Nigel Farage ‘doesn’t like Britain’, Starmer tells Labour conference – as it happened

David Lammy, the deputy PM, has retracted a claim he made earlier about Nigel Farage being someone who “once flirted with Hitler Youth”.

Speaking earlier today to the BBC, in response to a question about whether Farage was racist, Lammy said:

This is calling out his policies, his policies that would line people up who have a right to be in this country, who might be Indian, who might be Nigerian, and send them home. It’s not British. It doesn’t respect our values …

I’m not going to play the man. I’m playing the ball, as our leader did.

I will leave it for the public to come to their own judgments about someone who once flirted with Hitler Youth when he was younger.

As PA Media reports, Lammy seemed to be referring to an apparent reference to allegations that emerged in 2013 that Farage sang Nazi songs as a schoolboy. Farage denied the allegations at the time, which stemmed from a 1981 letter reportedly written by his teacher claiming the schoolboy and others marched through a village “shouting Hitler Youth songs”.

Later Lammy said he accepted Farage has denied this.

And this is what Keir Starmer said in his speech about the NHS Online proposals. (See 8.48am.)

Every day the NHS delivers countless appointments.

And for the vast majority…

A face-to-face consultation is right…

And we will never take that away for those who want it.

But think about a single mum…

Juggling kids and work…

Trying to find time to speak to a specialist.

Or someone in their later years…

Living in a rural community…

Miles from a hospital…

Who needs a check-up for a suspected eye condition.

Why not have a doctor see you at home?

In your living room – on an iPad – talking to you?

No queues...

No three-hour trip on the bus

No cancellation letters that arrive after the appointment date…

Wouldn’t that be good, conference?

And not just the convenience – the better care.

Think about it.

That person with the eye condition…

She could access the top specialist in the country…

Even if she lives miles away.

Care - no longer tied to doctors in your local area.

Which means – you can see someone more quickly, at a time that suits you.

But also – the system can deliver more, much more…

Up to 8.5 million extra appointments.

Imagine what that could do to waiting times?

And now conference…

Imagine no more…

Because today I can announce…

A completely digital NHS trust…

NHS Online…

That will offer millions of appointments…

Convenient appointments…

Appointments you choose…

A new chapter in the story of our NHS…

Harnessing the future…

Patients in control…

Waiting times – cut…

For every single person in this country…

That’s national renewal…

One of the most revealing passages in Keir Starmer’s speech was the one where he explained why he wanted to drop having 50% of children going to university as a target. (See 2.44pm.) It is worth quoting in full. Here it is, as set out in the text from Labour.

I officially became “the first in my family to go to university”.

I was put on that pedestal.

Working class families will know exactly what I mean.

I thought about this…

When I visited those frigates on the Clyde.

The apprentices - they took me on board…

They showed me how they were rewiring it…

Miles and miles of wire…

Difficult, high-skilled work…

Really complicated…

And of course vital for our country.

I thought about my sister…

A care-worker…

She works with adults with Down Syndrome.

It’s amazing work…

I know I could never do it like she does…

Also – vital for our country.

And then I think about my brother…

He was failed – he had difficulties learning…

But he was badly failed by the education system…

Put to one side…

Barely even seen.

Conference, some politicians say…

I want every child to have the same opportunities that I had…

You hear that in Westminster a lot.

But that’s not me.

No, what I want…

Is a Britain where people are treated with the dignity they deserve…

For making different choices…

Choices our country needs…

Choices we should value…

Choices that deserve our respect.

And so…

While you will never hear me denigrate the aspiration to go to university….

I don’t think the way we currently measure success in education…

That ambition to get 50% of kids to uni…

I don’t think that’s right for our times.

Because if you are a kid…

Or a parent of a kid…

Who chooses an apprenticeship …

What does it say to you?

Do we genuinely – as a country - afford them the same respect?

Because we should…

But I can’t help feeling that my dad was right.

So, conference…

Today – I can announce …

We will scrap that target and replace it with a new ambition…

That two-thirds of our children should go either to university…

Or take a gold standard apprenticeship.

Torsten Bell, a minister in the Treasury and the DWP, has posted this in a tweet about Nigel Farage’s response to the Keir Starmer speech. (See 4.04pm.)

Snowflake. Farage doesn’t like to be held to account for his racist policies, his divisive rhetoric and his grifter politics - well bad luck because there is lots more to come

Rachel Reeves is to lift the two-child benefit limit in the budget, a key demand of Labour MPs and child poverty campaigners, with officials exploring options of a new tapered system, Jessica Elgot reports.

Related: Rachel Reeves to lift two-child benefit cap in November’s budget

Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.

Keir Starmer used to make a “greener, more dynamic Britain” a key aim in speeches he made at the annual Labour conference.

Today’s speech made very little mention of climate or the environment, which has disappointed green groups.

Throughout the conference, Labour MPs have said that the party needs to renew its positive message on climate change and the green industrial revolution, as environmental issues are popular with voters and it is a clear mission for Labour members to campaign for.

Asad Rehman, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, said it was a mistake to talk about inequality and renewal without linking it to climate change. He said:

Talking about renewal will sound hollow to those struggling to make ends meet without the concrete policies that’ll actually lift people out of hardship while restoring our local areas and protecting the planet. There was very little mention of climate and nature in the prime minister’s speech and how deeply entwined the environmental crisis is with tackling inequality.

David Walsh, head of public affairs at WWF added:

If the prime minister is serious about building a fairer country, then climate and nature must be part of that promise.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband is will speak tomorrow, and as the Guardian reports, he will be renewing his ‘Green New Deal’ policy, so perhaps that will placate the green campaigners.

Related: Labour must fight rightwing billionaires undermining net zero, says Ed Miliband

Here is some response to the speech from thinktanks.

From Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director at IPPR, a leftwing thinktank

Keir Starmer is correct to take the fight to the populist right and to tell an alternative story about what it means to be British, fighting for the politics of inclusion, not division.

Today, the PM set out the start of a big progressive vision. But progressives have much more to do, to show they can answer the big questions that voters are asking – whether raising working peoples’ incomes or building more cohesive communities.

From Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a thinktank focusing on race and identity issues

It is striking that Keir Starmer is at his most convincing when speaking personally and to his own party, about the case he wants to make to the country.

