Afternoon summary
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has announced plans to appoint a special envoy for nature for the first time, in a major speech in which he also said the threat posed by the climate crisis was “more fundamental” than the threat posed by terrorism, or autocratic states. (See 1.35pm.)
Angela Eagle, the border security minister, has struggled in interviews to defend the large number of “freebies” accepted by Keir Starmer before he became PM. (See 1.32pm.)
Updated
Where do the Lib Dems go next - analysis
Here is Pippa Crerar and Peter Walker’s analysis of where the Lib Dems go next after their party conference.
And here’s an extract.
As an election strategy, it was simple but hugely effective: combat the usual lack of attention for a smaller party with images of a wetsuit-clad or Zumba-dancing Davey, with each stunt linked the party’s core policy areas of the NHS and care, sewage, and the cost of living.
“In other elections, when we did get airtime we’d be asked about Labour or the Tories, or why we were so useless,” another party insider says. “This time we were asked about our policies.”
Going from 15 MPs to 72 was a dramatic vindication of the strategy, but as Davey closes a gleeful Lib Dem conference in Brighton, some in the party are wondering whether more of the same will work again.
One thing is clear: for now, the tight policy focus remains – as do the stunts. On Saturday, Davey arrived at Brighton marina on a jetski. Later in the conference he accepted a challenge to recite the names of all of his MPs while riding the rollercoaster on the city’s pier.
Some Lib Dems express private worry about this, wanting the party to focus also on areas that distinguish them from Labour, for example on Brexit and a suite of relatively radical tax policies in the election manifesto.
But, for now, Davey seems invulnerable, the beneficiary of an image revamp in which his team sought to highlight the empathy that comes with his role as a carer for his disabled teenage son, and his inherent sense of fun and mischief.
Keir Starmer has restated his promise to allow MPs a free vote on a private member’s bill on assisted dying.
Speaking to reporters in Rome yesterday, where he was asked if he stood by the promise he made to Dame Esther Rantzen, the campaigner who has terminal cancer, to allow a vote on changing the law, Starmer replied:
I gave her my word that we would make time for this with a private member’s bill and I repeat that commitment. I made it to her personally and I meant it, and we will.
The MPs who came in the top seven in the private member’s ballot, which is high enough to ensure any bill they present gets time for a full debate, have not yet said what subject they will choose for their legislation.
The Labour MP Jake Richards, who came 11th in the ballot, has said he will bring forward an assisted dying bill if no one else does. But campaigners would prefer one of the higher-placed MPs in the ballot to take it up.
Nandy tells TV bosses to employ more working-class people, and use more production companies outside London
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is telling TV bosses to employ more working-class people, and to use more production companies based outside London.
She will argue that TV is “one of the most centralised and exclusive industries in the UK” and that this matters because “who tells the story determines the story that is told”.
Speaking to the Royal Television Society’s London Convention this afternoon, according to extracts released in advance, Nandy is saying:
Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. And if you’ve moved jobs and people and content, but the heads of departments and commissioners are still in an office in London, do something about it.
Eight per cent - the proportion of working class people in TV. Twenty three per cent - the proportion of commissions made by companies based outside of London. Thirty per cent - the fall in trust in media over the last decade. None of this is inevitable.
Frankly, if you don’t know why the film industry is so attracted to the beauty of Sunderland, or why the arts sector is buzzing in Bradford, or the potential to TV of the Welsh Valleys, it is most likely because you’ve never been there. And you have no right to call yourself a public service broadcaster.
I know it isn’t easy. The costs are short term, the payoff is long term. But there is so much at stake and it is my belief that an industry that belongs to the nation is an industry that will not just survive but thrive. That is what I want to see. We will do everything we can to put rocket boosters under your efforts, but that effort in the first place belongs to you all.
Angela Rayner passed over as Reeves given use of Dorneywood mansion
Rachel Reeves has been given the use of Dorneywood, the 21-room Buckinghamshire mansion usually reserved for the second-most senior minister in government, instead of the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, Kiran Stacey reports.
The Tories have dismissed Ed Davey’s claim that his party is best able to provide an effective opposition to Labour. (See 3.17pm.) In a response to Davey’s conference speech, Richard Fuller, the Conservative chair, said:
This confirms that Ed Davey will not hold this Labour government, his ‘pen pals’ [see 3.11pm] to account.
The Liberal Democrats are supposed to be an opposition party, but all their MPs do is agree with everything that Labour want to do.
Only the Conservative party will provide an effective opposition to the Labour government.
Labour unveils 'Change Begins' as conference slogan
Labour has confirmed that its conference slogan will be Change Begins. (See 2.20pm.) Commenting on today’s political cabinet (a cabinet meeting devoted to party political matters, not government matters), a Labour spokesperson said:
Political cabinet then turned to a discussion of the Labour party conference and its strapline: ‘Change Begins’.
The prime minister said that stabilising the economy was the number one priority and that tough decisions were necessary now to deliver on our promise of change …
[Ministers] discussed the contrast between the Labour party conference which is focused on national renewal and a Conservative conference that will show that they have not learnt the lessons from their defeat.
Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, has claimed Labour’s “ideological approach” to the climate crisis will be counterproductive. Responding to Ed Miliband’s speech this morning (see 11.43am), she said:
Under the Conservatives the UK built more offshore wind than any other country bar China and became one of the first countries to come off coal. We’re already a global leader in tackling climate change, but heaping costs on families in Britain won’t want to make other countries follow our lead.
Businesses, energy experts, and the unions have said that Labour’s ideological approach to energy will raise bills and send businesses abroad to countries with higher emissions. That’s worse for the British economy and worse for climate change overall.
