Starmer speech: PM pledges crackdown on benefit fraud at Labour conference

The executive director of Tax Justice UK said words of change must be followed with policy, follwing Keir Starmer's speech.

Businesses that break work visa rules will be banned from hiring employees from abroad under a new immigration plan, the Prime Minister announced on Tuesday.

Sir Keir Starmer told the Labour Party conference in Liverpool that his government will reduce migration and Britain’s dependency on foreign workers.

The PM set out measures to ensure Home Office visa policies are linked to skills and market needs in a bid to prevent foreign labour being used as an alternative to investing in training for young Britons.

Read the full story from the Evening Standard.

Sir Keir Starmer sent a blunt message to those who “still hanker” for the “weak and cowardly fantasy of populism”, dismissing criticism as "mere glitter on a shirt cuff" — referencing the time a protester gatecrashed last year’s speech to shower the prime minister with sparkles.

During a major speech at Labour's annual conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, 24 September, the prime minister declared that "all the shouts and bellows" and "bad faith advice from people who still hanker for the politics of noisy performance" was "water off a duck's back" to him.

Read the full story from The Independent.

Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday vowed that his Government will “build a new Britain” with a crackdown on benefit fraudsters, a promise to house all veterans and by reducing the UK’s reliance on foreign workers.

In his first party conference speech as Prime Minister, Sir Keir told Britons the “future will be better” but there will short term pain and a “shared struggle” through tough short-term pressures.

He vowed to create a country with faster economic growth, shorter NHS waiting lists and safer streets.

Read the full story from the Evening Standard.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The government should forget the pursuit of free holidays, concert tickets and shiny new suits and focus on the needs of families and children.

“Nobody doubts the scale of challenge confronting the government but what was lacking today was any sense of the scale of ambition needed to meet these challenges.

“Austerity will be ended in deeds not words. The clock is already ticking on this government, people need to see genuine change. Rather than manage the aspirations of families, Keir Starmer should be sending a clear message that his government will oversee a systematic programme of investment in public services and a rebalancing of wealth and power in our massively unequal society.”

Daniel Riley, 18, who heckled the prime minister in his speech at the Labour Party conference said he was moved to shout due Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on the Middle East.

He told reporters after being released by security: “Everyday we’re still sending British bombs and British bullets that are being used in Lebanon and in Gaza right now and the prime minister – he could stop that, he could stop that right now but he doesn’t.

“And he says that he wants things to stop but he won’t lift a finger to actually stop it.”

Asked if he had planned to disrupt the leader’s speech, Riley said: “No, I was a delegate, I’m a Labour Party member, I hoped I’d be one for life but I suspect not now.”

Following Keir Starmer's speech, chancellor Rachel Reeves told Sky News the conference had been a "positive opportunity to put forward the difference we're going to make for this country".

Sir Keir Starmer’s party conference speech lasted 54 minutes, slightly shorter than the 56-minute speech he delivered at Labour’s 2023 conference.

Compared with recent party conference speeches by newly-elected prime ministers, Sir Keir spoke for a shorter time than Rishi Sunak (an hour and four minutes in 2023) and Theresa May (58 minutes in 2016), but for longer than Liz Truss in 2022 (35 minutes), Boris Johnson in 2019 (40 minutes) and David Cameron in 2010 (52 minutes).

Sir Keir Starmer, who said there is a need for the country to “turn our collar up and face the storm”, concluded his speech by saying people will “get a country with its future back” under the new government.

He said: “What will people get to show for it? They’ll get a country with its future back. Renewed by respect and service. Rebalanced towards the interests of working people. Confident in its values and story, because together we took action.

“Millions who feel better off, without being told they are by politicians. Going to the supermarket without a calculator, because the nation’s numbers now add up. More money in their pocket to do the things they love and more faith in public services because once again Labour has rebuilt them.

“An NHS facing the future. More security and dignity at work. Town centres thriving. Streets safe. Borders controlled at last. Clean energy harnessed for national renewal.

“New homes, new towns, new hospitals, roads and schools. A new future for our children. That is what people will get, and mark my words – we will deliver it.”

Sir Keir Starmer appropriated the Brexit slogan of “taking back control,” saying it was a “Labour argument”.

The prime minister said Britain must “move beyond” a “toxic” commentary about “the worth of migrants” but that the debate should instead be about “control of migration”.

