Lunchtime summary
YouGov has published polling that suggests voters back Andy Burnham’s plan to make the pensions triple lock less generous to help fund the establishment of a National Care Service by 48% to 28%. (See 12.04pm.)
Angela Eagle, the environment secretary, has announced a £10m Good Food Neighbourhoods Programme. Explaining what it will do, Labour says:
The funding will be given to mayors and leaders in 45 local authorities to back community-led food projects like community food shops, mobile greengrocers, lunch clubs, community kitchens, and cooking and nutrition programmes.
Directed at areas facing some of the highest levels of deprivation and childhood obesity, each local authority will receive £222,000 to develop community-led solutions tailored to local needs.
The programme forms part of this Labour government’s promise of giving families room to breathe on the cost of living and communities the power to decide what works for them.
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
In her conference speech, Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, also announced that the government is hiring more youth workers. She said:
Starting today, we are going to fund and recruit 1,000 youth workers, the biggest investment in youth work in a generation.
And we won’t stop there.
We will rebuild youth services, bring back youth work, and ensure every young person in this country, has someone who cares. No young person forgotten. No young person written off.
The Resolution Foundation thinktank has issued a statement this morning warmly welcoming the PM’s proposal to get rid of the pensions triple lock in its current form after the election.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, another leading public spending thinktank, has also backed the PM’s proposal.
Nandy says for too long government has ceded too much power over internet to private sector
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, criticised previous governments for giving private companies too much power over the internet revolution in her speech to the conference.
In the face of new technology, and in particular the threat that the internet posed to women, the state had been “far too small and far too timid for too long”, she said.
She went on:
I am on a mission to change it.
Because the World Wide Web – that created by Tim Berners Lee, to share knowledge, not exploitation - has revolutionised the way we live. An extraordinary democratic force, a source of connection, creativity and solace that has unleashed incomprehensible hatred, anger and polarisation - ask yourselves this, while it has undeniably shaped and defined us, have we done anything like enough to shape and define it?
Like the printing press, electricity and television, it has upended society. But what is almost unique to this moment is how absent the state - on behalf of its people - has been for so long. We have outsourced a revolution almost entirely to the private sphere to shape and police.
It is ... an almost violent indifference. To the women whose privacy and dignity is stripped from them. To the children who are preyed upon, their childhoods stolen. To people - how many of you in this room particularly women - hounded from public life. Where anger is monetised and profit put before people’s lives.
So conference, we are calling time on that indifference. Enough is enough.
Nandy said the government was introducing a social media ban for children and legislation to make it impossible for them to take or share nude images on their phones. She also said the government would take action to stop the circulation of non-consensual intimate images online.
Cooper says violence against women and girls public health problem as she announces £50m for support services
Yvette Cooper, the health secretary, also announced almost £50m to support victims of violence against women and girls. This should be seen as a public health problem, she said.
She told the conference:
We don’t treat violence against women and girls as the epidemic it really is. So here’s what we will change. For the first time, we will take a public health approach to violence against women and girls. We will work with survivors, charities, local government, and the NHS to set out how to treat this like the disease it is.
And today I am announcing the rollout of almost £50m support for new specialist referral services from GPs for women and men who are victims of domestic abuse.
Because conference when I stood here as home secretary two years ago and said our mission to halve violence against women and girls covered the whole of government, I meant it.
The money will ensure that victims of abuse can be referred to specialist help through GP practices under a new scheme called Steps to Safety. Around £34m will be spent allowing 12 integrated care boards to set up the programme, and £15m will go to victim support services in England.
Cooper is also appointing a national clinical lead for violence against women and girls to bring together clinical and public health expertise and strengthen the health system’s response.
Officials says health services are often the first places where victims of this sort of abuse disclose what has been happening.
Guess the tracks Burnham picked for each of England’s regions
At the Labour conference, Andy Burnham chose region-specific songs for the regional receptions he was attending. Alexis Petridis, the Guardian’s chief rock critic, has been assessing his choices. And he’s turned it into a quizz.
Brexit 'the biggest lie of the last 30 years', Macron says
Jakub Krupa writes the Guardian’s Europe live blog.