Hollie Ridley appointed as Labour's new general secretary, after 'outstanding' role as election organiser
Hollie Ridley has been appointed as Labour’s new general secretary, the party said this afternoon. The announcement came after Ridley was interviewed by the national executive committee which “concluded that she was the outstanding candidate to succeed David Evans”, the outgoing general secretary, the party said.
Ridley was Labour’s general election field director at the election. She transformed how the party organised, Labour said. “Innovation was central to her approach, including introducing the first ever fully digital polling day as well as overseeing the party’s voter persuasion and targeting strategy,” it said.
Ridley, who joined the party’s staff in 2011, as a trainee organiser, said:
The Labour party is the greatest vehicle for social progress in British history. But we can only do that when we win.
Keir [Starmer] has shown that the Labour party is at its best when it is outward facing and focussed on the needs of the British people. I look forward to working with him to deliver that in the years ahead.
Starmer said:
Hollie is an outstanding leader who played a critical role in the general election campaign. She brings experience, expertise and a clear vision about what is needed for continued electoral success.
We won the general election as a changed Labour party and I look forward to working closely with Hollie to remain true to that promise as we change Britain.
Ridley first got involved in Labour politics in her home town of Dagenham, where she was involved in challenging the BNP, Labour said.
This is from Luke Akehurst, a Labour MP who sits on the NEC.
Congratulations to Hollie Ridley on her election as Labour's new General Secretary! I was delighted to vote for her at today's NEC meeting. She brings a huge amount of frontline experience fighting and winning elections to the role. pic.twitter.com/EN0X1iwWD8
— Luke Akehurst (@lukeakehurst) September 17, 2024
Davey says Lib Dem values are 'antidote to populism and extremism that threatens British way of life'
Davey said Lib Dem values were needed across the world too.
To resist the rise of the extremists – not just at home but around the world.
With Vladimir Putin waging his brutal war in Ukraine.
With the terrible humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Hamas’s terrorist atrocities on October 7th.
Hostages still held captive. The continuing illegal occupations and the threat of regional escalation.
With the looming spectre of a second Trump presidency. How I hope and pray to see Kamala Harris defeat him this November.
At a time of such instability and uncertainty, it is our values that must prevail.
Decency. Compassion. Community. Respect for the rule of law.
Values that have always been at the heart of our party.
Our party believes that basic rights and dignity are the birthright of every individual.
Our party celebrates Britain’s diversity as a great strength.
Our party knows that our country thrives when it is open and outward-looking …
When it stands tall as a force for good in the world, instead of shrinking from it and turning inwards.
And crucially, our party stays focused on tackling the real problems in people’s lives –
From health and care to crime and the cost of living –
Instead of looking for scapegoats or conspiracy theories as a shortcut to electoral success.
Our values are the antidote to the populism and extremism that threatens our communities, threatens the traditions we cherish, and threatens the British way of life.
You are the antidote to hate and division
And Davey ended by saying the Lib Dems could use those values to build a brighter future.
Let’s offer real hope.
Let’s build a brighter future.
And let’s keep on winning, so we can make it happen!
Davey claims the role of the Liberal Democrats has never been clearer.
I believe our role in British politics – the Liberal Democrats’ purpose in British politics – has never been clearer than it is today.
Not just to vanquish what’s left of the Conservative Party. Not just to take their remaining seats.
And not just to be the careful scrutineers of Labour’s actions.
But after what we saw on our streets this summer, I have never been more certain of the need for a party with our principles and our values, front and centre of the political debate.
He says the rioting this summer was carried out by “a small minority of thugs resorted to appalling racism and violence”. They were not protests, he says.
He goes on:
It’s absolutely right that anyone involved in those riots now faces the full force of the law.
And let me say to all of you from Muslim and ethnic minority communities, who watched in fear – as those awful scenes unfolded –
Who were forced to ask whether it was safe to step out onto your own streets, to go into your own city centres, or to pray at your own mosques –
We stand with you. You should always feel safe. And we will work with you to tackle the appalling scourge of Islamophobia and racism.
Davey says role of Lib Dems is to 'consign Conservative party to history books'
Davey turns to the Tories.
And the Conservatives are already showing that they are unfit for opposition too.
It’s hardly surprising I suppose.
Expecting that lot to hold the government to account on the NHS or the economy would be like putting a bull in charge of repairing the china shop.
I mean, who would leave the job of upholding ethical standards in government to the gang who put Boris Johnson in Number 10?
And when the country needs an Opposition to scrutinise next month’s Budget, it’s not a job for the Tory geniuses who cheered Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng to the rafters, is it?
Just look at the quartet heading to Birmingham in a fortnight to audition for the job of Conservative leader.
They really are scraping the bottom of the barrel with these new TV reality shows, aren’t they?
And he says it is now the job of his party to stop them ever returning to power.
The modern Conservative Party is so out of touch with so many of their former voters – so far removed from the real lives of ordinary people –
That it no longer merits a place at the top table of our politics.
We can’t let them back – after all the damage they’ve done to our great country.
We can’t let them off the hook – after the chaos and misery they’ve caused.
Friends, our job is to consign the Conservative Party to the history books.
The Lib Dems made a good start at the election, he says, winning 60 seats from the Tories.
Voters who believe in the fundamental British values of fairness, decency, freedom, and respect for the rule of law –
And who no longer see those values reflected in the party of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss –
But who found those values strong in the Liberal Democrats.
So friends, on the fourth of July we made a great start. But now let’s go further.