Today’s speech set out a balanced vision: defending the principle of asylum as well as secure borders, challenging racism while addressing those concerns that are legitimate.

When he strikes that balance, Starmer is able to speak from his own sense of patriotism, bridging values and audiences in a way this government has often struggled to do this summer over the ‘Island of strangers’ row and immigration white paper.

From Theo Bertram, director of the Social Market Foundation, a centrist thinktank

This was a speech in which the Prime Minister told his opponents and critics on both left and right that now is no time for a populist.

The speech set out dividing lines with Reform between what he describes as the politics of division and decline, and a Labour government – and a state - on the side of people.

He set out a position on immigration that was tougher than previous Labour governments, at the same time as attacking Reform for going too far.

On the economy, he stood his ground: slow and steady stability remains the basis for growth and improving living standards in contrast to wishful thinking, the quick fix or miracle cure of a wealth tax.

It remains to be seen whether this is enough to convince the country that this is the radical change they voted for in 2024, rather than incrementalism; whether renewal means more of the same, or Britain rebuilt.

From Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, a leftwing thinktank

It was good to hear the prime minister focus on delivering a fairer economy for all, and the importance of a ‘muscular state’ with adequate public investment.

But if he is serious about renewal, then we cannot wait on growth that may never come. The government needs to free itself from its fiscal straitjacket that allows small changes in forecasting to determine how many children go hungry at night.

The Liberal Democrats have welcomed Keir Starmer’s speech. This is the statement, in full, that Ed Davey has put out.

I’m glad Keir Starmer is finally stepping up the fight against Nigel Farage, and I hope this will mark the end of his government parroting Farage and copying his divisive politics.

But other opposition parties are much more critical.

For the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch issued this response to Keir Starmer’s speech.

Keir Starmer has all but confirmed that tax rises are coming.

The prime minister could have used his speech to own up to the mistakes he’s made on the economy, admit the country was living beyond its means, and set out a plan to avoid further punishing tax hikes this autumn, but he did not.

In Labour’s first year, inflation has doubled, economic growth has halved and unemployment has risen almost every single month. Everyone in Britain will now pay the price for Starmer’s weakness with a smaller economy and higher taxes.

(In fact, there was very little about the economy in the speech. It is clear tax rises are coming in the budget, but nothing in the speech changed altered what we already know about this.)

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said:

Keir Starmer’s speech completely failed to face up to the fact that Labour promised people ‘change’ but have caused more chaos. Labour promised better, but from rising energy bills to soaring food prices, people feel that things have become even worse. People remember those broken Labour promises, they won’t remember this speech.

This is from Zack Polanski, the Green party leader.

Starmer says Britain is at a fork. But he’s spoon fed policies by Reform - it’s clear the direction hes taking us all.

For bold politics- taxing the super rich, nationalising our public services, funding our NHS, Greens stand ready to replace Labour.

And this is from Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster.

The prime minister is living in fantasy land. Seven months from the Senedd election, Labour isn’t even in the game in Wales.

Neither Starmer nor Farage offer the solutions Wales needs. One takes Wales for granted; the other would tear our communities apart.

See 4.04pm for the Reform UK response.

Labour has sent out a news release with a bit more detail about the target Keir Starmer announced in his speech for two-thirds of young people to go to university, or to get a gold-standard apprenticeship. It says:

The prime minister set out his plan to build a world-class further education system that will unlock opportunity across the UK.

At the heart of the prime minister’s reforms is a decision to scrap the ambition for 50% of young people to go to university. Starmer replaced this with a new target: for two-thirds of young people to get higher skills, either through university, further education or taking on a gold standard apprenticeship. This target will include at least 10% of young people pursuing higher technical education or apprenticeships that the economy needs by 2040, a near-doubling of today’s figure.

In his speech, the prime minister highlighted how these changes will not only help to build a Britain fit for the future, but will mean that technical qualifications, undervalued and overlooked by previous Conservative governments, are afforded the same respect as university degrees …

Forming part of the government’s programme of national renewal, these changes will be underpinned by a drive to raise standards. There will be higher quality teaching in colleges and 14 new technical excellence colleges to equip young people with the technical qualifications or apprenticeships that our economy needs.

To support these reforms, the government will also invest nearly £800m extra into funding for 16– to 19-year-olds next year (2026-7). Coming from the existing spending review settlement, this funding will support an additional 20,000 students and make our further education system world-class.

Labour says further details will be set out in the post-16 skills white paper.

Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor.

Nigel Farage has vowed to “teach Labour a lesson” in elections next May, as he accused Keir Starmer of threatening the safety of Reform supporters by branding countless millions of them racist.

In a response to Starmer’s speech, the Reform UK leader claimed that Starmer saying Reform policies were racist was “inciting and encouraging” the radical left to take action against Reform officials, supporters, voters and sympathisers.

“In the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, this is an absolute disgrace,” he said.

Starmer has said the Reform policy of abolishing settled status for migrants is racist, and warned against the party’s “politics of grievance” that divides communities. He has not said that either Farage himself or Reform supporters or voters are racist.

But Farage claimed Starmer was saying this by implication. He said:

Reform want illegal migrants deported from our country. As I speak, a further 400 have crossed the English Channel today.

Reform want the benefits system to be for UK citizens, for British citizens only, not for foreign-born nationals. Reform want foreign criminals removed from our country ASAP.

Labour says these policies are racist and immoral, and, by implication, Reform supporters, Reform voters, Reform sympathisers, are racist too.

Yes, if you think we should patrol our borders, you are, by the definition of the prime minister and his cabinet, all racists.

Now, I don’t normally worry about abuse being thrown at me. I’ve got kind of used to it over the course of the last few years, but to accuse countless millions of being racist is a very, very low blow.

Why? Well, this language will incite and encourage the radical left. I’m thinking of Antifa and other organisations like that. It directly threatens the safety of our elected officials and our campaigners, and, frankly, in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, I think this is an absolute disgrace.

Sometimes a leader needs to use a big speech to explain who they are, sometimes it is about explaining what they will do, but this was a speech where Keir Starmer set out to tell the nation what he believes. And, in immediate terms, it was a success. After a rather rambling and unfocused start, and a brief passage where the speech lost momentum, Starmer suddenly hit his stride halfway through, when he finally hit out at divisive, quasi-racist populism and spoke up for patriotic, mainstream inclusiveness.

