The key moments of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour conference speech

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1 month ago

September 24, 2024

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Sir Keir Starmer has delivered his first Labour conference speech as prime minister, where he declared: “Change has begun”.

The prime minister gave his speech against the backdrop of a gloomy economic picture and deteriorating public services.

While Sir Keir’s speech was heavy on rhetoric and light on policy – due to the constraints the government believes it has over spending – there were a few key moments that stood out. Sky News takes you through them.

Hillsborough law to be introduced before April

Leading Sir Keir’s speech is a promise he made previously about bringing in a Hillsborough law – something he called a “law for Liverpool” in recognition of the 97 people who died at the fatal crush in Sheffield in April 1989.

The law would create a legal “duty of candour” on public authorities and officials to tell the truth and proactively cooperate with official investigations and inquiries.

Sir Keir said people “should never have needed to fight so hard to get” the policy but insisted it “will be delivered” by Labour.

Politics latest: ‘Every pensioner will be better off,’ claims PM

He said the law would not only help deliver justice for Hillsborough families but also the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal, the infected blood scandal, the Windrush scandal and the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

He said Hillsborough Law will include criminal sanctions and be introduced to parliament before the next anniversary in April.

Sausages slip up

Addressing the escalating conflict in Lebanon – where authorities say 558 people have been killed by Israeli strikes – Sir Keir urged both sides to exercise “restraint” and focus on “de-escalation at the border”.

The prime minister told the audience: “I call again for restraint and de-escalation at the border between Lebanon and Israel. Again, all parties to pull back from the brink.”

But in an apparent slip of the tongue, Sir Keir repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as well as the “return of the sausages” – which he quickly corrected to the “hostages” taken by Hamas.

He also reaffirmed his commitment to the two-state solution, with a “recognised Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel”.

He said he would take the same message to the UN General Assembly in New York, which he will be attending tomorrow.

Homes for heroes

Another key moment in the speech came when Sir Keir pledged to “house all veterans in need” as a means to “repay those who served us”.

The prime minister said there was an “injustice hiding in plain sight on our streets, in every town and city in this country”.

He described the nation’s veterans as “people who were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, who put their lives on the line to protect us all – but who will not have a safe place to sleep tonight”.

“We cannot stand by and let this happen anymore,” he added.

Defence of winter fuel cut

Much of this year’s conference has been dominated by the government’s controversial decision to scrap winter fuel payments for the majority of pensioners.

The criticism has been even more stinging in light of the row over Sir Keir and other cabinet ministers accepting a number of freebies and perks from companies and donors.

But Sir Keir was resolute in his speech that the move was the right thing to do and attempted to reassure those who may fear they will not be able to heat their homes this winter.

“I understand many of the decisions we must take will be unpopular,” he told the audience.

“If they were popular, they’d be easy, but the cost of filling that black hole in our public finances, that will be shared fairly.”

He continued: “If you can’t take that on faith, perhaps because you’re concerned about the winter fuel allowance, then I get that.

“Stabilising our economy is the first step of this long-term plan, the only way we keep prices low, cut NHS waiting lists, and secure the triple lock so that every pensioner in this country, every pensioner, will be better off with Labour.”

PM delivers strong message to rioters

Migration – historically a tricky area for Labour – also featured in Sir Keir’s speech, where he said he has “always accepted” that concerns about it are “legitimate”.

But he said the debate cannot and should not be about the “worth of migrants” but about the “control of migration”.

He argued that those who were involved in the riots in the summer were not the same people who had legitimate concerns about migration.

“No, people concerned about immigration were not doing that because they understand that this country, this democratic country, is built on the rule of law, the ballot box, the common understanding that we debate our differences,” he said.

“We do not settle them with violent thuggery, and that racism is vile, so to those of you who equivocate about this, I simply say: the country sees you and it rejects you.”

Heckler tackles Sir Keir over Gaza

Towards the end of the prime minister’s speech, a heckler, later identified as 18-year-old Labour member Daniel Riley, confronted Sir Keir over the government’s stance on the Middle East.

The protester could be heard shouting about “the children of Gaza”.

The prime minister responded by telling the audience: “This guy’s obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference” – a reference to how the party has changed under his leadership.

He adds: “While he’s been protesting, we’ve been changing the party. That’s why we’ve got a Labour government.”

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Girl, 13, ‘critical’ after being found stabbed next to A63 in Hessle – as six teenagers arrested

Published

3 hours ago

November 2, 2024

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Girl, 13, 'critical' after being found stabbed next to A63 in Hessle - as six teenagers arrested

Six teenagers have been arrested after a 13-year-old girl was found with multiple stab wounds on a roadside near Hull.