“The debate is not about the worth of migrants,” he said. “That is toxic and we must move beyond it. It’s about control of migration, it’s always been about control. That is what people have voted for time and again.

“And they weren’t just ignored after Brexit. The Tories gave them the exact opposite.”

He accused the Tories of being “the party of the uncontrolled market”.

“They’ve been that way for years,” he said. “So if you want a country with more control, if you want the great forces that affect your community to be better managed, whether that’s migration, climate change, law and order or security at work, then that does need more decisive government, and that is a Labour government. Taking back control is a Labour argument.”

Keir Starmer shut down a protester who heckled him about Gaza, clapping back, "this guy's obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference... we've changed the party."

He added: "While he's been protesting, we've been changing the party, that's why we've got a Labour government."

Keir Starmer told conference that early encounters with art and culture "change us forever" but said, "those opportunities don't go to every child, do they?"

He referenced his brother, who "had difficulties learning", saying his father always told him that his brother had achieved just as much as him.

"But this is what we do in this country - we elevate the stories of individuals... the working class few who break through the class ceiling.

"It gives hope to people, it is important to tell these stories, but it is not everyone is it, and we must remember everyone."

Keir Starmer said he will “level” with people about “the trade-offs this country faces”.

The prime minister said: “As we take on those massive challenges the Tories ignored, the time is long overdue for politicians to level with you about the trade-offs this country faces.

“Because if the last few years have shown us anything, it’s that if you bury your head because things are difficult, your country goes backwards.

“So if we want justice to be served some communities must live close to new prisons. If we want to maintain support for the welfare state, then we will legislate to stop benefit fraud. Do everything we can to tackle worklessness.

“If we want cheaper electricity, we need new pylons over ground otherwise the burden on taxpayers is too much. If we want home ownership to be a credible aspiration for our children, then every community has a duty to contribute to that purpose.

“If we want to tackle illegal migration we can’t pretend there’s a magical process that allows you to return people here unlawfully without accepting that prices will also grant some people asylum.

“If we want to be serious about levelling up then we must be proud to be the party of wealth creation, unashamed to partner with the private sector.”

Starmer received another long round of applause as he referenced tackling rioters from the riots that took place across the UK last month, as he said he would not let "violent, racist thugs" threaten communities.

The prime minister told Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool: “And let me tell you something else I won’t let happen I will never let a minority of violent, racist thugs terrorise our communities. Look, I have always accepted concerns about immigration are legitimate.”

He drew some of his loudest applause yet before adding: “It is, as a point of fact the policy of this Government to reduce both net migration and our economic dependency upon it. I have never thought we should be relaxed about some sectors importing labour when there are millions of young people, ambitious and highly talented, who are desperate to work and contribute to their community.

“Trust me there are plenty of examples of apprenticeship starts going down at the very same time that visa applications for the same skills are going up and so we will get tough on this.”

The prime minister told the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool: “First, we stabilise our economy, second we fix the foundations and third we build with pride and determination a Britain that belongs to you.

“But it will be hard. That’s not rhetoric, it’s reality. It’s not just the financial black hole, the £22 billion of unfunded spending commitments concealed from our country by the Tories.

“It’s not just the societal black hole. Our public services decimated, communities held together with little more than goodwill.

“It’s also the political black hole, because the politics of national renewal, they are collective.

“They involve a shared struggle, a project that says to everyone: this will be tough in the short term, but in the long term is the right thing for our country and we all benefit from that.

“To coin a phrase, we’re all in it together.”

Keir Starmer blamed the previous government for a number of issues facing the country, saying "for 14 years the Tories performed the policies of easy answers rather than use the power of government to serve our country".

Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that GB Energy will be based in Aberdeen. Addressing the Labour Party conference, Starmer confirmed that its flagship energy company would have a home in Scotland.

He said: “We said, GB Energy, our publicly owned national champion, the vehicle 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.”

Starmer announced that people who served in the military would be housed. "Homes will be there for heroes," he said, decrying the problem of many veterans sleeping rough on the UK's streets.

"We can make the very same promise to those at risk of homelessness," he said. "Young care leavers, victims of domestic abuse - they will have a roof over their head because Britain belongs to them."

Britain’s confidence in its own future is “brittle and fragile, and so we have to restore it”, Sir Keir Starmer said.

The prime minister told the audience at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool: “Conference, strength in this dangerous world depends on strength at home and yet, look at our country. Look at our country.