Andy Burnham was critical of Brexit yesterday, but not as critical as the French president Emmanuel Macron who – not for the first time – has blasted those who campaigned for it.
Speaking with students at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid last night, Macron took aim at Brexit calling it “the biggest lie of the last 30 years.”
In a long defence of Europe’s unique integration process – where, according to Macron, even nationalist leaders have come to appreciate the bloc’s role – he described Brexit as a “disastrous exception” to the rule.
He said:
Brexit is the biggest lie of the last 30 years.
Those who said, ‘We’ll be richer,’ eight points of GDP less 10 years on. We’ll solve the immigration problem; it’s more complicated than before. And we’re going to be a huge success in international trade, it’s even worse.
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Voters back Burnham's plan to cut back triple lock to fund social care reform by 48% to 28%, poll suggests
Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, said earlier this week that getting rid of the pensions triple lock to help fund social care reform would be “electoral suicide”.
This morning YouGov has published polling suggesting that she might be wrong. It suggests the voters support Burnham’s plan by 48% to 28%.
When people are asked in isolation if they support setting up a National Care Service, they were overwhelmingly in favour, by 74% to 11%.
YouGov also found that, when asked in isolation if they would back turning the triple lock into a double lock (by removing the earnings link), respondents were also in favour of that too, by 43% to 30%.
(In fact, Burnham’s proposal is more generous than a simply reversion to a double lock – see 8.45am.)
When YouGov put the two proposals together, and described them as Burnham’s plan, getting rid of the triple lock in its current form became more popular.
What people tell pollsters about a policy after it has just been announced may bear little resemblance to how they feel about it by the time it gets implemented. But these findings suggest Burnham is well placed to win the public argument on the merits of his policy.
When Rachel Reeves announced she was cutting the winter fuel payments in 2024, early polling showed that people opposed the move – and it was particularly unpopular with pensioners.
Cooper says government setting up collective pension scheme for workers in care sector
Yvette Cooper also announced that the government is setting up a new pension scheme for workers in the care sector in her speech to the Labour conference.
The health secretary said:
We will deliver the first-ever legally-binding fair pay agreement for care workers with minimum standards of pay and conditions across every employer, because care workers have been undervalued and underpaid for far too long.
We will publish a proper workforce plan for social care, proper career pathways, training, development of specialist skills.
We’ll offer thousands more academy places to help young jobseekers into good jobs in care, and thanks to the campaigning of all the Unison members in this hall, we will go further because it is just wrong that the people who work hardest to help others maintain dignity and respect in old age too often get nothing back from retirement themselves.
So, I can announce today we will introduce the first ever national collective pension scheme for workers in the care sector – fair pay, fair terms and conditions, and now a proper pensions scheme.
Cooper also said the government will appoint a new champion for unpaid carers to make sure the “voice of that hidden army is always heard in government”.
Tories rule out taking part in Burnham's proposed cross-party commission on electoral reform
The Conservatives have ruled out supporting Andy Burnham’s proposed cross-party commission to work on electoral reform.
In an interview with Sky News, Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, replied with a clear “no” when asked if his party would take part.
Hollinrake went on:
We think this is totally the wrong thing, despite the fact under any system of proportional representation, we’d have got more seats than we did in 2024, in that election.
That’s not the point. The point is you want decisive elections.
The public had a referendum on proportional representation back in 2011. It rejected it.
And we’re in an era now potentially moving into an era of sectarian politics, where you have small parties that represent particular interests, be it Gaza, be it Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party.
Does anybody think it’d be a good idea for a government to be propped up by one of those parties who have single issue policies that really would be potentially very damaging to the UK itself and to our foreign relationships?
In fact, the referendum in 2011 was on the alternative vote – which is not strictly a proportional voting system, even though in UK politics it would deliver a more proportional outcome in some elections.
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Yvette Cooper tells Labour conference 'Sure Start's back', as she expands healthy babies support programme
Yvette Cooper, the health secretary, has announced a Sure Start-style Healthy Babies programme for every local authority in England. Charlie Moloney the details here.
In her speech to the Labour conference, Cooper said:
Since the election, Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell have been working to rebuild family hubs across the country, bringing back support for parents and for young children.