Let’s finish the job.
Davey says the Lib Dems will hold Labour to account, champion practical solutions on issues like health, care, the cost of living, sewage, nature and the climate.
And they will oppose Labour if it is wrong – as it was over winter fuel payments, he says.
Davey goes on:
Back when I was first elected in 1997, Paddy Ashdown adapted the serenity prayer for a better, more constructive approach to opposition.
Paddy’s Serenity Prayer went like this:
“May we have the power to oppose what we must oppose.
Courage to support what we must support.
And the wisdom to know the difference.”
Davey says the Lib Dems will be 'responsible opposition' to Labour
Davey is now talking about care, and the remarkable response he says he got after the Lib Dems released an election video in which Davey talked about his experiences caring for his disabled son.
Each time I speak about my story, I’m humbled by the number of people who get in touch to say “that’s my story too”.
But I confess I wasn’t prepared for so many incredible, heartfelt responses to that election broadcast.
People of all walks of life, of all political parties and none.
Like the couple whose adult son has similar care needs to John. Who kindly reached out to say that they know how it feels – especially the worry you have about what’s going to happen after you’re gone.
Just like Emily and I worry about John.
He says carers were not mentioned in Labour’s manifesto, or in the king’s speech. But there were mentioned at the first PMQs – because Davey asked about them, he says.
This is an example of the role the Lib Dems can play in opposition, he says.
This, friends, is the role all our 72 MPs will play in this parliament.
Using our strength – as not only once again the third party in the House of Commons but also the largest third party in a century –
To be the responsible opposition to this government.
And to speak up for people in our communities – taken for granted and ignored by the others.
Updated
Davey urges Labour to invest in NHS to make it 'winterproof', so this year's winter crisis is last one
Davey is turning to health and care, the two issues he says were at the heart of the party’s campaign.
Echoing the argument made by Daisy Cooper yesterday, he says it was a Liberal, William Beveridge, who invented the NHS. He goes on:
We need to transform the way we do health and care in this country.
And our MPs have already taken the lead on that in this new parliament.
There’s a reason Wes Streeting calls us his 72 new pen pals.
Because from the second each of our MPs entered parliament they were on the case.
Speaking up for all those people who’ve watched their loved ones waiting hours in pain and distress for an ambulance to arrive.
And patients waiting weeks just to see their GP, while their illness got worse and worse.
Parents searching in vain for an NHS dentist for their kids.
And cancer patients waiting months or even years to start treatment.
Davey says fixing the NHS won’t be easy. But it can be done, he says, and he calls for more investment in frontline services.
Starting with a whole new focus on community services – helping people to get care more quickly and more locally – with more GPs, more NHS dentists and more community pharmacists.
So fewer people end up in hospital in the first place.
Davey says investment in the NHS will save money in the long run.
The problem is, the Treasury simply isn’t wired to think this way.
Instead, we have the short-term negative thinking that leads governments to postpone hospital repairs and cancel new buildings.
Short-term thinking to save a bit of money now – even though you know it will only cost a lot more in the future.
Practically every year I can remember, governments have ended up announcing hundreds of millions of pounds of emergency funding to help the NHS through another winter crisis.
To paper over the cracks.
What if – instead of stumbling from crisis to crisis, instead of throwing more and more money at just plugging the gaps – what if we invested now to make the NHS winterproof?
The government could and should make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS.
So I urge Labour: do not make the same mistakes the Conservative party did.
Be more positive. Act now.
Davey says he wants to remind people who far the party has come in the last four years, when he first spoke to them as leader.
At that point Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings were in No 10, and still on speaking terms. And Rishi Sunak, as chancellor, was the most popular politician in the country.
He recalls byelection victories, and the Lib Dems gaining 700 seats in local elections.
Local government and community politics “have always been the bedrock of our party”, he says.
For it’s in our communities, door-to-door, where we can truly hear what people are worried about. And where we can rebuild trust.
Trust. The single most powerful commodity in a democracy.
Humbling and hard-won.
In July, millions of voters put their trust in us – many of them for the first time in their lives.
Trusting us to stand up for them. To be their local champions. To fight for a fair deal.
That trust – the people’s trust – is our mandate. And now we must be true to that mandate and repay that trust in full.
Davey thanks party staff for their work.
And he goes on:
And let me shine a spotlight on a second group of people whose contribution to our success isn’t recognised as much as it should be.
I’m talking about all those candidates and all those local parties who set aside their own ambitions to go and help colleagues in target seats. The candidates who didn’t win.
As scripture tells us, in the Book of McCobb, chapter 2, verse 7:
“Greater love hath no candidate than this, that they and their team go canvassing in a nearby target seat.”
Dave McCobb is the party’s campaign director.
Ed Davey starts with a joke about his campaign hijinks.
Do you know they wanted me to wear a wetsuit today? But I said it was abseiling or nothing?
Winning 72 seats was the best result in the party’s modern history, he says.
And Conference, how fitting it was that the final seat to declare – number 72 – was the home of one of the great champions of that more liberal society.
Our dear friend Charles Kennedy.
Davey thanks party members. And he invites them to applaud themselves.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is on the stage now.
He is singing Abba, Take a Chance on Me.
(The last party leader who came on stage to Abba was Theresa May.)
The video is now showing some of Davey’s election campaign whacky photocall stunts.
And it ends with a reminder that the election led to a six-fold increase in the number of Lib Dem MPs.
At the Lib Dem conference they are now showing a video about Ed Davey, which starts with him talking about his decision to talk more often and more openly about his severely disabled son, and Davey’s life as a carer looking after him.
