Labour conference live: Andy Burnham says social care is as ‘unfair as American healthcare’ and will break the NHS

The prime minister says the care service will be on the ballot paper at the next election.

“We are making really good progress”, Andy Burnham said as Laura Kuenssberg asked him about social care – an issue he said he would prioritise when he took power in July.

The prime minister added: “It pushes me on and I’m going to grasp the nettle of social care.”

His father Roy, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, died earlier this month, and Mr Burnham has said this has made him more determined to fix social care.

The Makerfield MP says he is willing to spend political capital on the issue of social care, adding that the whole system is working in the wrong way.

He says he will set out a timetable for a system on “NHS principles” to reform social care at this week’s conference.

Angela Rayner tells Sky News she has absolute support for Shabana Mahmood and says the home secretary is doing a “fantastic job”.

It comes after Ms Rayner has hit out at Ms Mahmood’s plans to make it harder for migrant workers to claim settled status in the UK, warning it would “change the goalposts”.

In an interview with The Times on the eve of Labour’s party conference in Liverpool, the communities secretary and former deputy prime minister stood by her previous description of the home secretary’s plans as “un-British”.

However, speaking to Sky this morning, she is now backing the home secretary. You can read yesterday’s piece below.

Angela Rayner has hit out at Shabana Mahmood’s plans to make it harder for migrant workers to claim settled status in the UK, warning it would “change the goalposts”.

Local leaders will get stronger powers to take possession of empty and derelict homes so they can be brought back into use, Angela Rayner has announced.

The housing secretary revealed the plans on the first day of Labour’s annual conference, which are aimed at bringing the 300,000 empty homes across England back into use.

The sweeping reforms to Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) are being made as the Government aims to build 1.5 million homes before its self-imposed deadline of 2029.

EDMOs can be used to restore homes for use for an initial 12 months, and up to a total of eight years, but no applications have been made since 2021.

Ms Rayner’s plans will reduce the period of time a house must be empty before it can be taken over from two years to six months.

Ministers also aim to speed up the backroom process which allows councils to seize properties through a tribunal system, and want to protect local authorities from absorbing the costs associated with using EDMOs.

Ms Rayner said: “With so many children and families still in need of a safe and secure home, we can’t sit by and allow 300,000 long-term empty dwellings to be left unused.

“That’s why Labour in power is putting the tools in local leaders’ hands to take over desperately needed derelict homes and put them back into use. We’re reversing the Tories’ damaging changes by supporting councils to intervene and use untapped powers to meet local housing need.

“These changes will ensure councils can intervene earlier to prevent properties from falling into serious disrepair by accelerating their return to use and simplify the process to empower local authorities to act more decisively and with greater speed.

“But we won’t stop there, and we’ll explore further changes to protect local authorities from absorbing the costs they face in taking over empty homes.”

Wes Streeting has labelled Russia and president Vladimir Putin the biggest threat to the country’s security as he warned the UK is at the “greatest risk” of war in his life.

Defence secretary Mr Streeting said the threat was behind the decision to “deliver the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War”.

Speaking to The Sun on Sunday ahead of Labour’s conference which starts in Liverpool on Sunday, he said: “Without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest threat facing Britain is Russia and President Putin.

“We’ve got war in our continent. We’ve got a Russian president who has imperialist ambitions, who is constantly testing Britain’s defences, Nato defences and testing the strength of our alliances.

“And so, the sobering reality is that we face a greater risk of war than we’ve done at any point in my lifetime.”

He said he is confident the country has what it needs to remain safe, but the same would not be true if defences were to “stand still” for five years.

“Strength builds deterrence, and deterrence makes it far less likely that we will end up in a place we don’t want to be – which is at war with Russia or, indeed, anyone else,” he said.