But something is missing. In half of communities, compared to the last time round, the healthy babies services – mental health support for mums and dads, the feeding and bonding support for your new baby.
That changes now.
I can announce we will bring back the Sure Start health services into every family centre.
Reaching up to 1,000 hubs over the next two years.
One of the Labour party’s greatest achievements restored to families throughout the land.
So listen to that, George Osborne – Sure Start’s back.
That was a reference to an exchange Cooper had with George Osborne when she was interviewed by him over the summer for his podcast, Political Currency. As Tory chancellor, Osborne cut the funding for Sure Start, which Cooper helped to set up as a junior minister in the Blair government. Osborne now runs his podcast with Ed Balls, Cooper’s husband.
As the Tories ran down the Sure Start programme, Sure Start centres were replaced by family hubs. When Labour took power in 2024, these were beefed up as Best Start family hubs.
Sure Start is now widely regarded as one of New Labour’s most successful social programmes. A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that it had a significant positive impact on the health and educational outcome of children. “For every £1 of net spending, Sure Start may eventually generate around £11 in benefits for the children who attended,” the IFS said.
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What are Burnham's options for better relationship with EU?
Back to Europe, and here is Lisa O’Carroll’s assessment of the various options available as Andy Burnham looks for a better relationship with the EU.
Half a million trees to be planted in England in three years, environment secretary Angela Eagle says
Angela Eagle, the environment secretary, announced plans for half a million trees to be planted in England in the next three years to protect against extreme weather. Fiona Harvey has the details.
Eagle also announced plans for a Good Food Neighbourhoods Programme. She told the conference.
During our years in opposition, Britain became a poorer, more divided country. A country that seemed only to work for vested interests.
That’s why today, I’m announcing our Good Food Neighbourhoods Programme. Initially we’ll be supporting 45 communities - targeted at the areas with the highest levels of food inequality. Backed by £10m of investment, bringing fresh, affordable produce into neighbourhoods.
Creating community kitchens and supporting pensioners’ lunch clubs that tackle loneliness and hunger side by side. Because this is about more than what’s on someone’s plate. It’s about the ties that bind us together.
Tories accuse Burnham of going back on Makerfield byelection pledge to respect outcome of Brexit referendum
The Conservatives have accused Andy Burnham of going back on a byelection pledge not to consider rejoining the EU.
During the byelection in Makerfield, a constituency that strongly voted leave in 2016, Burnham said that the Brexit vote should be respected and that, if he was elected, he would not propose rejoining the EU.
But Burnham has now said this option should be considered. (See 7.49am.)
In response to Burnham’s Today interview, Alex Burghart said:
You cannot trust a word Andy Burnham says. Just a few weeks ago he said he wanted to move on from the Brexit arguments and now he is dragging Britain back into them by floating the prospect of rejoining the EU.
Labour cannot blame a democratic vote from over a decade ago for the consequences of their own economic decisions. While they look backwards, the Conservatives will look forwards.
Burnham says he has spent 'a lot of time' working out how to fill £4.7bn funding gap in defence investment plan
Andy Burnham has said that he has spent “a lot of time” working out how to fill the £4.7bn gap in the plans to fund the defence investment plan.
When Keir Starmer unveiled the defence investment plan in June, after he had announced he was standing down to make way for Burnham, he said the increased investment would cost £15bn. While explaining where most of the money would come from, he said the remaining funds – worth £4.7bn over four years – would have to come from savings to be announced in the budget.
In an interview on Times Radio, Burnham said that finding this money had been a “major priority”.
He said:
I said as soon as I came in that we would fully fund the defence investment plan. I’ve spent a lot of time on that and it will be fully funded.
There was a shortfall - there won’t be [at the budget].
Burnham suggests it would not be legitimate for any party to form majority government with less than 30% of vote
Andy Burnham has suggested that it would not be legitimate for a party to form a majority government with less than 30% of the vote.
In his Today interview, asked why he wanted electoral reform and a move towards proportional representation, Burnham replied:
I found it better being elected under a different system as mayor of Greater Manchester, where people had one or two, they could put that on the ballot paper.
