Labour conference live: Pressure on Starmer as he faces union vote to reverse ‘cruel’ winter fuel payments cut

Wes Streeting, who is doing the morning media round, has repeated claims made by Sir Keir Starmer that pensioners will be better off under the Labour Party.

The health secretary has defended plans to means test the winter fuel payment, which will scrap the benefit from millions of pensioners.

He told Sky News: “The Conservatives left a £22bn hole in the public finances. They weren’t straight with the British people ahead of the general election.

“They were spending like there was no tomorrow, because I think they were assuming that for the Conservative government, there was no tomorrow.

“They were spending recklessly, hoping that would carry them through the general election. And now this Labour government is picking up the pieces.”

Keir Starmer has warned benefit claimants they need to look for work after announcing that he is committed to tackling “worklessness”.

During the Labour Party conference on Tuesday, the prime minister said: “The basic proposition that you should look for work is right. People need to look for work, but they also need support.

“That’s why I’ve gone out to look at schemes where businesses are supporting people back into work from long-term sickness.”

According to official figures, nearly three million people are currently out of work due to ill health, which is a 500,000 increase from 2019.

Sir Keir Starmer has said Benjamin Netanyahu’s criticism of the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms export licences to Israel, amid concerns they could be used in violation of international humanitarian law, is wrong.

The prime minister rejected his Israeli counterpart’s accusation that the move had been “misguided”, in comments that are likely to anger Tel Aviv.

He described Israel as a “very important ally” and said he had “long respected and supported its right to self-defence” but said Britain had to comply with international rules.

Asked whether he agreed with Mr Netanyahu’s intervention, Sir Keir told LBC: “No, he’s not right about that and we have to comply with international law and our own domestic law in relation to that.”

The new Labour government has suspended about 30 out of a total of 350 arms export licences to Israel, after a UK assessment suggested they could be used to breach international rules.

Sir Keir was speaking ahead of his United Nations debut as head of government, while the Middle East teeters on the edge of all-out war.

In a flurry of broadcast interviews before flying to the New York summit from the Labour party conference in Liverpool, Sir Keir said the situation was “very close to the brink” and that the UK had to tread carefully in its response to the conflict.

“I have long supported Israel’s right to self-defence and that has been absolutely clear and consistent with everything I’ve ever said,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“But the point we’re at now is very close to the bone and that’s why we need to de-escalate.

“It doesn’t mean we walk away from the problems, it doesn’t mean we don’t recognise the threat that Israel is under, which is very real, but this escalation is getting to a point where the right thing now to do is to de-escalate, have a ceasefire and make sure we can progress in a different way.”

Unions will press the government to reverse its controversial cut to the winter fuel allowance.

A motion will be debated on the final day of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool which is expected to receive strong support from unions.

Unite and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will put forward the motion, which was originally set to be debated on Monday.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has described the policy as “cruel” and has called on the prime minister to admit he made a “misstep”.

She has said: “The first thing Labour does is to take away the winter fuel allowance from the poorest in our society while they leave the wealthiest people pretty much untouched.”

CWU officials will not be at Labour’s conference today as they are attending the funeral in Scotland of the union’s former assistant general secretary Andy Kerr, who used to be on Labour’s national executive.

CWU general secretary Dave Ward told the PA news agency that the union will continue to campaign for the policy to change.

“We don’t accept it is good economics,” he said.

The motion being debated says that workers and communities voted for change, “not cuts to the winter fuel allowance”.

“We need a vision where pensioners are not the first to face a new wave of cuts and those that profited from decades of deregulation finally help to rebuild Britain,” it says.

Nearly half of Britons have voiced their disappointment with the new Labour government, following “sleaze” allegations, controversy over Sue Gray’s salary, and a heated debate over cuts to the winter fuel allowance. Now it’s time to have your say…

Is your “honeymoon” with Labour over? How have recent events impacted your opinion of Starmer and his government?

Share your thoughts by adding them here — we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in.

…how disappointing (and hypocritical), writes Emma Clarke. When it comes to taxpayers’ money and ‘gifts’, accountability is key:

As a row is sparked over whether the deputy prime minister has or hasn’t hired someone to document her working life, Simon Mills takes a look at everyone from Barack Obama to Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage who has done the same and hears how ‘tacky and tawdry’ it can be on the other side of the lens:

GB Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Sir Keir and Labour had promised in the lead-up to the election that GB Energy – which he has described as an “investment vehicle” – would have its headquarters north of the border, sparking speculation and repeated questions over where it would be located.

In his first speech to the Labour Party conference since entering Downing Street in July, the prime minister said the agency “could only ever be based in one place in Scotland”.

Addressing delegates in Liverpool on Tuesday, he said: “We said, GB Energy, our publicly-owned national champion, the vehicle that will drive forward our mission on clean energy, we said it belonged in Scotland, and it does.

“But the truth is, it could only really ever be based in one place in Scotland.

“So today, I can confirm that the future of British energy will be powered as it has been for decades, by the talent and skills of the working people in the Granite City, with GB Energy based in Aberdeen.”

Sir Keir Starmer has been branded a “useless liar” by the public in a damning poll released ahead of his Labour conference speech, Archie Mitchell writes.

A Savanta word cloud showed the words most commonly associated with the prime minister were overwhelmingly negative.

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to cut immigration but rejected claims that the summer’s rioters were “one and the same” as people with legitimate concerns about migration.

Addressing the Labour conference for the first time as prime minister, Sir Keir condemned the “violent thuggery” seen on Britain’s streets over the summer, saying: “The country sees you and it rejects you.”

He said he would “never accept the argument… that millions of people concerned about immigration are one and the same thing as people who smashed up businesses, targeted mosques, attempted to burn refugees, scrawled racist graffiti over walls, Nazi salutes at the Cenotaph, attacked NHS nurses and told people with different coloured skin, people who contribute here, people who grew up here, that they should ‘go home’.

“No, people concerned about immigration were not doing that, because they understand that this country, this democratic country, is built on the rule of law, the ballot box, the common understanding that we debate our differences.”

Drawing loud applause from the audience in the conference hall in Liverpool, the Prime Minister promised: “I will never let a minority of violent, racist thugs terrorise our communities.”

He went on to stress that the debate about immigration was about “control”, not “the worth of migrants”.