It was a response to six months or more of politics driven by Nigel Farage and Reform UK stoking up concerns about illegal immigration, and all immigration, protests outside asylum hotels and flag mania – taking the public debate to levels of toxicity not seen since in the UK since Enoch Powell.

Many progressives despaired at Labour’s apparent cringe towards this, and Starmer’s reluctance to take it on. For weeks No 10 said little or nothing as ethno-nationalism took hold. Now, at last, Starmer has firmly taken a side.

Quite how willing to sustain this remains to be seen. Some on the left argue that Starmer can’t credibly call out the sinister undercurrent of Reform UK when his own home secretary also wants to limit access to indefinite leave to remain. And, of course, Starmer should probably have been saying much of this six months ago. But Labour MPs now have a script to use against Farage. That won’t quell all the concerns about Starmer’s leadership, but no single speech ever does, and this one should buy him credit.

It was not a speech with much policy (a potential drawback). But, where there was policy (see 2.40pm and 2.44pm), it had a strong, working-class tilt. Starmer talked about “working people” rather than working class, but it was clear what he meant. He leads what is described as the most working-class cabinet in history, but has in the past been a bit squeamish about sounding overtly classist. Not so much now. This was another example of how this was a speech about definition, and it should help him in the fight against Nigel Farage, described by Labour as being allied to far-right, global billionaires.

Earlier this year, Starmer gave a speech in which he said there was a risk of Britain becoming “an island of strangers” because of immigration. He later said the passage, which loosely echoed a phrase in the Rivers of Blood speech, was a mistake. Today, in his peroration (see 3.14pm), he repudiated that line entirely, saying the notion that Britain could never be a community “goes against everything I stand for, everything I observe, everything I understand about this great country that I love”. It took a while for the full correction to come, but when it did, this afternoon, it sounded authentic.

Starmer says everyone has a responsibility to rebuild Britain.

There are limits to what the state can do on its own. In the end, we really are all in it together.

You will never hear that from the politicians with grievance, the attraction of unity. That’s something they will never understand. They will never hold out their hand, as I do now, to people who may see the world differently …

So if you are a patriot, whether you vote Labour or not, if you want to stand against grievance and renew Britain, then this is your fight too.

Because even in a world this dangerous, I do think the politics of grievance is the biggest threat we face because it attacks who we are, an attempt to turn us into a place where we look at our neighbours in our community, people who may or may not look different to us and we no longer see them as fellow partners in the project of Britain.

Starmer finally mentions the Tories. “Do you remember them?” He says he does not know if they believe in the politics of grievance, but they did not stand up for people when they were in office.

And here is the peroration.

People say, people say, conference that a nation like ours can’t be a community, that it’s too diverse, too divided.

I reject that. That goes against everything I stand for, everything I observe, everything I understand about this great country that I love.

So no matter how many people tell me that it can’t be done, I believe Britain can come together, that we can pursue a shared destination, that we can unite around the common good.

That is my ambition, the purpose of this government: end decline, reform our public services, grow our economy from the grassroots and with resolve, with respect, with a flag in our hands, we will renew this country until we can say with total conviction that Britain is built for all.

And Starmer says he does not accept that Britain is broken.

There are so many opportunities to make a difference. The energy of the future. We’re backing it. Carbon capture here in Merseyside, the Celtic Freeport in South Wales, offshore wind turbines made and built in Humberside, brilliant scientists in the heart of middle England developing nuclear fusion. Is that broken Britain, conference?

Look at the investment tech companies queueing up to back this country, saying that we are indispensable for the AI future. Now, those companies can invest anywhere in the world, but they’re choosing us. They’re choosing Hartlepool, Warrington, Belfast, East Midlands. Is that broken Britain?

Those free trade deals we struck with India, with the US, with our fellow Europeans, a signal to the world that Britain is back, that stability is returned. Is that broken Britain, conference?

Or our ironclad, never-wavering support for the brave people of Ukraine, the yellow and blue flag flying on churches and booth halls the length and front of the cup. Is that broken Britain, conference?

Starmer runs through a series of other examples, mentioning volunteers, including the person who scrubbed off that racist graffiti in York.

Starmer goes on to attack the Reform UK plan to get rid of indefinite leave to remain.

And, conference, if you say or imply that people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin … that the people who have lived here for generations, raised their children here, build their lives here, working in our schools, our hospitals, running businesses, our neighbours, if you say they should now be deported, then mark my words – we will fight you with everything we have, because you are the enemy of national renewal.

Starmer says it is wrong to think Labour can ignore people’s concerns about the asylum system.

People are compassionate, but they want secure borders, he says.

The government is determined to stop the people-smuggling gangs, he says.

But there is a line the government won’t cross.

And it isn’t just Farage who crosses it. There are also people who should know better, sowing fear and discord across our country.

And then when we call it out, they pretend that we’re criticising reasonable concerns about immigration.

We have seen that trick, conference.

So let us spell it out once and for all. Controlling migration is a reasonable goal, but if you throw bricks and smash up private property, that’s not legitimate.

Free speech is a British value, and we have guarded it for centuries. But if you incite racist violence and hatred that is not expressing concern, it’s criminal.

This great party is proud of our flags. Yet if they’re painted alongside graffiti telling a Chinese takeaway owner to go home, that’s not pride. That’s racism.

Starmer recalls a visit to Oldham when he was a young MP when a woman showed him photographs of her attending an Asian neighbour’s wedding. Eventually he worked out she was doing that because she wanted to show she was not racist, before she raised concerns with him.

What was really happening is that she an ordinary working-class woman from Oldham, a Labour voter, felt that she had to prove to a Labour politician that she wasn’t racist before she could even bring up the issues in her community.

I’ve carried that with me through all the bad years, conference.

Whatever our intentions, we had become a party that patronised working people, and that is why we changed the party.

Starmer recalls the England match at Wembley in 1996. He goes on:

I’m not going to pretend I would enjoy it if England lost to Scotland or Wales. The union does have some limits, but I can say I’m not just proud of the union jack and the cross of St George. I’m also proud of the saltire, of the red dragon, proud of our union, the astonishing relationship between our four great nations, four different nations.