Because you had a reason to stop on every doorstep and chat to people who might not always support your party and try and get their second preference.
It just led to a better politics.
And I also feel that in an era of five party politics, can we really watch a party with less than 30% just walk into Downing Street? Is that something we should feel comfortable about?
As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham was elected under the supplementary vote system. This means, if no candidate gets more than 50% when the votes are counted, the top two go into a run-off and then second preferences are taken into account.
When it was put to Burnham that he was just saying that because he wanted to stop Nigel Farage becoming prime minister, Burnham replied:
No, it could happen with any political party. It’s whether that would be a legitimate government.
In the 20th century, when two-party politics was the norm, parties that went on to form a government normally had at least 40% of the national vote – and sometimes a lot more.
But, with the revival of the Liberals, and then the Lib Dems, the success of nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales, and now the emergence of the Greens and Reform UK as significant parties, it would now be quite possible for a party to win a Westminster majority with under 30% of the vote.
At the last election, Labour won a landslide victory with just 33.7% of the vote.
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Burnham insists his triple lock and care plans add up to 'better deal' for pensioners
Andy Burnham has said that it is “completely wrong” to claim that he is picking on pensioners with the plans he announced yesterday.
When this claim was put to him in an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Burnham replied:
I think you’ve got it completely wrong really, if you don’t mind me saying, to put it like that, because I have put out … a vision for a national care service.
There are pensioners out there who watch your programme who are paying for care costs from their basic state pension. Now, is that right or fair?
We have to fix this system. But what I’m saying about the triple lock enables a better support, better care for people in their homes. No care charges.
So, please let me just make that point that people need to see these things in the round. It’s a better deal for older people going forward.
Energy bills in Great Britain forecast to jump by £276 a year from January
Household energy bills in Great Britain are predicted to soar by £276 a year for the typical household from January as the impact of the Middle East war continues through the coldest months of winter, Jillian Ambrose reports.
Burnham says Britain needs to resolve EU relationship because it can't afford another decade of post-Brexit drift
In his Today interview, Andy Burnham also said that he thought Britain needed to resolve what its relationship with the EU should be because it could not afford another decade of drift.
He explained:
What I am saying is it’s not good enough to leave that question just hanging.
I am saying, let’s be clear about where we want Britain to go in the next decade. And I’ve asked people to join with me on that.
The country cannot have a decade, another one like the one we’ve just had, where we’ve had too much drift, too much division.
I am very clear, and I will say this bluntly, Brexit has caused more harm than good and I think around 60% of the British public agree with that statement.
So the question is what do we do about that?
And I’m not doing the usual politician thing. I’m being honest about facing up to that, and give people options that they can look at and judge.
Burnham says he wants to rejoin EU in his lifetime, but not necessarily 'now'
Here is more detail on what Andy Burnham said about the possibility of rejoining the EU when he was being interviewed by Nick Robinson on the Today programme.
When Robinson put it to Burnham that ideally he wanted to rejoin, Burnham paused before saying: “I want to look at the options.”
Robinson said that was a long pause, and it sounded as if he meant yes, but did not want to say so.
Burnham replied:
I have said it, there’s no point me denying it, I’ve said in the book I would like to see Britain rejoin in my lifetime. So there was no point saying otherwise.
But it’s not necessarily the case that is now. Because we need to understand what would be the nature of how we would look at the different options.
Burnham then set out four options; the status quo, joining a customs union, joining a customs union and the single market, or rejoining. (See 7.49am.)
Burnham seemed to be referring to his book, Head North, which he co-wrote with Steve Rotheram. In that, they set out an extensive plan for political reform. But they did not say much in it about Brexit.
However, Burnham did declare last year that he wanted the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime.
He is now 56.
Burnham says he's not getting rid of pensions triple lock, but just adjusting how it works
Andy Burnham has said that it is not accurate to say that he is getting rid of the pensions triple lock.
In interviews this morning, he challenged this description because the plan he announced yesterday means that the value of the state pension will continue to rise in line with prices, earnings or 2.5%.
But under the current system, pensions rise every year either by 2.5%, or by inflation, or by the annual rise in earnings – which is highest.
