Labour conference live: Rachel Reeves stands by winter fuel allowance cut as nurses reject 5.5% pay rise

Rachel Reeves has promised that there will be “no return to austerity” at the Labour conference in Brighton, responding to critics who have compared her to previous Conservative governments.

Speaking at the party’s first conference in power for 14 years, Ms Reeves said: “Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services – and for investment and growth too.

“We must deal with the Tory legacy and that means tough decisions. But we won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain.”

Last week, critics inside Labour reportedly accused the chancellor of “reheated” 2010 tactics, with one union insider telling The i that a “return to austerity” would not be welcomed.

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The Independent’s political editor David Maddox writes:

Rachel Reeves was all about change in her speech today. The stories of her battles with Winston Churchill’s grade 2 listed urinal in the chancellor’s private toilet mean that nobody has escaped the realisation she is Britain’s first female chancellor. And the recognition in her speech at conference today produced one of the loudest cheers.

But change is not just about breaking glass ceilings for Reeves. Her enormous - maybe slightly forced - smile on stage showed that she at least recognises that after weeks of gloom, talk of spending cuts and tax rises, and a £22 billion black hole, she needed to inject some hope and optimism in the discourse.

But that hope was not forthcoming for the 10 million pensioners who are set to lose their winter fuel allowance.

“I will not duck the tough decisions,” she said in the most unapologetic way imaginable.

But, as she noted, government is about choices and one of her announcements was a timing for free school breakfast clubs, a move aimed at helping working parents and their children.

It is more than a signal. Since the King’s Speech Labour has made it clear it wants a generational shift in government priorities. Ms Reeves confirmed that today.

All eyes will now be on her Budget on 30 October.

Louise Haigh has promised to being “the age of privatised chaos” within the railway industry “to an end for good”

The Transport Secretary addressed the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday where she criticised the last 30 years of rail privatisation.

She pledged to bring the railway system back into public ownership “where they have always belonged.”

She said: “30 years of rail privatisation has left us with a system that served no one other than its shareholders. Record delays, record cancellations, crippling strikes holding our country back. passengers an afterthought.

“We are bringing the age of privatised chaos underwritten by public money to an end for good.”

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has begun her conference speech by saying the UK’s transport system had become a symbol of “national decline” under the Conservative government and pledging to “get Britain moving”

- Rachel Reeves promised to take action on “Covid fraudsters” who used the pandemic “to line their own pockets”.

- She also pledged to “write the work of all women back into our economic story” as the first female Chancellor.

- After a pro-Palestine protester interrupted her speech, Ms Reeves told the party conference that “this is a changed Labour Party, a Labour Party that represents working people, not a party of protest”.

- Ms Reeves denounced “the Liz Truss experiment” as she said “any plan for growth without stability leads to ruin” and pledged to “make the choices necessary to secure our public finances and fix the foundations for lasting growth”

- The chancellor also promised physical and practical solutions to growth and she said there will be “shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky, the sounds and the sights of the future arriving,” under the new Labour government.

- The Government is making “an investment in reducing child poverty” as Ms Reeves announced that hundreds of primary school children will receive free breakfast clubs in April, ahead of the national rollout.

The Labour Party conference comes at a pivotal moment, just months after its sweeping election victory in July, writes John Rentoul.

While this should be a time of celebration for Labour’s return to government after more than a decade, the event risks being overshadowed by sleaze allegations — ironically, the same type of scandal Sir Keir Starmer once used against the Conservatives.

Around 20,000 Labour activists, journalists, lobbyists, and public figures are gathering in Liverpool for the party’s first conference in government since 2009 and first post-victory event since 2005.

The Independent’s chief political commentator John Rentoul will be taking your questions on the Labour Party conference:

The chancellor has concluded her keynote speech declaring that Labour is a “changed party” and vowed to “build Britain”.

Rachel Reeves said: “We changed our party. Let us change our country. This is our moment, our chance to show that politics can make a difference, that Britain’s best days lie ahead.

“Our families, our communities, our country need not look on while the future is built somewhere else.

“That is a Britain we’re building, that is the Britain I believe in. Together, let’s go and build it.”