Cutting winter fuel payments ‘right decision’, says Reeves, as No 10 says no change to council tax discount for single people – Labour conference live | Politics

Here is some video from Rachel Reeves’ conference speech.

2024 Reynolds condemns ‘scaremongering’ over Labour’s workers’ rights overhaul

My colleague Peter Walker, a public health expert, has posted these on X from a fringe meeting on health policy.

I’m at a Labour fringe event about preventative health care where public health minister Andrew Gwynne explained how Chris Whitty told him on his first day that 40% of NHS spending is on preventable illnesses. Fifteen years on it is forecast to be 60%, he said.

Gwynne said the second slide Whitty showed him was the well-known stats on the *massive* gaps in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest UK areas. Closing this is a moral impediment, he says.

I imagine that Chris Whitty has patiently given the same briefly to a succession of public health ministers over the years. Have things got better? Not yet. Could they under Labour? It’s possible, but the inertia and obstacles are massive.

As a vignette of those obstacles, we’re now hearing about the public health impact of obesity, from a thinktank expert. Three people away from him on the panel is the chief marketing officer of Sainsbury’s. No disrespect to Sainsbury’s, but they’re not the solution to obesity.

Said thinktank expert, Ravi Gurumurthy, has argued that supermarkets could be obliged to adapted their promotions and layouts, and products could be reformulated, which would make a big difference for public health. Would be interesting if government took up such ideas.

Slightly awkward moment as, just after the man from Sainsbury’s has said his bit about their commitment to public health, Simon Opher, a GP and new Labour MP, bluntly says that supermarkets need legislation to force them to be healthier as they never will voluntarily.

There was a strong Carpenters theme to Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour conference. “We’ve only just started,” he said, as he set out the government’s to tackle the climate crisis.

This is how he summed up what he was already doing.

Just look at what your Labour government has been able to do on energy in a few short weeks.

The onshore wind ban in place for 9 years under the Tories, swept away in 72 hours under Labour.

Cheap, clean solar power, blocked for years under the Tories, unlocked in the first week of a Labour government.

Offshore wind trashed under the Tories, roaring back under Labour with the most successful renewable auction in history.

That’s the difference a Labour government makes.

He also echoed what Rachel Reeves said in her speech earlier, when she said Labour’s industrial policy would deliver more building. (See 12.36pm.) Miliband said:

Under this Labour government, as Rachel Reeves so brilliantly said this morning, industrial policy is back.

We care about what we make, where things are made and who makes them. And I promise you this: I will use every lever we have to win jobs and build new industries for Britain.

Great British Energy, the National Wealth Fund, the British Jobs Bonus.

And let’s spell out what this future means: jobs building carbon capture and storage.

Jobs manufacturing electrolysers for hydrogen.

Jobs constructing the next generation of nuclear power stations.

Jobs manufacturing for floating wind.

Lord Alli, the Labour donor, is at the conference. But Serena Barker-Singh from Sky News says she did not have much luck trying to talk to him about donations.

NEW: Lord Ali just walked nonchalantly through conference passing Bridget Phillipson who didn’t acknowledge him. A friend of his told me he wouldn’t be bothered by the media storm but as I tried to ask him about the donations he said “please don’t – this is not very nice”

In her conference speech Rachel Reeves said she wanted to change the way the Treasury views investment. (See 12.33pm.)

Ben Zaranko, an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, has posed this on X about what this might mean.

Seems to me two possible interpretations of this:

1) More focus/emphasis on supply side benefits of investment (in line with recent OBR paper on the topic)

2) A greater focus on broader measures of the public sector balance sheet (rather than debt) in the fiscal rules

This is what Reeves said in her Mais lecture earlier this year about wanting the OBR to focus more on the long-term benefits of investment.

I will also ask the OBR to report on the long-term impact of capital spending decisions. And as chancellor I will report on wider measures of public sector assets and liabilities at fiscal events, showing how the health of the public balance sheet is bolstered by good investment decisions.

Welsh first minister Eluned Morgan says Wales ahead of England ‘in many aspects’ of NHS reform

Boosting growth on its own would not make much difference to number of people living in relative poverty, says thinktank

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, told the conference that his party now had to “finish the job” and defeat the SNP. He said:

You see conference – for lots of you, there was only one incompetent government to get rid of.

But in Scotland we were stuck with two.

At the general election, we got rid of one incompetent government.

And in 2026 we finish the job and get rid of the other one.

That’s the next stage of change for Scotland.

Because as we speak, nearly one in six Scots are on an NHS waiting list.

Thousands have been driven into private healthcare.

Drugs and alcohol deaths remain stubbornly high.

Rough sleeping persists and homelessness is at record levels.

The education attainment gap remains.

And the economic flatlining has damaged businesses …

And as we look towards the 2026 Scottish parliament election I want to be clear.

Others might want to talk Scotland down, but I and all of Scottish Labour are relentlessly positive for the future of our country.

No 10 confirms single person council tax discount won’t be cut in budget

Facebook used to have a motto about wanting to “move fast and break things”. Louise Haigh told conference in her speech that her approach was not quite the same. She said:

I know I stand on the shoulders of some giants of our Labour movement in assuming this office.

Our first female transport secretary, the incomparable Barbara Castle. Who famously said ‘in politics, guts is all’. And she came under horrendous attack for it – even receiving death threats for introducing those disgracefully woke anti-driver measures – the seatbelt and the breathalyser.

Barbara understood that transport wasn’t about the roads or the tracks, but about the people and the opportunities it can create or deny them. What was true then is true today.

From the woman I met on the campaign trail who had to move house because her local bus route was cut – she couldn’t get to work, to the doctor, to see her parents.

To the young person who is always late for work, because they can’t afford the car insurance or even book a driving test in the first place.

And the businesses who want to invest but choose to go elsewhere. Because they can’t get their people of their produce to where they want to be. Keir has set us on a mission. Our mission is to get Britain moving. And that is why we have not wasted a single second in getting to work.

My ministerial team and I – Peter Hendy, Simon Lightwood, Lillian Greenwood, Mike Kane – we told our department that our new motto is to move fast and fix things, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.