Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner will open the Labour conference in Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)
(PA Wire)
Labour MPs, delegates and lobbyists are descending on Liverpool for five days of policy debate, rallies and networking as the party conference begins on Sunday.
Party leader Sir Keir Starmer will head to the annual gathering boosted by a comfortable lead in the polls and a resounding by-election victory over the SNP in Scotland’s Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat.
His deputy Angela Rayner, who is also shadow levelling up secretary, will use her main speech to pledge “a decent job, a secure home and a strong community” for all under a Labour government.
Ahead of the conference, which carries the slogan “Let’s get Britain’s future back”, she said: “With five prime ministers in seven years and constant chaos and instability, Britain’s future has been left to take a back seat. The Tories’ legacy is national decline – a nation levelled down and starved of hope.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will take to the main stage on Monday to detail how Labour would revive the sluggish economy, before Sir Keir’s keynote address on Tuesday.
It comes after the Labour Party could win 42 seats in Scotland if the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election was replicated at a general election, a polling expert has said.
Labour could take 42 seats in Scotland, says polling expert
An election expert has said that if the Rutherglen result was replicated at a general election it would see the Labour party win 42 seats in Scotland and SNP just six MPs.
Prof John Curtice said it has a momentum comparable with the run-up to the party’s 1997 landslide. “That potentially has implications for the overall outcome in the general election because if that were to happen, they would find it easier to get an overall majority.”
More comments from Curtice below:
Labour could be ‘on course to win next general election’, says polling expert
Matt Mathers6 October 2023 14:25
Starmer’s stonking by-election victory in Rutherglen shows Scotland is coming home to Labour
It’s unclear why the SNP decided to gift Labour such a perfect battleground ahead of their party conference and indeed the next general election. Keir Starmer will certainly make the most of it, writes Sean O’Grady.
Read Sean’s full piece here:
Matt Mathers7 October 2023 02:30
ICYMI: Starmer’s hopes of becoming PM boosted after winning key by-election
Polling guru Professor John Curtice said the 20 per cent swing from SNP to Labour was a “remarkably good result” that put Sir Keir’s party on course to be the “dominant” force in Scotland again and win a clear majority in the Commons.
Kate Devlin and Adam Forrest report:
Matt Mathers7 October 2023 01:30
Labour’s Rachel Reeves drops flagship business announcement after Hunt intervenes
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has dropped an announcement on a new business council from her Labour conference speech after an intervention by Jeremy Hunt and senior Tories.
The Labour frontbencher was planning to use her Monday speech at the party conference in Liverpool to reveal a new advisory body involving some of the UK’s biggest companies.
Matt Mathers7 October 2023 00:30
Rape conviction rates are dismal – it’s no wonder women have lost hope
In a damning assessment, the government’s ‘rape tsar’ says she has so little faith in the police’s commitment to investigating rape, she wouldn’t even report one herself. Where does that leave the rest of us, asks Charlotte Proudman.
Read Charlotte’s full piece here:
Matt Mathers6 October 2023 23:30
Pledge to ‘make work pay’
Angela Rayner has revealed her opening speech will set out a plan to make workers better off.
The shadow secretary of state for levelling up will also talk about the opposition’s plan for secure homes to “end the Tories’ housing emergency”
Alex Ross6 October 2023 22:37
Government rape tsar quits over failures to hold attacker to account for breaching bail conditions
A government rape adviser says she quit her job over the criminal justice system’s failures to hold her alleged attacker to account for repeatedly breaching his bail conditions.
Matt Mathers6 October 2023 22:30
Revealed: Record number of rape suspects on Britain’s streets amid ‘absolute scandal’ in court delays
Latest government statistics highlight a record 1,617 rape cases where the defendant was out on bail while their case was backlogged in the crown courts – up from 318 five years ago – while the number of alleged rape victims waiting more than two years for justice has also soared to new levels.
Matt Mathers6 October 2023 21:30
Boris Johnson blasts Rishi Sunak’s plan to ban smoking for future generations
The ex prime minister said Mr Sunak’s proposal would “criminalise yet another variety of ordinary behaviour” with “no thought to the consequences for those who have to make it work”.
Matt Mathers6 October 2023 20:30
Sunak squirms on This Morning as he asks if he’s ‘ashamed’ over Braverman’s ‘hurricane’ rhetoric
The PM suggested multiculturalism was working in the UK “better than anywhere in the world” – contradicting his home secretary, who had claimed in a speech to a US think tank that it had “failed”.
Matt Mathers6 October 2023 19:25
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