Yes, the four nations that time and again, have been through fire together, built so much together, a country forged by the solidarity of working people.

So let’s fly all [flags], conference, because they’re our flags. They belong to all of us, and we will never surrender them.

Let us unite our country behind them, because this is no time for dividers. This is the time for bringing the whole country together.

That is how we will fight next year’s elections – as patriots of our great nations.

Starmer talks about going to university from a working-class background. And he talks about how people like his brother, who had learning difficulties, were left behind.

He says he wants everyone to be respected. He goes on.

I don’t think the way we currently measure success in education, that ambition to get 50% of kids to uni, I don’t think that’s right for our times.

He says he will end that aim.

If you’re a kid or a parent of a kid who chooses an apprenticeship, what does it say to you? Do we genuinely, as a country, afford them the same respect? Because we should …

So, conference, today, I can announce we will scrap that target and replace it with a new ambition that two-thirds of our children should go either to university or take a gold-standard apprenticeship.

Starmer is now talking about the extension of childcare.

The last government neglected this, he says. That meant inequality was “baked in for life”.

So our childcare provision is a gamechanger, giving every child the best start in life, every single child equal at the starting line of their education.

Starmer says that is why he made this decision.

That’s why we made the tough decisions. And I make no apologies if they tilt towards working people, because it’s working people who paid the price of Tory decline.

Starmer is now speeding up.

That is why we invested in our NHS. Fired up Great British Energy. Stood up for British Steel, new protections for renters, sick pay for the less well-off, fire and rehire finished, zero-hours contract scrapped, investment in Scotland and Wales, rebuilding our schools, new homes, new towns, new trainlines, publicly owned of course, and a proper living wage. For us the culmination of a long journey for our movement … extending free school meals, 100,000 children lifted out of poverty, the first step, the first step on our journey to end child poverty.

This gets a standing ovation.

Starmer says there was too much complacency in the past.

We’ve placed too much faith in globalisation – the establishment across so many institutions in hock to its lazy assumption that immigration is all we need to give us the workers, infrastructure will always be there because we built it decades ago, the world always on hand to give us the goods, it doesn’t matter if our industry leaves.

Doesn’t matter if we don’t train our young people. Doesn’t matter if wealth creation is hoarded by just a few communities.

Well, conference, look at our world now, because in our age of insecurity, we can see now that it does matter.

We do need to put our security first. We do need to unlock the potential of every community.

Starmer says growth is essential.

It comes back to growth. So much of it comes back to economic growth.

In fact, I’ll say it now so there’s no doubt. The defining mission of this government is to grow the economy, improve living standards, and change the way we create wealth.

An economy that grows not just from the top, but from the grassroots, because growth is the pound in your pocket, it is more money for trips, meals out, the little things that bring joy to our lives, the peace of mind that comes from economic security, but it is also the antidote to division.

Starmer says Labour must not defend the status quo.

[People are] losing faith. They’re ground down. Politics has made them question Britain, and could you blame them?

They’ve been nothing but patient. They lived through austerity, Brexit, Covid, played by the rules, kept their side of the bargain, but time and again, politics ducked the challenge of renewal.

Their high street, their pubs, their youth clubs, the places that shape a life, that create a common memory – struggling against the tide of decline.

That is why we must never, never find ourselves defending a status quo that manifestly failed working people.

Starmer turns to Gaza. He says he welcomes the US peace initiative.

I strongly support efforts to end the fighting, release every hostage and urgently scale up aid into Gaza.

All sides must now come together to bring this initiative into reality, because we must restart the hope of a two-state solution, a safe and secure Israel alongside the long promised Palestinian state, a state that this country now recognises.

Starmer is now moving on, and talking about the mission of the government.

We can all see that the country faces a choice, a defining choice.

Britain stands at a fork in the road.

We could choose decency, or we could choose division; renewal or decline; a country proud of its values, in control of its future, or one that succumbs against the grain of our history to the politics of grievance.

It is a test, a fight for the soul of our country, every bit as big as rebuilding Britain after the war.

And we must all rise to this challenge.

This task will involving fighting racism, he says.

Starmer says the Hillsborough law will help many other people who have experienced injustice because “the British state consistently refused to see injustice because of who the victims are – because they’re working-class, they’re black, they’re women and girls”.

The state will be accountable to working people, because now injustice has no place to hide.

Margaret Aspinall, the Hillsborough campaigner, who has known Keir Starmer for many years, is on the stage.

She says she is here to explain why the Hillsborough law – the public office (accountability) bill – is so important.

She says:

I say to all of you, cover-ups have been going on for centuries. For decades, it’s going it’s been going on, pre-Hillsborough, since Hillsborough, even to this day.

She says the law introduced by the government will change that, because it will stop cover-ups.

She says she is no public speaker. She does not speak from a script. She speaks from the heart, she says.

She says she has been let down by previous prime ministers.

She says she can now say “I’ve met a prime minister who’s kept his promise.”

Here are extracts from Keir Starmer’s speech that were released in advance.

On uniting the country

No matter how many people tell me it can’t be done, I believe Britain can come together. We can pursue a shared destination. We can unite around a common good. That’s my ambition, the purpose of this government. End decline, reform our public services, grow our economy from the grassroots.

On the choice facing Britain

We can all see our country faces a choice, a defining choice. Britain stands at a fork in the road. We can choose decency. Or we can choose division. Renewal or decline. A country - proud of its values, in control of its future or one that succumbs, against the grain of our history, to the politics of grievance.

It is a test. A fight for the soul of our country, every bit as big as rebuilding Britain after the war, and we must all rise to this challenge. And yet we need to be clear that our path, the path of renewal, it’s long, it’s difficult, it requires decisions that are not cost-free or easy. Decisions - that will not always be comfortable for our party.

Yet at the end of this hard road there will be a new country, a fairer country, a land of dignity and respect. Everyone seen, everyone valued, wealth creation in every single community, working people in control of their public services, the mindless bureaucracy, that chokes enterprise, removed - so we can build and keep on building.

On the mission of the government

The defining mission of this government is to grow the economy, improve living standards and change the way we create wealth

An economy that grows not just from the top but from the grassroots. Because growth is the pound in your pocket. It is more money for trips, meals out, the little things that bring joy to all our lives, the peace of mind that comes from economic security.