At the Lib Dem conference Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader, is welcoming the party’s 72 MPs onto the stage.
They just keep coming.
The Tories are using the government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments to help raise funds for the party, Kevin Schofield reports in a story for HuffPost UK. He says an email has been sent to to supporters urging them to “chip in any amount” to help the parties campaign against the policy.
Ed Davey's speech to Lib Dem conference
Ed Davey is about to deliver his speech to the Lib Dem conference.
There is a live feed here.
Lammy sidesteps questions about how much extra UK will contribute to help poor countries tackle climate crisis
David Lammy’s speech on foreign policy and the climate crisis was lauded by the ambassadors – the Azerbaijani ambassador was there, alongside the Brazilian ambassador, both of whose countries are soon to host climate Cops; and the German ambassador and representatives from the EU and other countries – as well as academics and campaigners present, who were impressed by its change of tone compared with the previous government.
But, as one ambassador noted drily afterwards, “great speech – not much detail”.
The key climate question for developing countries this year is money. Countries are gathering in Azerbaijan in November to discuss a “new collective quantified goal” on climate finance – which means, the amount that rich countries will dedicate from their public coffers to the developing world, to help vulnerable countries cut their emissions and cope with the impacts of the climate crisis.
Last time such a sum was discussed was in 2009, when the rich promised $100bn would flow in climate finance to the poor world each year by 2020. That target was missed, by a couple of years, but has now been fulfilled. The key question is what happens next?
Needs are much greater this time round. About $1 trillion a year is the sum most developing countries are settling on. There is no way that will all be met by taxpayers in the rich world, but a certain proportion of it must be for the promise to have credibility.
Lammy knows this, and in his speech addressed the need for cash to ensure “climate justice” in the developing world. But his hands are tied – he cannot promise new cash ahead of Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget at the end of next month. The last government promised £11.6bn in climate finance by 2026 – that promise is still intact though not necessarily immune to Reeves’ axe if she feels very pressed – but Labour has said nothing yet on what follows.
In the Q&A after his speech, Lammy was asked three times, in varying degrees of subtlety, how much the UK would front up. Each time he batted the question away, finally conceding good-naturedly that he would “get into a storm with Rachel Reeves” if he tried to answer. The buck is now firmly with the Treasury.
This is from my colleague Jessica Elgot, who says the Labour party conference slogan includes a sliver of optimism.
NEW - Starmer convened political cabinet today ahead of Labour conference.
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 17, 2024
The new slogan will be CHANGE BEGINS
A hint of something slightly more hopeful?
NEW - Starmer convened political cabinet today ahead of Labour conference.
The new slogan will be CHANGE BEGINS
A hint of something slightly more hopeful?
Updated
Ofsted banners tied to school railings to promote an “outstanding” or “good” grade after inspection are to be banned, according to clarification of recent changes to school inspection in England.
It follows the government’s decision earlier this month to scrap overall effectiveness judgments with immediate effect. Schools inspected this year will continue to be graded against four sub-judgments until next September when report cards will be introduced.
According to Ofsted’s newly updated school inspection handbook, schools that receive a full inspection this year will not be able to use Ofsted judgment logos based on any of the four sub-judgments.
Schools inspected at any point up until the end of the last academic year, under the old system, will however continue to be able to use banners and logos on their websites to promote their overall effectiveness grade.
School banners celebrating Ofsted judgments have become an increasingly familiar sight outside school gates, though there had been calls for their removal after the suicide of head teacher Ruth Perry last year and a growing disillusion with the school inspectorate.
The handbook says:
Schools judged to be outstanding or good for overall effectiveness before September 2024 can use specific Ofsted logos to promote that judgment, for example on their websites.
Schools that receive a graded inspection from September 2024 onwards may no longer use the Ofsted judgment logos as they relate only to overall effectiveness, which is no longer part of our judgments.
Updated
And here are some more lines from David Lammy’s speech this morning.
Lammy, the foreign secretary, said the threat posed by the climate crisis was “more fundamental” than the threat posed by terrorism, or autocratic states.
Our goal is progressive, a liveable planet for all now and in the future, but we need a hardheaded, realist approach towards using all levers at our disposal, from the diplomatic to the financial.
And I say to you now, these are not contradictions, because nothing could be more central for the UK’s national interests than delivering global progress on arresting rising temperatures.
The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat, but it is more fundamental, it is systemic, it’s pervasive and accelerating towards us at pace.
He said Foreign Office was funding new research into nature and water.
I’m announcing today, we’re starting to develop a new programme of research into nature and water specifically, with over 100 researchers and officials having just met in Kenya to begin this agenda.
And he said the government would increase the money available for climate finance. He said he was “determined to restore Britain’s reputation for commitment and innovation in the world of development finance”. And he went on:
This starts with the multilateral development banks, and that’s why subject to reforms, we support a capital increase for the IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development), the world’s largest development bank and a key source of climate finance.
And that’s why next month I will lay before parliament a UK guarantee for the Asian Development Bank, which will unlock $1.2bn dollars in climate finance from the bank for developing countries in the region.
Diane Abbott accuses Keir Starmer of treating her like a ‘non-person’
Diane Abbott has accused Keir Starmer of treating her as a “non-person” after comments by the Conservative donor Frank Hester who said that looking at the Hackney MP made “you just want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”, Jessica Elgot reports.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader and the whacky photocall champion of British politics, has been getting ready for his conference speech this afternoon by playing tennis, with the deputy leader Daisy Cooper.
He does not need to make any last-minute additions to what he is going to say. The Lib Dems sent round an embargoed copy of the text a couple of hours ago.