Police said she was found around 6.50am on the A63 in Hessle with “life-threatening injuries” including “lacerations to her neck, abdomen, chest and back”.

Four boys and two girls – aged between 14 and 17 – were quickly arrested in a nearby wooded area and are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder.

Members of the public came to the girl’s aid before emergency services arrived, Humberside Police said.

Detective Superintendent Simon Vickers said they “believe the attackers knew the victim” and the circumstances are still being investigated.

“The girl remains in hospital in critical condition and her family are being supported by officers at this difficult time,” he added.

The boys arrested are aged 14, 15, 16 and 17, and the girls 14 and 15.

Cordons are in place around a wooded area off Ferriby High Road while investigations continue.

Police said they would have an increased presence in the area over the weekend and have asked anyone with information or video to get in touch, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously.

UK

Robert Jenrick or Kemi Badenoch to be crowned Tory leader today – but whoever wins contest faces daunting task

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3 hours ago

November 2, 2024

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Robert Jenrick or Kemi Badenoch to be crowned Tory leader today - but whoever wins contest faces daunting task

The next leader of the Conservative party will be announced today, following a run-off between Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick.

The winner will replace Rishi Sunak as the leader of the opposition, after he led the party to a crushing election defeat in July, losing almost two thirds of its MPs.

His successor faces the daunting task of rebuilding the Tory party after years of division, scandal and economic turbulence, which saw Labour eject them from power by a landslide.

Politics latest: Budget given ‘clean bill of health’

Voting by tens of thousands of party members, who need to have joined at least 90 days ago, closed on Thursday. Both candidates have claimed the result will be close.

The Conservatives do not disclose how many members the party has, but the figure was about 172,000 in 2022, and research suggests they are disproportionately affluent, older white men.

Both candidates are seen as on the party’s right wing. Kemi Badenoch, 44, is the former trade secretary, who was born in London to middle-class Nigerian parents but spent most of her childhood in Lagos.

After moving back to the UK aged 16, she stayed with a family friend while taking her A-levels, and has spoken of her time working at McDonald’s as a teenager.

Having studied computer science at Sussex University, she then worked as a software engineer before entering London politics and becoming MP for Saffron Walden in Essex in 2017.

Ms Badenoch prides herself on being outspoken and has said the Conservatives lost because they “talked right and governed left”. But her critics paint her as abrasive and prone to misspeaking.

At the Conservative Party conference, a crucial staging post in the contest, she began her speech which followed three other male candidates by saying: “Nice speeches, boys, but I think you all know I’m the one everyone’s been waiting for.”

Her rival Robert Jenrick, 42, has been on a political journey. Elected as a Cameroon Conservative in 2014, he was one of the rising star ministers who swung behind Boris Johnson as prime minister and was later a vocal supporter of Rishi Sunak.

But he resigned as immigration minister in December 2023, claiming Sunak’s government was breaking its promises to cut immigration.

The MP for Newark in Nottinghamshire says he had a “working-class” upbringing in Wolverhampton. He read history at Cambridge University and worked at Christie’s auctioneers before winning a by-election.

After a long ministerial career where he was seen as mild-mannered, he is said to have been “radicalised” by his time at the Home Office and has focused his campaign on a promise to slash immigration and leave the European Convention on Human Rights to “stand for our nation and our culture, our identity and our way of life”.

He has put forward more policies than his rival, but attracted criticism for some of his claims – including that Britain’s former colonies owe the Empire a “debt of gratitude”.

A survey of party members by the website Conservative Home last week put Kemi Badenoch in the lead by 55 points to Mr Jenrick’s 31 with polls still open.

James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary and seen as a more centrist candidate was knocked out of the race last month. One of his supporters, the Conservative peer and former Scotland leader Ruth Davidson, has predicted neither Mr Jenrick nor Ms Badenoch will stay as leader until the next general election.

She told the Sky News Electoral Dysfunction podcast: “I’ve now voted for Robert Jenrick, who I don’t think will win. I struggle to believe that the person that’s the next leader of the Tory party is going to take us into the next election in five years’ time and I struggle to believe that they’re going to leave the leadership at a time of their own choosing.”

Henry Hill, deputy editor of ConHome, said the contest which Tory officials decided would take almost three months, has not led to enough scrutiny – because the MP rounds of voting took so long.

“We know much less [about them] than I think we should”, he said. “The problem with this contest is the party decided to go really long, but at the same time, they confined the membership vote – with just the final two – to just three weeks, and ballots dropped halfway through that process.

“We had months and months with loads of candidates in the race, but also that was the MP rounds and you’d think the MPs will have a chance to get to know these people already. For the actual choice the members are going to be making, there has been barely any time to scrutinise that.