But it is also the antidote to division. That’s the most important aspect of national renewal. The way you grow an economy, not just how much, but who and where benefits that can either build a nation or it can pull it apart.

And in the world we must face the threats we must defeat, Britain needs an economy that unites, every person, every community, every great nation on these islands. Standing together, as so often in our past, facing down the threats of a volatile world.

Yesterday Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary who is running to be deputy Labour leader, posted this on social media.

The choice is clear.

Labour’s heart and soul in government with me as Deputy Leader.

Or more distractions, infighting and noise.

Now is the time to unite, put our values into action and take the fight to Reform.

Today Lucy Powell, the former Commons leader who is Phillipson’s opponent, said that it was “ill-advised” of Phillipson to accuse her of infighting. Powell said:

I think that was quite an ill-advised post of hers to be honest.

Look, debate is not dissent. I think it’s perfectly reasonable, and actually one of the reasons I stood in this contest – people want to have a debate about whether we can be better than we are currently being.

If people think everything’s going great and swimmingly, don’t vote for me.

But if you think we need a course correction and can be a better version of ourselves, by including more voices, by being better connected to our communities … and by setting a much clearer narrative about our purpose and our motives and our authentic selves, then vote for me.

But I don’t think I’m a divisive person in any way, shape or form. I’ve been a loyal person for a long time, but I am a person who is impatient to improve things.

Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor.

The prime minister’s new No 10 enforcer has compared Nigel Farage to the influencer Andrew Tate, saying he is a “snake-oil salesman” who is taking working-class boys down a dark path.

Darren Jones, the No 10 chief secretary to the prime minister, said Labour was going to take a more “muscular approach to attacking Reform” and it would be “more proactive than just responding to the crazy things they’re saying”.

The senior cabinet minister said he was infuriated by Reform’s message of “hate, division and othering” to young boys. He told a Labour Together fringe meeting, where he was in conversation with the Sky News political editor Beth Rigby:

I’m pretty middle-class now but I was a white working-class boy and
we are going to be putting in measures … to give those types of kids
the best chance in life.

What are Reform offering? They have no offer to them apart than hate,
division, othering and wanting to tear the system down. We don’t want
people growing up led by Reform thinking they should be hating
Britain.

Nigel Farage hates the BBC, he hates the NHS, he hates the
government, he wants to tear everything down. That is not a positive
vision for the future that young people can feel excited and
aspirational about.

When pressed on Farage’s big following with young people, especially
young men, Jones said:

So does Andrew Tate but that doesn’t mean it’s OK. I’d put them in similar categories, quite frankly. They are snake-oil salesmen that are misleading people and taking them down a dark path for them and for our country. We have to bring the light into that debate …. that’s the battle we will step up into.

Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist influencer with a large following among young men, has been accused of sexual violence in a civil case in London by four women. Tate’s barristers have told an earlier court hearing there was “total denial of wrongdoing”. It emerged on Monday that he will face no criminal charges over allegations made by the four women who are suing him in a civil case at the high court in London.

In the past, Farage has said he does not agree with Tate. But he has praised the him for being an “important voice” for the “emasculated” and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school”.

Reform UK says Farage will deliver a clip on the party’s social media platforms at 3.30pm responding to Keir Starmer’s speech. He is expected to use it to respond to Jones’s comment too.

Keir Starmer will use his speech to the Labour conference to suggest that Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, does not love Britain, the Telegraph is reporting.

Ben Riley-Smith has got what he says is a quote from Starmer’s speech in which Starmer questions Farage’s patriotism.

Stamer will reportedly say:

For me, patriotism is about love and pride, about serving an interest that’s more than yourself, a common good. And the question I ask, seriously, of Nigel Farage and Reform, is do they love our country?

Do they want to serve our country – all of it, our beautiful, tolerant, diverse country, every region, nation and city – or do they just want to stir the pot of division, because that’s what works for their interests?

Do they truly believe in our potential? In our brilliance, in all the innovative wonders of our economy from clean energy to the creative arts?

And when push comes to shove, do they really want to fix our problems and renew Britain? Or – as we’ve seen time and again – whether it’s the SNP, the extremes of the Left or Reform and the Tories now, do they actually want Britain to fail?

I think we know the answer to that question.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is one of the best platform speakers in the cabinet, and his speech was enthusiastically received. Most speeches from cabinet ministers at this conference have included lavish amounts of Farage-bashing, and this one was no exception. But it also included an argument about modernisation.

Here are the key lines.

• Streeting said NHS modernisation was essential because science is changing healthcare so quickly. He said:

My ambition isn’t just to recover the NHS, but to rebuild it to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Modernisation is not a betrayal of [Aneurin] Bevan’s legacy, it is fulfilment. Because as the great man himself said, the NHS must always be changing and improving.

The truth is this, the next 10 years won’t just bring a decade’s worth of change in healthcare, it will bring centuries worth.

Medicine is being transformed before our eyes. We now have genetic tests that can predict a child’s risk of illness before they ever fall sick.

We’re on the brink of vaccines that could one day cure cancer. Weight loss jabs could help us finally defeat obesity.

And this isn’t just a medical revolution, it’s an industrial revolution, a technological revolution, one that will shape the next century of jobs, industry and public health.

• He said he relished a debate about the future of the NHS with Nigel Farage and Reform UK. After restating his attack on Farage for his interest in replacing the NHS with an insurance system (see 9.13am), Streeting said:

Be in no doubt. It’s not reform he’s offering. It’s retreat. He says we can’t afford in this century the National Health Service we could afford in the last. Well, if that’s the fight Farage wants, I say, bring it on.

• Streeting restated his support for foreign healthcare workers at risk of deportation under Reform’s plans. (See 9.13am.) He said:

If you earn less than £60,000 a year and came from abroad, Farage, wants you gone – the doctors, the porters, the nurses, the people who care for us in our hour of need and kept this country going when everything else stopped – tearing families apart, our friends, our neighbours.

Last week, I received a letter from a consultant at Great Ormond Street children’s hospital, he spent the last three decades here caring for children, but now tells me that Reform’s health policy is making him consider leaving our country.