“Do you see a Britain where people feel with the certainty that they deserve, that the future will be better for their children? Because when I was growing up, that’s what we believed people of a completely ordinary, working class background like mine, we took it for granted.

“We built our lives around it. But that is not the country we inherited in July, that confidence, that certainty, it’s brittle and fragile, and so we have to restore it. That is the mandate we won. The meaning of change.”

He said it “all comes back” to “that question: can politics be a force for good in people’s lives?”

Keir Starmer said “service is the responsibility and opportunity of power”, adding: “Service does not mean we’ll get everything right, it doesn’t mean everyone will agree.

“But it does mean we understand that every decision we take, we take together and that it is our duty to the British people to face up to necessary decisions in their interests.”

The prime minister also criticised those people who “still hanker” for the “weak and cowardly fantasy of populism”, saying it is “water off a duck’s back” to him.

Sir Keir Starmer called for a ceasefire in Gaza, also calling for a return of the hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas.

The prime minister told the Labour Party conference: “This is a time when great forces demand a decisive government prepared to face the future. We can see that again in the Middle East today.

“So I call again for restraint and de-escalation at the border between Lebanon and Israel. Again, all parties to pull back from the brink.

“I call again for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the return of the hostages, and a recommitment to the two-state solution, a recognised Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.

“And that’s the message I will take to the UN General Assembly when I travel there later today, alongside our steadfast support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.”

Conference has given Keir Starmer his second standing ovation of the day as he ran through a list of plans including bringing railways into public ownership.

"Change has begun," he said.

Keir Starmer pledged that his government would bring in the Hillsborough Law.

"For many people in this city, the speech they may remember is the one two years ago because that's when I promised on this stage that if I ever had the privilege to serve this country as prime minister one of my first acts would be to bring in a Hillsborough law - a duty of candour.

"A law for Liverpool, a law for the 97, a law that people shouldn't have to fight so hard to get," he said, also confirming that it would be introduced to Parliament before the next anniversary in April.

He added that cases including subpostmasters, infected blood and Windrush would also benefit from the law, explaining: "I can confirm, the duty of candour will apply to public authorities and services."

The prime minister took the stage to a standing ovation, thanking 21-year-old Matthew for the introduction and thanking the conference for getting the party into power for the first time in 14 years.

"A record-breaking conference - the biggest ever in our history," he said. "And such a far cry from my first conference speech, to a live audience of one, the cameraman. Socially distant in an arts centre in Doncaster."

He then spoke of the Brighton conference a year later, referencing a time when people were reluctant to change.

"We stood firm conference, we stood together conference, and we won," he said.

Ahead of Sir Keir Starmer's speech, a student from Manchester University addressed the conference, explaining why he voted Labour.

Sir Keir Starmer is set to address a packed hall shortly, in his first address to conference as prime minister.

The prime minister was applauded as he arrived at the conference with his wife, Victoria Starmer.

Plans to change pub opening hours have caused a rift in the Labour Party a day after they were proposed at the party conference.

Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, vowed to “table an emergency resolution” to stop any motion that would see pubs close earlier.

It came after Andrew Gwynne, a fellow minister who is responsible for public health, suggested that “tightening up on some of the hours of operation” at pubs and bars should be considered as part of efforts to crack down on alcohol abuse.

Read the full story from The Telegraph.

Around three million households on low incomes and pensions stand to benefit from a £150 payment by the government to help with their energy bills this winter.

For most energy suppliers, new claims for the Warm Home Discount scheme will open next month, although a handful of companies in Scotland have opened the scheme early.

It comes as the government continues to face criticism, including from within the Labour Party, over its decision to restrict winter fuel payments by making them means-tested, which the Treasury has claimed it has been forced to do after inheriting a £22bn "black hole" in public finances left behind by the previous Conservative leadership.

Read the full story from Yahoo News.

Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli was seen at the Labour Party conference.

As we await Labour’s Halloween Budget, it is difficult to know if we are being subjected to an example of masochistic media management so we sigh with relief after the event, thinking “it wasn’t that bad” and “it could have been worse”, writes Brian Monteith for The Telegraph.

Or maybe it really is incompetence, that Rachel Reeves, Sir Keir Starmer and the Government in general are unsure about what to do.

Either way, many people are not waiting to find out and are either changing their financial exposure by selling assets and adjusting their commitments now, or simply leaving the country for a more attractive tax jurisdiction that shows more appreciation for what they have achieved and built up.

