Hecklers interrupt Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech at Labour conference
Hecklers have interrupted the chancellor’s speech at the Labour conference as they appeared to call for a halt to arms sales to Israel and for action on the environment.
Rachel Reeves was telling the conference in Liverpool how proud she was to be the UK’s first-ever female chancellor when shouting came from the hall.
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A young man in the middle of the audience stood up and could be heard shouting: “We are still selling arms to Israel, I thought we voted for change Rachel, climate breakdown is on our doorstep.”
Others shouted: “Free Palestine.”
Shouts of “stop oil” were also heard from around the audience.
Another man in front of the first heckler appeared to be trying to roll out a banner but an audience member in front of him grabbed it.
Security guards in the hall ran to the men and bundled them out quickly as the audience booed and shouted “down, down”.
The protester was from Climate Resistance
Ms Reeves appeared stony-faced as she responded by declaring Labour has become “a party that represents working people, not a party of protest”.
She was cheered by the audience, who gave her a standing ovation.
Campaign group Climate Resistance has claimed responsibility for the protest and accused security of “violently” apprehending one of their protesters.
A statement from the group said campaigners argue “donations from polluting industries and Israel lobbyists to Labour are to blame for the government’s inaction”.
Earlier this month, the government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel.
They said three of their members, who are also Labour Party members, were arrested and questioned by police for 30 minutes before being driven away from the venue and “de-arrested”.
Rachel Reeves was heckled during her speech
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‘No return to austerity’
The heckling lasted just a few moments and Ms Reeves continued with her speech, in which she attempted to strike a more optimistic tone than the months of doom and gloom from her and Sir Keir Starmer about the UK’s economy.
She said: “Because I know how much damage has been done in those 14 years, let me say one thing straight up: there will be no return to austerity. Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services and for investment and growth too.
“Yes, we must deal with the Tory legacy and that means tough decisions but I won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain.
“So it will be a budget with real ambition, a budget to fix the foundations, a budget to deliver the change that we promised, a budget to rebuild Britain.”
The autumn budget will take place on 30 October, with the chancellor expected to impose some tax rises.
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Speech’s only policy surprise was breakfast club pilot
Ms Reeves used her conference speech to announce £7m of funding for a pilot scheme to introduce breakfast clubs to 750 primary schools across England this summer term.
The government will then look to expand the scheme to provide breakfast to all state school pupils aged four to 11 in England – one of Labour’s manifesto pledges. The pilot will be used to find out the best way of rolling out the policy.
Rachel Reeves announced a breakfast club rollout. Pic: iStock
The chancellor said it is “an investment in our young people, an investment in reducing child poverty and investment in our economy”.
“I will judge my time in office a success if I know that at the end of it, there are working class kids from ordinary backgrounds who lead richer lives, their horizons expanded, able to achieve and to thrive,” she added.
About 12% of state schools in England already offer a taxpayer-subsidised breakfast club for schools with at least 40% of pupils from income-deprived areas through the National School Breakfast Club Programme (NSBP). But this funding ends in July 2025.
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PayPal says the US Securities and Exchange Commission has abandoned its investigation into the payment giant’s US-dollar stablecoin.
PayPal said in an April 29 regulatory filing that the SEC concluded its investigation into PayPal USD (PYUSD) and wouldn’t be taking any action.
The company said it received a subpoena from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement over its stablecoin in November 2023.
“The subpoena requests the production of documents. We are cooperating with the SEC in connection with this request,” PayPal stated at the time.
In its latest filing, the firm said the SEC notified it in February that the agency “was closing this inquiry without enforcement action.”
PayPal has said its stablecoin is 100% redeemable for US dollars and “fully backed” by dollar deposits, including short-term treasuries and cash equivalents.
However, the stablecoin has struggled to gain momentum in a crowded market dominated by rivals Tether and Circle. PYUSD has a market capitalization of just $880 million, less than 1% of Tether’s (USDT) $148.5 billion.
PayPal’s stablecoin has seen better growth this year with a 75% increase in PYUSD circulating supply since the beginning of 2025, according to CoinGecko. It remains down 14% from its peak supply of just over $1 billion in August 2024.
Earnings on PYUSD, Coinbase partnership
That growth could be bolstered by a company announcement on April 23 introducing rewards for PYUSD in a new loyalty offering that will enable US users to earn 3.7% annually for holding the asset on the platform.
Meanwhile, on April 24, PayPal announced a partnership with Coinbase to increase the adoption of PYUSD.
“We are excited to drive new, exciting, and innovative use cases together with Coinbase and the entire cryptocurrency community, putting PYUSD at the center,” said Alex Chriss, PayPal President and CEO.
Related: PayPal to offer 3.7% yield on stablecoin balances: Report
The payments giant also reported robust first-quarter earnings and the completion of significant share repurchase activities.
The firm beat Wall Street estimates, earning $1.33 per share in the first quarter, topping analyst expectations of $1.16. Revenue rose 1% from a year before to $7.8 billion.
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Asset manager BlackRock has filed to create digital ledger technology shares from one of the firm’s money market funds, which will leverage blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for investors.
The DLT shares will track BlackRock’s BLF Treasury Trust Fund (TTTXX), which may only be purchased from BlackRock Advisors and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the firm said in its April 29 Form N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The money market fund holds over $150 million worth of assets, invested almost entirely in US Treasury bills and cash.
BlackRock said that the shares “are expected to be purchased and held through BNY, which intends to use blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for its customers.”
Unlike the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), DLT shares won’t be tokenized but will instead be used as a transparency tool to verify ownership.
BlackRock will continue to maintain traditional book-entry records as the official ownership ledger.
BlackRock didn’t propose a ticker or set a management fee for the DLT shares in its filing.
A minimum initial investment of $3 million worth of DLT is required for institutions seeking to purchase the digital shares.
BlackRock follows Fidelity’s March 21 filing to list an Ethereum-based OnChain share class, which seeks to track the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX) — an $80 million fund consisting almost entirely of US Treasury bills.
While the OnChain share class filing is pending regulatory approval, Fidelity expects it to take effect on May 30.
Wall Street heavyweights continue to explore blockchain use cases
Asset managers have increasingly turned to blockchain to tokenize Treasury bills, bonds and private credit over the past few years.
Related: BlackRock Bitcoin ETF buys $970M in BTC as inflows surge, boost market
The treasury tokenization market is currently valued at $6.16 billion, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL at $2.55 billion, while the Franklin Templeton-issued Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (BENJI) secures over $700 million worth of real-world assets, according to rwa.xyz.
Ethereum remains the chain of choice for tokenizing treasury assets, and currently houses over $4.55 billion worth, while the Stellar network and Solana round out the top three at $474.9 million and $274.5 million, respectively.
The potential of RWA tokenization has also been championed by BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, who believes the technology could revolutionize investing.
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