Keir Starmer UN Speech – LIVE: PM tells Israel ‘no more excuses’ and calls on Hamas to ‘let the hostages go’
Union members stage protest ahead of Labour winter fuel allowance debate at the party conference in Liverpool
Sir Keir Starmer has delivered his first speech as prime minister to world leaders at the United Nations in the US after leaving the Labour Party conference.
He used his address to the UN Security Council to promise that his government will deliver “global leadership” as the Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out conflict and the bloody war in Ukraine grinds on.
On a tough week after calling for the return of “sausages” in Gaza during a conference gaffe, Sir Keir has been defeated in a vote to reverse the cut to the winter fuel payments.
The non-binding motion, named An Economy for the Future and tabled by Sharon Graham of the Unite union and the Communication Workers Union (CWU), was passed by a show of hands in a rowdy hall at the Labour Party annual conference.
In a show of defiance, Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham called Labour members to rebel against the policy as she shouted: “This is not what people voted for.”
The motion called for means testing of the winter fuel allowance to be scrapped and for an end to fiscal rules which prevent borrowing to invest, as well as the introduction of a wealth tax.e
Key Points
Regulator warns employers they must protect workers from sexual harassment
Employers are being warned they could face enforcement action from the equalities regulator if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment as a new law comes into force next month.
The legislation for England, Scotland and Wales introduces a preventative duty on employers to stop workplace harassment, instead of relying on employees to report incidents.
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act, due to come in from October 26, is aimed at improving workplace cultures and preventing sexual harassment.
Previously there was no pro-active legal obligation on employers to take steps to prevent sexual harassment at work.
The new obligation comes in the wake of what the Fawcett Society has previously described as a “slew of recent high-profile cases (which) shows it is rife in our workplaces”.
Protections in the legislation were watered down as it made its way through Parliament, with Conservative peers in the Lords having raised concerns about free speech and employers becoming at risk of costly lawsuits.
Hillsborough law to be introduced by April
Sir Keir Starmer announced during his speech in Liverpool that he will introduce a Hillsborough Law by April, the anniversary of the disaster, putting a legal duty of candour on all public bodies.
The legislation will include the potential for criminal sanctions for any official or authority that misleads or obstructs investigations.
Campaigners, including the families of the 97 Liverpool fans who were crushed to death at Hillsborough stadium in 1989, have been calling for such legislation for more than three decades.
Speaking on the main stage at Labour’s conference, Sir Keir said it was a law that “people shouldn’t have had to fight so hard to get”.
Here’s everything that was announced in Sir Keir’s Labour conference speech:
Starmer: Long-term benefit claimants need to look for work if they can
Sir Keir Starmer has said the “basic proposition” that long-term benefit claimants should look for work is right, after announcing new laws to crack down on welfare fraudsters.
He said people dealing with long-term sickness “need to be back in the workplace where they can”, promising support to help people back into employment.
As well as encouraging people back to work, the prime minister also announced new legislation to deal with welfare fraudsters more quickly, in a proposal Labour estimated would save the taxpayer £1.6 billion over the next five years.
In his speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, the prime minister promised to “leave no stone unturned” in his mission to “rebuild our public services”.
Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has the full story below:
PM plans to make country ‘less reliant’ on migration
Starmer is now being asked by Nick Robinson whether the “trade off” of Starmer’s migration policy will make businesses not able to fill roles if they can’t employ foreign workers.
The prime minister insisted he’s “not going to chop your legs off by saying you can’t have the workers you need now”.
He said: “But I’m not going to tolerate this year after year after year.”
Instead, he plans a “skills strategy” that makes the UK “less reliant” on migration.
“And I’m actually convinced that if businesses work with local leaders according to a growth plan that we can achieve that,” he added.
COMMENT | Starmer is right to grasp the nettle of benefits reform
Though Labour’s fingers were burned badly by the winter fuel row, the government must once again grapple with another controversial policy to pave the way for growth, writes Andrew Grice:
Latest GDP growth shows Scotland’s economy ‘recovering steadily’, says Forbes
Scotland’s economy is “recovering steadily”, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said as figures showed GDP rose 0.3% in July.
The latest monthly data shows the economy grew in July after experiencing no growth in June.
The Scottish government figures show that overall in the three months to July, GDP was estimated to be up 0.3% on the previous three months.
However this was down from the 0.6% growth recorded over the period April to June.
Ms Forbes, who is also the economy secretary, said: “These figures show that Scotland’s economy is recovering steadily, having grown over the last two quarters.”
She said it was “particularly encouraging” that manufacturing and information and communications services had increased their output in July, as she vowed the Government is “stepping up action to drive economic growth”.
She added: “Our Programme for government and Green Industrial Strategy set out measures to support start-ups, reduce barriers to investment and work in partnership with businesses.”
Starmer convinced pensioners will be ‘better off’ amid unions vote
Sir Keir Starmer has told pensioners they will be better off under Labour despite axing the winter fuel payment for millions of elderly people.
Asked for his message to pensioners who have lost their winter fuel allowance, the prime minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “So what I’m saying is this, that economic stability is the number one, most important first step.
“That that will only happen we deal with £22 billion pound black hole that we will. This was not on the books. I could pretend it’s not there, I could walk past it. In my view, that would risk losing control of the economy.
“By tackling it, we can commit to, among other things, the triple lock. Every pensioner will be better off under a Labour government.”
Sir Keir will today face a motion from angry unions to reverse the controversial winter fuel allowance cuts.
Full story: Unions win non-binding vote to reverse winter fuel cut
Delegates at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool have voted to reverse the government’s controversial cut to winter fuel payments, in a blow to Sir Keir Starmer.
While motions at the party conference are non-binding, and the government is not required to respond to them, the vote highlights major division within the party over the controversial policy.
In July, Rachel Reeves announced that older people not in receipt of pension credits or other means-tested benefits will no longer receive winter fuel payments from this year onwards.
The decision came as part of a series of spending cuts to address a black hole in the public finances left by the previous Conservative government announced in July by the chancellor.
You can read the full story below:
Keir made a slip of the tongue… but it was still a banger of a speech
The PM was so statesmanlike that he even managed to make sausages sound like an extra policy commitment. This was Starmer’s day, writes Joe Murphy:
Labour considering ban on smoking outside pubs
Health secretary Wes Streeting has confirmed Labour is considering a ban on smoking outside pubs.
He told Sky News: “We definitely want to see smoking phased out in our country, we committed to that in our manifesto.
“We want to make sure this generation of children are the healthiest generation that ever lived and therefore they will never be able to legally buy cigarettes.
“We are looking at a range of other measures to also help people who are currently smoking to quit, and also to deal with the scourge of second-hand smoke and passive smoking, which is also harmful. We’ll be setting out our proposals on that shortly.”
Asked if he will ban smoking outside pubs, he said: “Look, that’s one of the measures that I’m considering, and I’m up for a national debate on this issue.
“We have got to do two things – reform the health service, but also reform public health, because we might be living longer, but we’re becoming sicker sooner and there is a heavy price being paid for that in our economy, our public finances and in our own health.”