He added: “I think the party remembers Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak taking weeks to take lumps out of each other in 2022 and wanted to avoid that. But it means the two campaigns haven’t really been attacking each other and that tends to be how you expose people’s weaknesses.”

After 14 years in government under five prime ministers, it is not since David Cameron in 2005 that the party has elected a leader to go into opposition – with a long road until the next general election.

Veteran ex-MP Graham Brady, who served as chair of the backbench 1922 committee, told Sky News that the position was more hopeful than after the 1997 landslide.

He said: “The biggest challenge for a leader of the opposition in these circumstances is just to be heard, to be noticed. I came into the House of Commons in 1997 at the time of that huge Blair landslide.

“We worked very, very hard in opposition during that parliament, and at the next general election [in 2001], we made a net gain of one seat.

“Now, there is a huge difference between now and 1997. The Blair government remained very popular and Tony Blair personally remained very popular through that whole parliament and beyond. And in 100 days or so, Keir Starmer has already fallen way behind.

“So I think we’ve got a great opportunity. I don’t think we’re up against an insuperable challenge, but it’s a big challenge.”

Kate Fall, now Baroness Fall, worked with Lord Cameron in opposition and later in Downing Street when he was prime minister in the coalition government. She said the next leader needed to keep the party “united and disciplined”.

“The first thing is to think about why we lost. The second thing is what do we have to say? Then they need to be agile, they need to be reactive, but pick their fight, not fight over everything. They also need to get out and about,” she said.

Lord Cameron travelled around the country holding question and answer sessions called Cameron Direct. “When you’re prime minister, you can’t do that as much as you like. But as leader of the opposition you can get out, talk to people, we thought it was very trendy to have a podcast and so on.”

She says this week’s budget gives the next leader “an ideological divide” to get into, but warns that the next leader must not risk alienating former Tories who switched to Labour and the Lib Dems.

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The leader of the opposition will cut their teeth at weekly Prime Minister’s Questions sessions opposite Sir Keir Starmer and respond to set piece events such as the budget.

They will need to get the party’s campaign machine ready for the local elections in England in May 2025, Scottish elections in 2026 and the next general election expected in 2029.

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NHS pilots new iPhone adapter to check patients for throat cancer

Published

3 hours ago

November 2, 2024

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NHS pilots new iPhone adapter to check patients for throat cancer

The NHS has begun trialling a new iPhone adapter which can check whether someone has throat cancer.

It is hoped the device will allow thousands of patients to be given the all-clear from the disease within hours – rather than days or weeks – as well as helping to detect cases early.

People suspected of having throat cancer are usually given an endoscopy, which involves a long, thin tube with a camera inside being passed through their mouth or nose to look inside their body.

The endoscope-i adapter, which can be attached to one of Apple’s smart phones, includes a 32mm lens endoscope eyepiece and an accompanying app.

It allows nurses to capture endoscopy footage in high definition before sharing it with specialists who can report back to patients directly.

The NHS said an initial pilot by the North Midlands University Hospitals NHS Trust had helped reassure more than 1,800 low-risk patients that they did not have throat cancer, with those tested receiving their results “within 23 hours”.

The gadget also helped detect cancer in around one in a hundred of those tested.

Officials said no cancers were missed during the trial.

A spokesperson said it could be used more widely across the country “in diagnostic centres and community settings”, reducing the need for patients to go to hospitals, freeing up resources and reducing waiting times.

Dr Cally Palmer, national cancer director at NHS England, said: “Detecting cancer early is key to providing treatment as soon as possible to help give patients the best chance of survival.

“For those needing tests to investigate suspected cancer, it can be an extremely worrying time and being able to rule out the disease sooner can make a huge difference for people and their families.”

There are around 250,000 urgent referrals for suspected head and neck cancer each year, according to NHS England.

However, only 5% of these are diagnosed with the disease.

Janet Hennessy, 76, from Stoke-on-Trent, said she thought the device was “absolutely brilliant” after she took part in the trial.

She added: “When you have a procedure done and you’ve got to go back home and wait two or three weeks, even if you think there’s nothing there, you’re still thinking about it and it worries you and your family.”

Meanwhile, Kyle Jones, 31, was diagnosed using the gadget after being referred to Royal Stoke Hospital by his GP.

He said: “I remember being confused at the time due to my only symptom being a hoarse voice. It was like I had been singing too much at a gig the night before.”

Mr Jones said it was a “massive shock” to be informed he had cancer but was reassured by medics. He had his voicebox removed to prevent the disease from spreading further.

He added: “I’m scared to even think where I’d be or what could have happened without this device.

“With how fast that my cancer developed after the first appointment to the stage where I needed a big laryngectomy surgery it makes me so grateful that it was picked up and in time and I believe that has saved my life.”