Indy TV

Sir Ed Davey belted out Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” to close out the Liberal Democrats conference in Brighton on Tuesday, 17 September.The party leader, all 72 Lib Dem MPs, and the crowd were on their feet singing and clapping along to the hit as confetti poured down from the ceiling.Sir Ed used his conference speech to urge Sir Keir Starmer to “make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS”.His party also announced it would campaign for a new Winterproof NHS Taskforce, which would manage a £1.5bn budget to build resilience across hospital wards, accident and emergency departments, ambulance services and patient discharging. More

Diane Abbott has accused Sir Keir Starmer of treating her like a “non-person” during a race row over comments made by a major Tory donor.In March, The Guardian reported that Frank Hester had told colleagues that looking at Ms Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women”.Ms Abbott, a veteran Labour MP, said she expected more support from the prime minister and her party, having been left feeling in danger by Frank Hester’s comments.She went on to claim that Sir Keir “never reached out to me personally and did treat me as a non-person”. More

Labour minister Dame Angela Eagle has defended the Prime Minister following reports he accepted at least £76,000 of gifts, including football away games and concert tickets.The Home Office minister was quizzed about the donations by Sky News presenter Kay Burley on Tuesday’s breakfast show (17 September).Burley said: “The freebies include the Royal Box at Wimbledon, hospitality at a Coldplay concert, Arsenal away games. “How does that align with the son of a toolmaker, man of the people image?”Dame Angela replied: “I think he’s an Arsenal fan, it takes all things I suppose.” More

Sky News presenter Sir Trevor Phillips labelled the Labour government a pretty miserable bunch” during an interview with the Foreign Secretary.The broadcaster challenged David Lammy over current pledges the new government has made since coming to power in July.Speaking on his Sunday breakfast show today (15 September), Sir Trevor said: “You’re proposing a ban on advertising fast food, you’re banning smartphones for kids, you are promising 10 years of slog to repair the NHS.“You personally are a cheerful chap but as a government, you are a pretty miserable bunch aren’t you?”Mr Lammy smiled and replied: “You do this to get to the sunny uplands.” More

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey arrived at his party’s autumn conference on a jet-ski.Sir Ed said people are “absolutely ecstatic” as the party’s autumn conference began in Brighton on Saturday (14 September).At its first conference since the party won 72 MPs in July’s general election, Sir Ed described the mood as “very excited”.He said: “People are absolutely ecstatic about the historic result the Liberal Democrats won.“72 MPs makes us the biggest Liberal or Liberal Democrat parliamentary party for over 100 years.“The third party again, and the strongest third party for over 100 years. So we want our voice to get heard.” More

Nigel Farage faced shouts from MPs in the House of Commons after he accused Sir Keir Starmer of presiding over a “two-tier policing and a two-tier justice system” in the UK following the release of hundreds of inmates from prisons to ease overcrowding.The Reform UK MP said serious career criminals were released to make way for rioters and “those who’ve said unpleasant things on Facebook and elsewhere in social media.”The prime minister replied that he was angry “to be put in a position to release people who should be in prison because the last government broke the prison system.” More

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is worried about the rise of the far-right, warning that it offers “the snake oil of the easy answer.”The prime minister told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, 8 September: “We can see what is happening in Germany with the recent election, see what is happening in France and other countries.”I am convinced that the answer to it is delivery in government.”Sir Keir’s comments came after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the most votes in Germany’s regional elections in Thuringia. More