Davey is speaking at 2.30pm.
No 10 does not rule out tuition fees increase as universities call for rise in line with inflation to avert crisis
As the BBC reports, Universities UK, which represents 141 universities, says higher tuition fees and direct government funding are needed to avoid a funding crisis for universities in England. They want fees, which have been capped at £9,250 in England since 2017, to go up in line with inflation.
Asked if the government accepted this, a Downing Street spokesperson told journalists at the lobby briefing this morning:
We’re focused on ensuring that universities are supported so that they continue to create a secure future for our world-leading universities and deliver for students.
The secretary of state has refocused the role of the Office for Students so it can concentrate on key areas, including monitoring financial sustainability. That work is ongoing with them.
We do appreciate that the government inherited a challenging set of circumstances in higher education. Universities are ultimately independent and responsible for the necessary decisions to ensure their long-term financial sustainability. But we are working with them.
Asked if the PM was opposed to a rise in tuition fees, the spokesperson said tuition fees were set for this year, and that there was a process in place for deciding them. But she did not say a rise was being ruled out.
Lammy’s Kew speech seeks to put UK at centre of a reinvigorated climate fight – analysis
My colleagues Fiona Harvey and Patrick Greenfield have written an analysis of the David Lammy speech here.
And here is an extract.
The message could not be clearer: this government wants to tackle the climate and ecological crises head-on, reinvigorate green diplomacy and forge a global coalition for action before it is too late. The contrast with the previous government could scarcely be greater. Sunak skipped key international meetings, axed the post of climate envoy, made a U-turn on green policy and waged a “culture war” on the climate …
The UK could also fill a vacuum in climate leadership among major developed nations, with countries such as France and Germany distracted by domestic political upheavals. Paul Bledsoe, a lecturer at American University in Washington and a former White House climate official, said: “Far more aggressive UK climate leadership under the new Labour government will have a tremendously positive influence globally, and will specifically be crucial to emboldening US policy should Kamala Harris be elected this November.”
But for all the enthusiasm that has greeted the change of government, at home and overseas Labour will have to do more than make stirring speeches and hold cosy meetings with allies to make a real impression. Tough decisions must be made, and soon.
Updated
David Lammy has finished his speech. He is now taking questions.
Q: How can the world get to geological net zero, by permanently disposing of carbon?
Lammy says he thinks there is a role for carbon capture in the transition to net zero. He says he will reflect on what the questioner said about geological net zero.
Home Office announces £75m extra for Border Security Command, as small boat arrivals since election pass 10,000
The number of migrants who have crossed the English Channel since Labour won the general election has passed 10,000, according to provisional figures from the Home Office. As PA Media reports, some 65 migrants were detected crossing the Channel on Monday, taking the cumulative number of arrivals since July 4 to 10,024. PA says:
The cumulative total for the year so far now stands at 23,598.
This is 1% lower than the equivalent figure at this point last year, which was 23,940, and 21% lower than the total at this stage in 2022, which was 29,783.
Two boats arrived on Monday, which suggests an average of around 33 people per boat.
There were 29,437 arrivals across the whole of 2023, down 36% on a record 45,774 in 2022.
The figures came out as the Home Office confirmed that it is investing up to £75m in the new Border Security Command. In a news release, it says:
The home secretary announced the package of up to £75m, which redirects funds originally allocated to the previous government’s Illegal Migration Act. It will unlock sophisticated new technology and extra capabilities for the NCA to bolster UK border security and disrupt the criminal people smuggling gangs. The investment is designed to build on a pattern of successful upstream disruptions announced at an operational summit, attended by the prime minister, at the NCA headquarters last week.
Updated
Lammy accuses last Tory government of being 'climate dinosaurs'
In his speech David Lammy said something went “badly wrong” in the debate on the climate crisis under the Conservative government. He said:
The truth is that in the last few years, something went badly wrong. Badly wrong, in our national debate on climate change and net zero.
Net zero became, under the Tories, a battleground. A battleground of the worst type of narrow-minded Westminster tactical warfare.
They became climate dinosaurs, crashing offshore wind, blocking onshore wind, moving the goalposts on electric vehicle targets, doubling down on oil and gas, leaving British wildlife in crisis.
Our biodiversity declining at an unprecedented rate, our precious national parks in decline, our rivers, lakes and seas awash with toxic sewage, blind to the opportunities of the energy transition – a fossil fuel government in a renewable age.
I remember being at UNGA [the United Nations general assembly] in New York last year, and people being staggered that the British prime minister, a permanent member of the UN security council, not only snubbed the annual gathering of world leaders, but stayed at home in order to row back on climate ambition during UN climate week. It was a low moment.
That’s why the prime minister is resetting Britain’s approach to climate and nature, putting it at the centre of our cross-government missions approaching 100 days in office.
Updated
David Lammy says goverment will build global clean power alliance
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has just started delivering his speech on the climate crisis at Kew Gardens in London. As Fiona Harvey reports, he will say the government is planning to appoint a special envoy for nature for the first time.
Lammy will also confirm that the government intends to go ahead with a plan Keir Starmer floated in opposition to create a global clean power alliance. He will say:
This government has set a landmark goal – to be the first major economy to deliver clean power by 2030.
We will leverage that ambition to build an alliance committed to accelerating the clean energy transition.
And today we are firing the starting gun on forming this new coalition.
While some countries are moving ahead in this transition, others are being left behind.
We need to accelerate the rollout of renewable energy across the globe in the way that this government is doing at home.