Read the full story from The Telegraph.

Community orders should be “trusted more by the courts,” the prisons minister said.

Lord Timpson was asked by a member of the audience at an event on the fringes of the Labour Party conference to highlight community sentencing as a “direct alternative” to prison.

The audience member said: “We don’t want suspended sentences. The law says a community order is a direct alternative to custody. We need massive publicity, we need government branding and I beg you to say it.”

Lord Timpson replied: “I completely agree with you about the positive impact of community sentencing but I think it needs to be trusted more by the courts.”

He added: “I’m in this for the long haul and I hope by putting me in this position the prime minister has sent a signal that we need to change the system and I’m hopefully going to be around long enough to do it.”

Sir Keir Starmer has denied he is "punishment beating " pensioners as he insisted he was not ruling out - nor ruling in - rumoured plans to scrap the 25% single-person household council tax discount.

The prime minister said he would not be drawn on the future of the tax break for people who live alone ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget on 30 October.

Scrapping the discount would potentially hit some pensioners living alone who have already suffered the loss of winter fuel payments, but - speaking to reporters on his trip to Washington - Starmer insisted he was not punishing elderly Britons.

Read the full story from Yahoo News.

More than 200,000 extra pensioners received winter fuel payments last winter taking the overall number of claimants up to 11.6 million, new government figures show.

The number of elderly people receiving hand-outs rose by 1.9 per cent, or 214,000 payments, year-on-year. While over 99 per cent of recipients were in the UK, 34,300 people received the winter fuel payment while living in Europe.

Read the full story from The Independent.

Keir Starmer is facing intense backlash online for vowing to crack down on benefit fraud rather than tax evasion.

In his keynote speech to this year’s Labour conference, the prime minister is expected to announce a new fraud, error and debt bill to modernise the Department for Work and Pensions.

That includes targeting welfare fraud, although Labour has emphasised that the bill would still protect the vulnerable welfare claimants.

Starmer will promise to “leave no stone unturned” in his effort to rebuild the country’s public sector and save £1.6bn over the next five years.

Read the full story from HuffPost.

The prime minister’s conference speech is billed to start at 2pm on September 24.

It is the today’s main event, and one of the most important across all four days, with delegates likely to fill up ACC Liverpool’s main conference hall. It is a significant occasion, marking the first time in 15 years that a Labour leader has addressed conference as prime minister.

Read the full story from The Independent.

Columnist Hugo Rifkind has described a "muted" feeling at the Labour Party Conference, despite Labour being in government for the first time in 14 years

British businesses have one key concern about Prime Minster Keir Starmer: Almost three months into his tenure, there’s still a dearth of details about how his new Labour administration plans to get the UK economy firing.

Corporate leaders showed up in their droves to Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool this week, after the long-time opposition stormed to a landslide in the July 4 general election.

That’s testament not only to Labour’s return to power after 14 years in opposition, but also to how Starmer has reformed the party to appeal to UK Plc after his left-wing predecessor Jeremy Corbyn largely antagonised business with tax and nationalisation plans.

Read the full story from Bloomberg.

Sir Keir Starmer has become a “replica of George Osborne” by refusing to “end austerity”, former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell said on Tuesday.

McDonnell criticised the prime minister after reports that he will use his speech to the Labour conference to warn of “tough decisions” facing the government.

The MP for Hayes and Harlington, who was stripped of the Labour whip after rebelling against the government to call for the removal of the two-child benefit cap, said: “I don’t say this lightly but if you close your eyes and listen to the language being used it is almost like George Osborne speaking again in 2010”.

Read the full story from The Independent.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference, home secretary Yvette Cooper pledged to halve knife crime over the next decade.

Here are the key policies we can expect from the Labour conference today:

• Starmer is expected to announce new legislation to investigate suspected benefit fraud, which Labour says is expected to save the government £1.6bn over the next five years.

• The PM is also expected to commit to reducing net migration by training UK residents to fill vacancies in the jobs market rather than allowing employers to rely on overseas labour.

• He will also give greater power to victims of victims of major disasters under the Hillsborough Law, requiring a duty of candour for public officials.

• Other members of the Labour cabinet will also introduce policies, like Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who said in her speech this morning that she is seeking to bring in new powers to curb antisocial behaviour, off-road bikes and shoplifting.

Welfare fraudsters will be dealt with faster under new legislation expected to save the UK taxpayer £1.6bn over the next five years, the prime minister is set to announce.

