Labour party conference live: Rachel Reeves stands by winter fuel allowance cut in speech as nurses reject 5.5% pay rise

A Labour MP has urged pro-Palestine protesters to continue marching, as she was heckled at the Labour conference.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy told a fringe event called Justice for Palestine that “the conflict is intensifying, so our political lobbying must intensify as a result”.

During her speech in Liverpool, a heckler called on the MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill to resign from Labour, before accusing the party of being “racist”.

On Monday, Ms Ribeiro-Addy said: “We represent the majority, both the global majority, and the clear majority in this country – the question is how to turn that majority into action and into a change of policy.

“The conflict is intensifying, so our political lobbying must intensify as a result.

“All the marches and the lobbying must continue, all the local meetings must continue, so must the letter writing, take to your local radio station phone-in, write to your local newspaper, canvas outside your local supermarket on a Saturday morning.”

Intervening, the heckler shouted: “And resign from the Labour Party, resign.”

This was met with shouts of “shut up” and “nonsense” from other members of the audience.

Ms Riberio-Addy continued: “Horrific things have been happening since 1948, and unfortunately even this phase of the conflict looks like it will be a prolonged one. So we have to be prepared for both an intense struggle and a prolonged one.”

Later in the session, the heckler shouted: “The Labour Party is a racist party.”

Speakers at the event also called on the Labour Government to do more to protect Palestinians and ban arms sales to Israel.

Rachel Reeves has defended Angela Rayner in a row over the deputy prime minister reportedly hiring a vanity photographer to publicise her work.

The chancellor said it is normal for government departments to have communications budgets and stressed the photographer would not just promote Ms Rayner, but the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as a whole.

On Monday morning she told Times Radio: “All government departments under all governments have press officers and communications budgets. It’s not a personal photographer. It’s to promote the campaigning work of governments.”

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story:

Rachel Reeves has recommitted to Labour’s pledge not to raise income tax and national insurance at the October Budget.

But the chancellor refused to rule out a potential hike in capital gains tax.

Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I’m not going to get into speculation about individual tax changes.

“But our manifesto commitment, which was not to increase taxes on working people, that means income tax, national insurance and VAT rates, but also not to increase corporation tax, to cap it at its current level for the duration of this parliament, those are things we committed to in our manifesto and we’re going to deliver on those manifesto commitments.

“Trust in politics is at an all time low, and that is largely because governments have promised one thing at elections, and then they haven’t followed through.”

An SNP MP has described Sir Keir Starmer and his top team’s acceptance of thousands of pounds worth of free gifts including clothing from Labour donor Lord Alli as “totally indefensible”.

Angus and Perthshire Glens MP Dave Doogan told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think I, like most other ordinary people from ordinary backgrounds, are aghast at the naivety of UK Government ministers leaving themselves open to whatever the donors of these gifts expect in return.

“If something looks too good to be true, then it probably is. Everybody knows that.

“I think we need to ask ourselves why the most senior members of the UK Government are naively walking into gifts for this and gifts for that totalling £800,000, and thinking that there is no strings attached. Of course there are strings attached. It’s such a bad look.”

He added: “Let’s be really clear, Angela Rayner in particular, and Keir Starmer especially – these are not poor people.

“If Keir Starmer wanted £2,500 worth of glasses, he could have easily bought them. But he didn’t. He took it off somebody who was offering it to him, and that’s not the world that the rest of us walk in.

“People up and down these islands who voted Labour will be thinking to themselves, ‘I think I’ve backed the wrong horse here’, especially in Scotland when 37 Labour MPs are dutifully lining up to defend the actions of the prime minister which are actually totally indefensible.”

Keir Starmer has defended his gift-taking as he took part in two eve-of-conference interviews, insisting that it is transparency that matters.

But the prime minister is facing new questions about a football match he and his controversial chief of staff Sue Gray attended after hospitality was arranged by Spurs.

He was also pictured at the game with lobbyist Katie Perrior, who ran Boris Johnson’s publicity campaign when he became mayor of London in 2008.

Read the full story below:

Sir Keir Starmer said he was a “leaner-in” who does not want to keep artificial technology (AI) at “arms length”.

Speaking at a business event at Labour’s annual conference, the Prime Minister said: “AI is obviously a big game-changer, you can already see the potential but we’re still in the foothills…

“But do you lean in and say that this is a great opportunity or do you lean out and say woah, this is a bit risky. I’m a leaner-in.”

He added: “The first thing is to lean into it and say it’s an incredible set of opportunities, not to keep it at arms length.”

Employer concerns about the Labour Government’s workers’ rights package have been “addressed and understood,” Rachel Reeves has said amid speculation over whether the legislation could be watered down.

The Chancellor indicated the Government does not want to make it harder for companies to hire temporary workers or students with its Employment Rights Bill.

She told a business event at the annual Labour conference in Liverpool: “We’ll be publishing more details in the next couple of weeks, but I hope that you see that your concerns have been addressed and understood.”

Rachel Reeves acknowledged that nurses have rejected the Government’s pay offer but said “my understanding is that is advisory I very much hope there will not be industrial action going forward in our health service”.

Asked whether she believed the era of strike action was over, the Chancellor told a business event at the Labour Party conference: “We accepted the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies… that was important to bring to an end the industrial disputes.

“It was the right decision, in the national interest, also to address recruitment and retention challenges.

“You may have seen the nurses have voted today against the settlement… but my understanding is that is advisory and I very much hope there will not be industrial action going forward in our health service.”

Ms Reeves said that many public sector workers were disappointed and “rightly so” that their wages have fallen behind the cost of living, but insisted the new Government was “listening” and “willing to work with them”.

“We hope, and through our actions we want to bring an end to those industrial disputes that have been so disruptive both to the people who use our public services and for the wider economy.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that donations for clothes were “very beneficial” to her during the election campaign.

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that “an old friend” of hers wanted to offer support.

“The way that she wanted to support was to help me buy clothes for the campaign trail and for big events and I was very grateful for that support,” Ms Reeves added.

She told the programme: “We declared it in the proper way and we asked the registrar the best way to record it and we did it in the way that was asked of us.

“I never planned to continue this in government but it was something that was very beneficial to me during the campaign.”

Wes Streeting joked at a fringe event that if he kept saying how proud he was of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, it would pay off at the Budget.

Having said repeatedly he was “proud” of Rachel Reeves’s decisions on pay settlements, he told a Labour conference fringe event: “I’m also sure, by the way, if I keep on saying how proud I am of the Chancellor that will be worthwhile in the coming Budget.”