Updated
Ed Miliband says poorest will suffer if 'delayers and obstructionists' block green energy turbines and pylons
And here are the main points from Ed Miliband’s speech. He started by pointing out that he was in the unusual position for a cabinet minister of doing a job he had done before (he was energy secretary from 2008 to 2010) and he said he wanted to talk about what had changed since then, and what his priorities were now.
Miliband argued that the case for fossil fuels has collapsed. He said:
My case is this. First, back in 2008, debates were shaped by the energy trilemma – the trade-offs between affordability, security and sustainability. The trilemma helped promote the idea that while fossil fuels might not offer sustainability, they did offer security and affordability. Our mission today is shaped by the reality that, for Britain, this old paradigm has disintegrated. The experience of the last two and a half years has shown us that fossil fuels simply cannot provide us the security, or indeed the affordability, we need – quite the opposite.
He said there was now a clean energy imperative. He explained:
Second, the trilemma has been replaced by a clean energy imperative: the drive to clean energy is right not just on grounds of climate, which we all knew back then, but also energy security and affordability. As the Climate Change Committee says, “British-based renewable energy is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce vulnerability to volatile global fossil fuel markets.” The lesson for this government is that we must build a new era of greater energy independence on the foundation of clean energy.
He said that moving to clean energy was vital not just for climate reasons, but for security reasons, and that this point was not fully understood. He explained:
The sustainability case is clear because we know it is the use of fossil fuels that is driving the climate crisis. But the security case too is stark—and I think has been too often underplayed. It has been put well by my Irish counterpart Eamon Ryan, who rightly says: “No one has ever weaponised access to the sun or the wind.” Homegrown clean energy from renewables and nuclear offers us a security that fossil fuels simply cannot provide.
He said there has been a dramatic fall in the cost of renewable energy. He said:
Since 2015 alone, despite recent global cost pressures, the price of both onshore wind and solar has still fallen by more than a third. The price of offshore wind has halved. And the price of batteries has fallen by more than two thirds. This means, on the basis of the prices in our recent auction, renewables are the cheapest form of power to build and operate. And the price of fixed offshore wind in the auction was around 5 to 7 times lower than the price of electricity, driven by the price of gas, at the peak of the energy crisis.
He said that fighting those opposed to green power infrastracture was a matter of economic justice. He explained:
Every wind turbine we put up, every solar panel we install, every piece of grid we construct helps protect families from future energy shocks. This is an argument we need to have as a country because the converse is also true. Every wind turbine we block, every solar farm we reject, every piece of grid we fail to build makes us less secure and more exposed. Previous governments have ducked and dithered and delayed these difficult decisions, and it is the poorest in our society who have paid the price. My message today is we will take on the blockers, the delayers, the obstructionists, because the clean energy sprint is the economic justice, energy security and national security fight of our time.
As the government rolls its plans to decarbonise the energy grid by 2030, rows about electricity pylons spoiling the landscape will become increasingly common. Miliband is arguing that defending wind turbines and pylons is a progressive cause.
UPDATE: Here is Jillian Ambrose’s story on the speech.
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Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has been speaking at the UK Energy conference this morning. He has summarised his message in posts on social media.
1/ Today I am speaking at @EnergyUKcomms, setting out the case for energy independence through our clean power mission.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) September 17, 2024
Today I am speaking at @EnergyUKcomms, setting out the case for energy independence through our clean power mission.
2/ Our case is simple: the cost of living crisis of the past few years shows us that never again can we be left exposed to the fluctuations of international fossil fuel markets that can be controlled by dictators like Putin.
3/ The old argument that there was a trade-off between energy affordability, security and sustainability is over. It has been replaced by a clean energy imperative.
4/ The price of renewables has fallen dramatically in recent years. It is now obvious that clean power is the right choice not just for climate, but for our energy security and affordability too. That is why we are sprinting towards our mission for clean power by 2030
5/ With the transition comes huge opportunities for jobs and growth. With Great British Energy, we will harness this potential to create jobs and drive investment into our industrial communities.
6/ Our mission for clean power, alongside the first publicly-owned national energy company for decades, will answer the clean energy imperative. For energy security, lower bills, good jobs, and climate action.
I have just got the text of the speech. I will post the key points shortly.
Brexit has had 'profound', negative impact on trade with EU, and it's getting worse, report says
Brexit has had a profound, negative impact on trade with the EU, and it is getting worse, a report out today says.
It has been written by academics at the Centre for Business Prosperity at Aston University who say that, unless action is taken to reduce non-tariff barriers with the EU, “the UK’s economic position and place in the global market will continue to weaken”.
The Office for Budget Responsibility predicted that Brexit would reduce the size of the UK economy by 4% over the long term, because it serves as a barrier to trade with the EU, which is the UK’s biggest market, and it says that events since Britain left the EU have not led it to revise its assessment. Most economists broadly accept this analysis, although there is disagreement about the exact size of the hit to the UK economy.
Some Brexit supporters argued that, while short-term disruption was inevitable, this would not last. But the Aston report argues that the impact is getting worse.
In its summary, the report says:
Between 2021 and 2023, monthly data show a 27% drop in UK exports and a 32% reduction in imports to and from the EU. Even when considering annual data to smooth short-term fluctuations, the declines remain substantial – 17% for exports and 23% for imports. The analysis indicates that exports primarily declined at the extensive margin, with a 33% reduction in the variety of goods exported, while the intensive margin remained stable. Conversely, imports adjusted predominantly at the intensive margin, declining by 28%, with the variety of imported goods remaining stable. The contraction in export varieties highlights a significant reduction in the range of goods the UK trades with the EU.