He wrote, ‘please use your office to ensure that those who have made their lives here in good faith can continue to care for patients without fear’.

So as our country’s health and social care secretary. Let me address him and his colleagues directly. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Farage says, ‘go home’. We say ‘you are home’.

I’ve got your back. We’ve got your back, and at the next election, we’ll send Farage packing.

• He said BMA opposition to the plans to ensure patients can request GP appointments online risked turning the NHS into “a museum of 20th-century healthcare. He said:

Tomorrow, we’re reforming general practice so patients can request appointments online at any point during the day.

Many GPs already offer this service because they’ve changed with the times.

Why shouldn’t be booking a GP appointment be as easy as booking a delivery, a taxi or a takeaway? And our policy comes alongside a billion pounds of extra funding for general practice and 2,000 extra GPs.

Yet the BMA threatens to oppose it in 2025. Well, I’ll give you this warning; if we give in to the forces of conservatism, they will turn the NHS into a museum of 20th-century healthcare.

• He said it was the mission of Labour “to build a national care service worthy of the name”. Referring to the announcement about the move towards a fair pay agreement for adult care workers (see 10.32am), he also praised the unions GMB and Unison for standing up for care workers “when no one else would”, saying they could “go back to your members and tell them with pride, this is a difference that Labour unions in government make”.

• He said that he wanted to see Angela Rayner back in government. He said that Rayner, a former care worker, deserved credit for the fair pay agreement, and he went on:

Angela Rayner, this achievement is yours. Thank you. And we want her back as well.

As delegates applauded, he added: “We’ll definitely make sure she sees that. We need her back.”

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, started his speech to the Labour conference with an attack on Nigel Farage and Reform UK. He used many of the lines he used in his morning interviews (see 9.13am), but also called Farage the “snake-oil salesman of British politics”.

He said:

We must win another fight too, one against the poison of post-truth politics.

At Reform’s conference, a discredited doctor claimed that the Covid vaccine gave our royal family cancer.

This man wasn’t just some fringe figure – he’s Reform’s health adviser.

And these anti-vax lies have consequences: they’ve led to the return of diseases we thought we defeated – measles, whooping cough, children dying from preventable illness in this the 21st century.

When Farage was asked whether he’d side with medical scientists, he said, ‘I wouldn’t side with anybody’ – anti-science, anti-reason, anti-health.

Nigel Farage is a snake-oil salesman of British politics, and it’s time to stop buying what he’s selling.

YouGov has released some new polling on the Labour leadership. It includes some findings that would be welcomed by those who want to see Andy Burnham replace Keir Starmer, but also findings that should be welcomed by the Starmer camp.

For Burnhamites, the poll confirms that Burnham is more popular than Starmer with the public at large. That is not so much because they like Burnham more, but because they dislike him much less. (This is, in part, a function of the fact that, as PM, Starmer has taken unpopular decisions that have affect everyone in Britain, and Burnham hasn’t.)

The poll also suggests people would rather have Burnham as PM than Starmer (particularly Green party voters).

But the poll also suggests that, forced to choose between Starmer/Burnham and either Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch, Labour would only get a relatively modest boost by having Burnham has leader.

Burnham would have a 10-point lead over Nigel Farage, while Starmer would have an 8-point lead.

And Burnham would have a 13-point lead over Kemi Badenoch, while Starmer would have a 9-point lead.

This backs up the argument made by Starmer’s allies that, while voters may not be enthusiastic about Starmer, in a forced choice situation they would prefer him to Farage.

Last week the BBC reported that plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail had been yet again delayed. In his story, Faisal Islam said the government remained committed to the plan for a new rail line between Liverpool and Manchester, but that extensive “tyre kicking” was holding the plan back because Treasury ministers do not want to commit to the plan until they are sure it is viable. Islam quoted a source close to Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, saying: “Any more tyre kicking and there will be no tyre left.”

In her speech to the conference this morning Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, in effect confirmed the BBC story.

• Alexander said the government was “fully committed” to Northern Powerhouse Rail – while defending taking time to get the plans right. She said:

So let me be absolutely clear: this government is fully committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail.

But what we won’t do, conference, is repeat the mistakes of the past, where governments made promises with no plan to deliver them.

New infrastructure will be the physical embodiment of our ambition.

But we need to get the basics right too.

• There were some other lines in the speech too. Alexander said that by February next year, more than half the rail network would be publicly owned.

In the first 12 months of this government, we passed our landmark Public Ownership Act, took South Western and c2c into public hands, with Greater Anglia to follow in just two weeks’ time.

In February, West Midlands Trains will be next, with Thameslink, Chiltern, and Great Western to follow.

At that point more than half of the rail network will be publicly owned.

• She said the government was making “the biggest ever investment in local transport in England’s city regions”.

So working with our brilliant Labour mayors we will:

Expand the Tyne & Wear Metro to Washington; extend the tram to East Birmingham; and bring a rapid transit system to Liverpool.

We’ll build new stations at Portishead and Pill in the West Country, reopen Haxby Station on the outskirts of York, and improve rail, road and bus connections in the East Midlands.

We’ll fund zero-emission buses in Greater Manchester; a new fleet of trams for South Yorkshire, and new Piccadilly and Elizabeth Line trains for London.

And, Tracy, we will end the scandal of Leeds being the largest city in Europe without a metro, and we will build mass transit for West Yorkshire.

Sometimes party conference speeches are just about cheering members up. Aged 71, Hilary Benn is the oldest member of the cabinet, and a third-generation minister. (His father and grandfather were both cabinet ministers.) As such he is the person best placed to tell Labour conference that things have been this bad, or worse, in the past. And he did it in his speech, saying:

Everything that is worthwhile involves effort, determination and never, ever giving up.

After all, just remember from whence we have come.

1945. Clem Attlee.

Debt was well over 200% of GDP … rationing continued after the war … there was an energy crisis … the freezing cold winter of 1947… and yet that Labour government created the National Health Service, legislated to preserve beauty for posterity through the National Parks Act and helped to establish Nato, which to this day remains the bedrock of our security.

1964 … Harold Wilson’s great victory and a Labour government that changed society for the better … the first Sex and Race Equality legislation …. the abolition of capital punishment …..Equal Pay ….. the Open University that has given so many people – so many people – the opportunity to bring out the talent that is within each of us to illuminate our world.