After 2030, normally they will rise by 2.5% or by inflation. But if that is not enough to ensure that pensions have risen in line with the average increase in earnings since the policy was introduced, they will rise by that amount.
The pensions triple lock is not a benefit; it is an uprating mechanism, and what Burnham announced means that the earnings element of that mechanism will apply according to a new formula.
The change will save money because, under the current system, if the rise in earnings is particularly big one year, as sometimes happens, there is a rachet effect, and the increase gets baked in for future years.
Burnham told Times Radio:
The decision on the triple lock, the adjustment – and it is an adjustment – it’s not getting rid of the whole concept of the triple lock.
Burnham says he doesn't have 'huge room for manoeuvre' to help people with cost of living
Andy Burnham has said that the government does not have “huge room for manoeuvre” as it looks at how it can help people with the cost of living.
In his interview with BBC Breakfast, Burnham said:
We’re thinking all of the time, ‘how do we take a bit of pressure off people, give them some breathing space?’
It’s why one of the first decisions I took as prime minister was to remove VAT off electricity bills, and that will happen on Thursday …
We’ll do something to help people with bus fares next year, the £2 cap for the whole of the year, and then in the budget we will consider further measures.
It’s important for me to say that we don’t have huge room for manoeuvre.
I think people can see that when they look at the financial picture, but within that we will do our best, and we’ll also try to support people who are struggling with the cost of doing business ’cause it’s hard to run a business right now as well.
Burnham says he's looking at 'every possible measure' to help people with energy costs, but stresses funding not easy
Andy Burnham has said that he accepts there will could be an energy crisis this winter.
In his interview with the Today programme, Burnham was asked if he agreed with Simone Rossi, CEO of the energy company EDF, who told the programme in an interview that Britain was “walking into a second significant energy crisis after the one we experienced just four years ago”.
Asked about the comment, Burnham said:
I don’t think that is an overstatement to be honest.
The situation was “very challenging” for people buying petrol, or heating their homes, he said.
I’m doing what I can, removing say VAT off bills. But it is very difficult indeed, and it’s why the Middle East situation needs to command a lot of our attention.
Asked what he might be able to do to help people, Burnham told BBC Breakfast:
I’m considering everything that might help people in very difficult times and I will be honest and say every possible measure is being looked at.
The question I’ve got is, how many can I afford, what can we do given the state of the public finances?
And people wouldn’t thank me for making unfunded payments that then cause pressure on mortgages – and we’ve seen that in the past and we’re not going back there.
Burnham said, when he talked about considering every possible measure to help with energy costs, that included looking at whether to scrap a fuel duty increase planned for next year.
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Andy Burnham says rejoining the EU among all ‘the options’ being considered for better relationship with Europe
Good morning. Andy Burnham’s speech is getting a mixed review in the papers, but there is general consensus that it is a consequential one – not one that we will have forgotten within a fortnight or so, but one that will make the next list of all-time important Labour conference speeches of the last 50 years.
If you are still catching up, here are three good places to start.
Pippa Crerar’s overnight splash for the Guardian.
Rafael Behr’s take in comment.
The Guardian’s view in its editorial.
The conference wraps up today, with four cabinet ministers speaking. But much of the attention will be on digesting the significance of what the PM said yesterday.
Burnham has given a series of interviews which are playing out this morning. Speaking to the Today programme, Burnham confirmed that, when he told delegates yesterday he would be looking at ways of having a better relationship with the EU, rejoining would be one of the options.
Burnham said:
We could stay as we are. That’s definitely an option, if people think this is the right place to stay.
We could look at what [former Conservative chancellor] George Osborne has said about a customs union, we could look at what the Liberal Democrats said at their conference about the single market or we could go all the way.
There are clearly options that need to be considered, and we have to look at what is doable and what would be the pros and cons of each.
I will post more from his interviews soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The conference opens.
9.45am: Angela Eagle, the environment secretary, speaks.
10.15am: Yvette Cooper, the health secretary, speaks.
11.10am: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, speaks.
12.10pm: Lucy Powell, the deputy leader, gives the final speech of the conference.
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