Robustness checks confirm these findings, indicating the profound and ongoing stifling effects of the TCA [trade and cooperation agreement – the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU] on UK-EU trade. The analysis reveals a heavily disrupted and weakening UK-EU supply chain post-TCA, evident across consumer, intermediate, and capital goods. The significant decline in consumer goods exports to the EU and corresponding UK imports suggests a disentanglement of the UK from EU value chains, with a shift towards local production. Despite the TCA’s dampening effect on UK exports, the UK remains dependent on the EU for intermediate and capital goods.
The study highlights that the negative impacts of the TCA have intensified over time, with 2023 showing more pronounced trade declines than previous years. This suggests that the transition in UK-EU trade relations post-Brexit is not merely a short-term disruption but reflects deeper structural changes likely to persist.
Prof Jun Du of Aston University, lead author of the report, said:
The trade and cooperation agreement introduced substantial barriers and there are ongoing and marked declines in the value and variety of UK exports and imports. Without urgent policy interventions, the UK’s economic position and place in the global market will continue to weaken.
The authors are calling for sector-specific trade deals with the EU to reduce non-tariff barriers to trade.
Graeme Wearden has more on the report on his business live blog.
BMA says, even though junior doctors' pay dispute over, strikes could happen again with further pay restoration
A senior figure in the BMA said this morning that further strikes by junior doctors could not be ruled out in the future.
As Denis Campbell reports, yesterday the BMA announced that junior doctors in England had voted to accept the government’s pay offer, ending a dispute that had led to a series of strikes over a period of 18 months.
But, in an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning, Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said that junior doctors wanted further progress on pay in future years and that, if the government dragged its feet, there could be further strikes. He explained:
This is the first step towards restoring pay [returning it, in real terms, to what it was in 2008 – the BMA says since then it has fallen by more than a quarter] which is all that doctors have wanted since the beginning of this campaign. As you’ll know, we’ve had a huge pay cut since 2008 but this marks a change in that trajectory.
Doctors who were being paid just over £15-an-hour before this offer will now be paid a little over £17-an-hour, so it does mark an improvement, but the journey is not over.
We want to hold on to our doctors, we want medicine to be an attractive profession so that they don’t escape to places like Canada and Australia and New Zealand.
And this offer does not do everything in one go, but we’ve never asked for everything in one go, so as long as we continue on that journey, then we can inspire confidence for doctors to stay and to build back up our workforce so that we can bring healthcare back to a high quality system that it used to be.
Trivedi said junior doctors would be expecting “pay uplifts each and every year”. He went on:
And if those pay uplifts don’t occur in a timely fashion and at the pace that our members have asked for to restore our pay, then that’s when we’ll be going to the government, we’ll be going to [Wes Streeting, the health secretary] and saying: ‘You wanted to inspire confidence in this process, this hasn’t inspired confidence in this process, what can we do to alleviate that?’
And if those communications break down, then we will be thinking about going back into dispute and striking again if we need to, but that’s always a last case resort, and something we don’t want to have to do.
According the PA Media, the deal will see junior doctors’ pay rise by between 3.71% and 5.05% – averaging 4.05% – on top of their existing pay award for 2023/24. This will be backdated to April 2023. PA says:
Each part of the pay scale will also be uplifted by 6%, plus £1,000, as recommended by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB), with an effective date of April 1 2024.
Both rises mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see base pay increase to £36,600, up from about £32,400.
A full-time doctor entering specialty training will have basic pay rise to £49,900 from about £43,900.
Outside the pay negotiations, the government has agreed that from 18 September, “junior doctors” across the UK will be known as “resident doctors” to better reflect their expertise, the BMA said.
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s attacks on working from home were ‘bizarre’, says Labour
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has defended Labour’s plans to introduce new flexible working laws, calling it “bizarre” that Jacob Rees-Mogg had launched a “war on people working from home”. Jessica Elgot has the story.
If you are interested in how Keir Starmer’s record when it comes to accepting free gifts compares with some of his predecessors’, it is worth reading Robert Hutton in the Critic. In a rare example of the sub-genre investigative sketch writing, he filed this about the “frockgate” row yesterday. Here is an excerpt.
In Westminster, the Conservatives are showing a sensitivity to impropriety that they lacked in their years in office. Tory MP Andrew Griffith announced that Starmer’s behaviour in accepting £19,000 in clothing and glasses “beggars belief”.
But image matters in a leading politician. If anything, they should spend more on it. Anyone who doubts the value of a makeover should look at Jeremy Corbyn, who between 2015 and 2017 underwent a transformation. There was a haircut, a beard trim, and a lot of better suits, all adding up to take him from “Lunatic Geography Teacher” to, well, “Cool Geography Teacher”.
And let’s have a quick look at a man that Griffith upholds as an ideal prime minister, the only-actually-convicted-of-one-crime Boris Johnson. Between November 2018 and May 2019, Johnson accepted donations totalling £212,000. In the following three months, running for his party’s leadership, he accepted £950,000, not including £12,000 that Brown’s Hotel spent on hosting his victory party. (It is possible that discreet central London hotels with multiple exits regard Johnson as a valuable customer.) At the time, Griffith found his belief in all this so unbeggared that he accepted a job from the man. But in fairness, there was, from the look of Johnson, no evidence that any of the money was spent on clothes.
