a green future that this party does not turn its back on the democratic public ownership. More