Go forward to 1997. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. So, so much achieved including that Good Friday agreement.

And now the government of 2024 and our prime minister, Keir Starmer.

We know that we are – once again – living in tough and difficult times but our history teaches us that we have succeeded before and we will, conference, do so again …

So, conference be of good heart and be of good cheer.

Because believe you me, in the years to come people will too say of this government that we changed the country for the better so that a brighter future might be bequeathed to those will come after us.

Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, also mentioned Tony Blair and the Good Friday agreement this morning (see 10.22am), in his speech to the conference. He brought it up in a passage attacking Reform UK.

Conference, the Good Friday agreement enabled Northern Ireland to move away from the bloody and brutal trauma of the Troubles towards peace and progress.

It was – without doubt – the greatest achievement of the last Labour government.

It took courage. It took patient negotiation.

And yet what does Nigel Farage want to do? He actually wants to undermine the Good Friday agreement by walking away from the European convention on human rights.

And after all that the people of Northern Ireland have been through, I cannot think of anything more irresponsible.

It’s wrong, it’s reckless and we have got to make sure that it never, ever happens.

Unison, a leading health union, has welcomed today’s announcement that the government is committing £500m towards its plan for a fair pay agreement for adult care workers, but it says “substantially more” will be needed.

In a statement, Christina McAnea, the Unison general secretary, said:

The best way to begin getting a grip on this complex, fragmented sector in crisis is to improve wages through a fair pay agreement, backed by proper funding.

The higher wages that result will help make staff feel more valued, boost recruitment and encourage care workers to stay in their jobs for longer.

The funding announced is a start, but substantially more will be needed to deliver the national care service the public deserves.

In its announcement, the Department of Health and Social Care says:

A new body to negotiate changes to pay and terms and conditions for care workers will be set up including both employers and trade unions.

The body will aim to improve recruitment and retention, giving staff better recognition for their important work and this initial investment will mean that by 2028, care workers will expect to see a boost in their yearly wages.

The cash injection follows the government’s immediate actions to boost the social care sector, including a £2,000 uplift in the carers’ allowance and an increase in the Disabled Facilities Grant to provide 15,000 more home adaptations.

A public consultation to gather views on the design of the Fair Pay Agreement process has also been launched today by government.

Following this, the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body will be established through regulations in 2026 – with the first Fair Pay Agreement coming into force in 2028.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said that Tony Blair could play a positive role in Gaza helping to lead the administration there proposed under Donald Trump’s peace plan.

In an interview on LBC, Streeting said that Blair’s decision to involve the UK in the Iraq war was “a catastrophic error” that had “devasting consequences”. He said that he personally opposed it at the time.

But Streeting said Blair’s record in Northern Ireland, where he negotiated the Good Friday agreement, showed that he could be a positive force. He said:

I also think about Tony Blair’s other legacy, great legacy, which is Northern Ireland, and there he showed that he could bring together sworn enemies to broker a lasting peace.

So if Tony Blair can put those skills to use, if he’s got the confidence of both the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the regional players, as seems to be the case, then great. If he can make that contribution, and that can be another legacy, a positive legacy under his belt, then so much the better.

Other parties are less enthusiastic. Last week, when it was reported that Trump’s plan would include a role for Blair running Gaza, the SNP described this as a “sick joke” and urged Keir Starmer to oppose it.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, was interviewed on ITV’s Good Morning Britain by its presenters Susanna Reid and Ed Balls. Balls, who was a leading Labour politician before he chose a career in TV, said the problem for the party was that Keir Starmer was offering “the politics of patriotic renewal”. Balls went on: “I’ve got to say, I’ve no idea what that means.”

In response, Streeting said that Starmer would be setting out a vision in his speech, but that it was important “people don’t just hear that or see it, but actually feel it in terms of their own pockets, in terms of their livelihoods, the opportunities for their kids, the NHS being there for them when they need it”.

Labour activists and delegates in Liverpool have been urged to be “vigilant” by the party’s conference arrangements committee chair ahead of Keir Starmer’s speech later, PA Media reports. PA says:

Lynne Morris made the announcement as she opened the third day of the conference, and following a one-man pro-Palestine protest during Rachel Reeves’s speech on Monday.

Morris said: “In order to deliver a safe conference, we would ask you to be vigilant and to report any concerns you have to a member of staff or steward immediately.

“If there is someone sitting with you in your delegation or in a seat near to you that you do not recognise, or that are concerned about in any way, please inform the regional, Scottish or Welsh teams.”

Just as MPs who become home secretary end up becoming more authoritarian, people appointed health secretary almost invariably end up disliking the BMA. In an interview with GB News, Wes Streeting accused the BMA of holding the NHS back.

Referring to BMA objections to a new system giving patients online access to GP appointments, Streeting said:

I think the BMA are letting the side down, to be honest, because they’re giving people the impression that GPs are opposed to online access. Actually, loads of GPs are already doing it, we just want to make sure it’s happening everywhere.

They’ve got to work with us, not against this. It’s been, it’s been a running theme of my first year as health and social care secretary that the BMA kick off from one week to the next, and I’d rather we work together as partners. I really, I really do.

The alternative is, we either get the NHS back on its feet with a Labour government and we’ll be proud of that achievement for years to come, or if the BMA hold us back and the forces of conservatism win, there’ll be a Reform government with Nigel Farage, who doesn’t believe in the NHS …

That’s not a future I want to see, but that is going to be the choice of the next general election, and there isn’t a more pro-NHS, more pro-doctor, pro-patient, health secretary or government waiting in the wings.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, told LBC this morning that Reform UK’s plan to rescind indefinite leave to remain as an immigration status, including from people who have already been told they can remain in Britain for good, would be a “disaster” for the NHS.

Asked what impact it would have, he said:

It would be a disaster.

There are doctors, nurses, care workers, NHS staff earning less than £60,000 a year, who have come to this country, who have given back, not just through their taxes, but through their service to our country.

If we were to send those people back, I think that would be a disaster.

And my message that I’m giving in my speech Labour party conference today is, to those of you listening who are in that situation, who are fearing for your future now in the way that you weren’t some weeks ago, [Nigel] Farage says ‘go home’, I say ‘you are home’, and I’m grateful for the service that you give to our national health service, to our social care system and to our country.