Minister struggles to defend Keir Starmer over his record of accepting freebies
Good morning. The Conservative party may not have provided a great government for Britain, but it was the source of a never-ending supply of scandals, which gave journalists something to write about and provided some confirmation-bias entertainment to people who like that sort of thing. Labour was elected promising a much more ethical approach to government and on the scandal front, so far there has been little to report. At the weekend the Sunday Times gave us “frockgate” (not their term) – the revelation that gifts of clothing to Keir Starmer’s wife had not originally been disclosed in the register of members’ interest. But Starmer said that this was an oversight, that came to light precisely because his staff were double-checking what the rules said, and it has emerged overnight that the Conservative party’s attempt to get the parliamentary commissioner for standards to investigate has failed, because he has said no.
So is this all over? Not quite, while Starmer has been broadly successful in refuting claims that he tried to evade parliament’s disclosure rules, he probably has not won over the jury in the court of public opinion on the question of whether he should have accepted so many freebies in the first place.
In one sense, there is nothing new about this. During the election Financial Times (not normally seen as a Labour-bashing, scandal sheet) ran a report saying that Starmer had “accepted £76,000 worth of entertainment, clothes and similar freebies from UK donors since the 2019 general election”. No one paid much attention. Starmer later said that, because he was a football fan but security reasons meant it was not practical for him to go in the stands, he ended up accepting a lot of tickets for hospitality in the directors’ box. But he did not really explain why he had accepted so many other tickets, and clothes.
Many MPs accept freebies, when you are leader of the opposition many organisations want to invite you to events, and there is nothing that Starmer that has done that is against the rules, or unprecedented for a politician at his rank. But if anyone thinks that makes this a non-story, they should have a word with Angela Eagle, the border security minister, who struggled this morning when asked to explain why Starmer could not just pay for his clothes and tickets himself, like the rest of us.
She was on Times Radio first. Here is an extract from the transcript of her interview with Stig Abell.
Abell: “But let’s boil it down. Why shouldn’t the prime minister, he earns £166,000 a year, why shouldn’t he buy his own glasses?”
Eagle: “Well, why don’t you ask him?”
Abell: “Well, he’s not here. You’re here for the government. I mean, if he comes on here, we might try.”
Eagle: “I am, but I’m afraid I’m not responsible for decisions the prime minister makes.”
Abell: “You’re not, but you have an opinion. Should he not buy his own glasses? You’re wearing a pair of glasses now. You presumably paid for them yourself. I’m wearing a pair of glasses now. I pay for them myself. Why shouldn’t the prime minister?”
Eagle: “Well, the prime minister has had his say on that. And if you next time you interview him, you could ask him yourself. I don’t have an opinion.”
Abell: “Well, I’ll tell you why you might have an opinion. Angela Rayner had an opinion when Boris Johnson was getting money from donors. She tweeted: ‘What right does a man who complains he can’t live on £150,000 a year and ask Tory donors to fund his luxury wallpaper habit, what right does he have to lecture someone trying to survive on £80 a week?’ That’s what Labour attacked Boris Johnson for doing. And now you’ve got someone who has a luxury glasses habit who’s taking money from pensioners. People are going to have an opinion on that, aren’t they?”
Eagle: “OK you’ve had your rant.”
A few minutes later Eagle had to go through this all again with Kay Burley on Sky News. Here is an extract from that exchange.
Burley: “The Daily Mail today is suggesting Sir Keir has accepted at least £76,000 of freebies, including the royal box of Wimbledon hospitality at a Coldplay concert, Arsenal away games with the foreign secretary in tow. The list goes on. How does that align with the son of a toolmaker, man of a people image?”
Eagle: “Well, I think he’s an Arsenal fan. I mean, it takes all sorts, I suppose. [Eagle is from Liverpool.] But we only know about this because these things have been registered as appropriate. I think the prime minister had his say on that yesterday when he was in Italy. [He did, but he did not answer the question.] I’m here in Berlin.”
Burley: “He’s taken £76,000 worth of freebies. He’s going to great lengths to point out to us that he’s a man of the people, and he’s taken £300 off pensioners and taking £76,000 worth of freebies.”
Eagle: “I think it’s important also to remember that, with respect to pensioners, the triple lock is being maintained for the whole parliament, and that means that pensions are going to rise by 2.5%, by earnings or inflation, whichever is the greater … [The Tory economic legacy] means some difficult decisions that none of us wanted to make.”
Burley: “Does that mean the difficult decision of turning down freebies?”
Eagle: “Well, you’ll have to ask him. [We’ve had] an explanation of the Arsenal visit. I’m not sure whether Coldplay is possible to have an explanation.”
After the interview, the Conservative party pointed out that it ended with Eagle unable to defend some of the freebies Starmer had accepted.
Last week Labour MPs were marched through the voting lobbies to cover up the scale of damage caused by their plan to Winter Fuel Payments.
— CCHQ Press (@CCHQPress) September 17, 2024
Now they’re not even bothering to defend the latest Starmer scandal. https://t.co/MTWJFBEn1d
Readers with functioning memories will remember that CCHQ was not quite so censorious when Boris Johnson was soliciting freebies and donations on a scale that makes Starmer look frugal.
None of this counts as a big scandal, and arguably it is not a scandal anyway. But it is something that doesn’t look good, and that No 10 could live without. Yesterday Keir Starmer said he would carry on accepting gifts. Perhaps there might be a rethink.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.15am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, give a speech at the UK Energy conference.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.45am: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, gives a speech on the climate crisis.
2.30pm: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, gives his keynote speech at the end of the Liberal Democrat conference.
Afternoon: Labour’s national executive committee is meeting where it is expected to appoint Hollie Ridley as the party’s next general secretary.
5pm: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, gives a speech at the RTS London Convention.
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