Keir Starmer is expected to promise to “leave no stone unturned” as his government seeks to “rebuild our public services” during his speech to the Labour party conference on Tuesday, his first conference address as prime minister.

Read the full story from The Guardian.

The government has lost control of the process that reviews public sector pay, the shadow health secretary has said.

Conservative minister Victoria Atkins said that the Royal College of Nursing’s rejection of the proposed 5.5% pay award showed that Labour were not properly in charge of the system.

Atkins told Sky News: “The Labour government has lost control of the independent public sector pay process.”

She added: “The ramifications of giving one part of the health workforce an inflation busting pay rise, as they did over the summer with junior or resident doctors, (is that it) will have an impact across the workforce, including for nurses.

“Is it any wonder that having given this inflation busting pay rise with no reform, no productivity improvements for junior doctors in the summer, that nurses and other healthcare professionals are now asking why they are not valued in the same way by this government.”

Millions of DWP benefit claimants have been warned major changes could be on the way impacting their payments. There are reports the Government is considering cuts to welfare at its October Budget.

It could include a major overhaul of sickness, unemployment and other support benefits. Labour has already pledged to reform welfare before it won the general election.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have repeatedly warned of the need to take "difficult decisions" to stabilise the economy. It's now being reported cuts to welfare could be one way of identifying savings.

Read the full story from Birmingham Live.

A senior Labour politician has appeared to confirm that the single-person household council tax discount won't be axed.

Pat McFadden told Good Morning Britain "if that's what is being briefed out by the Treasury, then that's the case".

He said that he wasn't aware of "any plans" to scrap the discount, but cautioned that the chancellor Rachel Reeves would set out her approach in the budget on 30 October.

Watch the exchange below:

Keir Starmer will use his speech to acknowledge that many voters were motivated by despair at the Tories and warn his party that it needs to deliver “decisive” government without putting a heavy tax burden on workers, which will mean reforming public services.

He will say: “I know this country is exhausted by and with politics. I know that the cost-of-living crisis drew a veil over the joy and wonder in our lives and that people want respite and relief, and may even have voted Labour for that reason.

“Our project has not and never will change. I changed the Labour Party to restore it to the service of working people. And that is exactly what we will do for Britain.

“But I will not do it with easy answers. I will not do it with false hope.”

In a sign that he will be prepared to push ahead with reforms to the economy and public services despite the prospect of resistance, Sir Keir will say: “I have to warn you, working people do want more decisive government.

“They do want us to rebuild our public services and they do want that to lead to more control in their lives.

“But their pockets are not deep – not at all. So we have to be a great reforming government.”

A senior Labour figure sought to downplay the row over gifts and donations in the run-up to Keir Starmer's conference speech on Tuesday afternoon.

Pat McFadden said stories about Downing Street infighting and gifts for ministers are “squalls” that will matter less to the public than the plans the PM is expected to announce today.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told BBC Breakfast: “As your viewers can probably tell, I’ve been around politics for quite some time.

“There have been squalls like this in the past. I think what’s important is you work your way through them. We’ve got an important chance to do that today.

“We’ve got our first speech today from a Labour prime minister to a Labour Party conference for 15 years, so it’s a really big moment where the prime minister can set out his agenda for the future, which in the end will affect people’s lives much more than any rows in Downing Street or any of the stories that have been in the newspapers the last couple of weeks.”

Pat McFadden ruled out changes to pub opening hours, dismissing reports that these could be tightened under Labour.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve got a day left of the conference and if that’s on the agenda, I’m going to table an emergency resolution myself in order to make sure it doesn’t happen.

“I think we’ve been clear about that overnight, the pub’s a great part of the British tradition and we’ve got no plans to change the opening hours in that way.”

On Monday, public health minister Andrew Gwynne told a Labour Party fringe event the government was considering “tightening up the hours of operation” of bars and pubs in an attempt to improve health and combat anti-social behaviour.

Rachel Reeves attempted to strike her most optimistic tone yet for the future of the UK economy and insisted there would be "no return to austerity".

Addressing the conference on Monday, the chancellor sought to dispense with much of the doom and gloom of past comments in which she has warned of "difficult decisions" to fix the country's public finances.

Chief among these has been Labour's decision to scrap winter fuel payments for some nine million pensioners, a policy that has been criticised by campaigners and branded "cruel" by the leader of the Unite union.

Read the full story from Yahoo News.