Streeting also said that Reform UK posed another threat to the NHS, because Farage has in the past expressed support for the idea of moving to an insurance-based health system. He went on:

That’s a system that would check your pockets before your pulse. That’s a system that could ask for your credit card before you get your care.

That’s not a future I think people in this country want. And I think if more people knew about Reform’s policies on the NHS, the less confident they would be.

Streeting also said he was “shocked” by Farage’s disregard for science.

When Nigel Farage was asked in the context of that row about paracetamol, and whether or not it posed a risk to pregnant women and their children, despite what all of the medical science and all of our doctors were saying, when he was asked whose side he was on, he said, ‘I don’t have a side.’

Well, that’s not someone I think should be trusted with healthcare in our country.

And the fact that he chose to give a platform at his conference to someone who said the Covid vaccine gave the royal family cancer says you can’t trust this man with your health.

Streeting ended with a personal jibe.

If that’s the sort of health advice Nigel Farage is taking, maybe that’s why he’s the same age as Brad Pitt but looks 20 years older.

Keir Starmer is describing the plans for “NHS Online”, an online hospital for England, as an example of how the government is providing “national renewal”.

In his speech to the conference later, Starmer is expected to say:

A new chapter in the story of our NHS, harnessing the future, patients in control. Waiting times cut for every single person in this country. That’s national renewal, that’s a Britain built for all.

Labour says the “NHS Online” service is set to be rolled out from 2027, and that it will “deliver the equivalent of up to 8.5m appointments and assessments in its first three years”.

Starmer is expected to say:

In decades to come, I want people to look back on this moment as the moment we renewed the NHS for a new world.

In a briefing, Labour gives this explanation of how “NHS Online” will work.

The online hospital will be accessible through the NHS app – which is a central part of Labour’s drive to create an NHS fit for the future. That drive has seen an extra five million NHS appointments delivered since Labour came to office.

Patients will always have the choice between NHS Online and their local hospital. Those who opt in to the service will also access and track prescriptions, be referred for scans and tests, and receive clinical advice on managing their condition – all from the comfort of their own home.

If someone needs a physical test or a procedure these will be booked on the app at convenient locations close to their home or work - whether at a nearby hospital, surgical hub or Community Diagnostic Centre.

As NHS Online is rolled out, the initial focus will be on a small number of high-priority treatments that currently have the longest waits, and will expand over time to include further types of treatment.

And Labour also gives three examples of hospitals where online consultations have been a success.

University Hospital Southampton’s outpatient clinics were overwhelmed with follow-up appointments for patients with low-risk inflammatory bowel disease flare-ups. They developed a virtual follow-up pathway, enabling patients to access care remotely and initiate follow-up when needed, rather than being booked into routine slots. They used digital tools to monitor their symptoms and support decision-making. This led to a 73% reduction in consultant-led outpatient appointments, over 75% of patients managed virtually, and a 58% reduction in waiting times.

Moorfields Eye Hospital identified issues with long waits for referrals to be reviewed, causing anxiety and distress for patients waiting for care. They introduced a Single Point of Access for virtual triage across multiple providers with all referrals coming into a single shared system. Staff assessed each referral digitally to quickly decide what kind of care was needed and where it should happen, with patients prioritised if urgent, directed to the right clinic if routine, or promptly informed if a referral wasn’t appropriate. Referral processing time reduced from 11 hours to two, with 58% of urgent referrals safely downgraded to routine clinics.

At Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, a partnership with Medefer has enabled virtual triage of 99% of referrals within 48 hours. This model has allowed 79% of patients to be seen virtually and 82% to be discharged without requiring a face-to-face appointment, demonstrating how digital triage can manage high volumes safely and efficiently.

Good morning. Keir Starmer is delivering his speech to the Labour conference later, and it is arguably the biggest personal fightback opportunity he will get this year. Pippa Crerar has written up the overnight briefing we got about the speech from Labour. But a conference speech is primarily just a rhetorical event; a budget is a fiscal event, and a policy event, and that is why the most important moment for Labour between now and the end of the year is the budget on 26 November.

Starmer will address delegates with the media already braced for big tax rises this autumn, prompted by what Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, told the conference yesterday. Some of the papers are focusing on the general likelihood of tax increases.

But one newspaper has a more specific claim. The Daily Mail says that the governent is considering putting VAT on private healthcare in the budget. It says:

And Whitehall sources told the Daily Mail that the Treasury was examining options for adding VAT to services that are currently exempt – with private healthcare and financial services said to be in the firing line.

Putting VAT on private healthcare could raise £2bn for the Treasury, but would hit up to 8m middle-class families.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been doing the morning interview round. Normally ministers do not comment on budget matters. But Streeting could not have been clearer when he was on BBC Breakfast this morning. The presenter, Jon Kay, said he did not expect Streeting to comment directly on the story, but asked if he would say anything about the principle of taxing private healthcare. Streeting replied:

I’m going to shock you. It’s not happening.

Asked if he could guarantee that, Streeting said:

Yup. Not happening.

Streeting has been talking, among other things, about two big health-related announcements this morning.

• Care workers in England are to receive a substantial pay increase from 2028 after the creation of a new body of trade unions and employers designed to stem the exodus of workers from the sector by improving wages and conditions. There are more details here in Jessica Elgot’s story.

Related: Labour to tackle care sector crisis in England with pay increase and new negotiating body

• NHS England is setting up what it calls an online hospital – NHS Online. It says: “The innovative new model of care will not have a physical site, instead digitally connecting patients to expert clinicians anywhere in England. The first patients will be able to use the service from 2027.” There are more details here.

I will post more from the Streeting interviews soon.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: The conference opens. Speakers during the morning include Tracy Brabin, the mayor of West Yorkshire, at 10am, Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, at 10.10am, Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, at 10.20am, and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, at 11.50am.

11.30am: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, takes part in a Q&A event at a Centre for Social Justice fringe.

2pm: Keir Starmer delivers his speech to the conference.

4pm: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, takes part in a Sky Sports Q&A event at the fringe.

5pm: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, takes part in a Tony Blair Institute Q&A event at the fringe.

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