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

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.”

Just as Rachel Reeves wraps up her keynote speech, nurses have announced they reject the government’s pay rise.

The Royal College of Nursing was offered a pay award of a 5.5 per cent increase.

General secretary Nicola Ranger said: “Many will support the new government’s health and care agenda as set out in recent weeks and fully recognise the diagnosis of a failing NHS.

“Working closely with all other professionals, nursing staff are the lifeblood of the service. The government will find our continued support for the reforms key to their success.

“To raise standards and reform the NHS, you need safe numbers of nursing staff and they need to feel valued.

“Nursing staff were asked to consider if, after more than a decade of neglect, they thought the pay award was a fair start.

“This outcome shows their expectations of government are far higher.”

Rachel Reeves has received a standing ovation after declaring that the Labour Government will make work pay.

She said: “If the Conservative Party want a fight about who can be trusted with Britain’s public services for those who use them, then I say bring it on.

“Public services that we can be proud of once again with a Labour Government. That is the Britain that we’re building, that is the Britain that I believe in.”

A campaign group called The Climate Resistance has claimed responsibility for the protest which disrupted Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ conference speech.

Sam Simons, a spokesman for the group said: “Labour promised us change – instead we’re getting more of the same. The same pandering to the fossil fuel industry; the same arms licences that are fuelling a genocide in Gaza, and the same austerity that sees the poorest hit hardest.

“It’s time for Labour to start putting the needs of people before the interests of profit. That means immediately stopping arms licences to Israel, blocking new oil and gas, and standing up for the communities already being devastated by the climate crisis.”

Rachel Reeves has primised more building as she said ‘”the sounds and sights of the future arriving”.

She told the audience: “You will see in your town or your city is a sight that we have not seen often enough in our country.

“Shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky, the sounds and the sight of the future, arriving. We will make that a reality.

“Wealth created and wealth shared in every part of Britain, that is the Britain we’re building, that is the Britain I believe in.”

Rachel Reeves has declared the era of “trickle down, trickle out economics” is over.

She said: “It is time that the Treasury moved on from just counting the costs of investment to recognising the benefits too.

“So we are calling time on the ideas of the past, calling time on the days when governments stood back, left crucial sectors to fend for themselves, and turned a blind eye to where things are made and who makes them.”

Announcing a new industrial strategy, sha added: “The era of trickle down, trickle out, economics is over, and so I can announce, that next month, alongside our business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, I will publish our plans for a new industrial strategy for Britain.”

Rachel Reeves has defended her decision to cut automatic winter fuel payments for pensioners and admitted the move was not backed by everyone.

She said: “We cancelled road and rail projects promised by the Conservatives, which they did not budget for.

“And I made the choice to means test the winter fuel payment so that it’s only targeted to those most in need.

“I know that not everyone in this hall or in the country will agree with every decision that I make. I will not duck those decisions for political expediency, not for personal advantage.”

Rachel Reeves has used her keynote speech to attack former prime minister’s Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget.

She told the crowd: “The British capacity for inventiveness, enterprise and old-fashioned hard work has not gone away.

“So believe me when I say my optimism about Britain is brighter than ever.

“My ambition knows no limits because I can see that, provided that we make the right choices now, stability is a crucial foundation on which all of our ambitions will be built, the essential precondition for business to invest with confidence and for families to plan for the future.”

The chancellor added: “The Liz Truss experiment showed us that any plan for growth without stability leads to ruin.”

The chancellor has said she believes her optimism for Britain ‘burns brighter than ever” with her plan to boost economic growth.

Rachel Reeves told Labour’s conference: “I believe in a better Britain, a Britain of opportunity, fairness and enterprise.

“I know that country has sometimes felt far off in recent years as our growth, our productivity and family finances all behind.

“But it doesn’t have to be that way. The British capacity for inventiveness, enterprise, often hard work, has not gone away.

“Believe me when I say, my optimism for Britain burns brighter than ever. My ambition knows no limits, because I can deceases if we make the right choices now... Growth is the challenge and investment is the solution.”

Rachel Reeves has defended her plan to increase VAT on private schools, hailing the decision as part of the “Britain I believe in”.

She told the conference: “We said we would not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT.

“And we will cap corporation tax at its current level for the duration of this parliament.

“Conference, as promised, we will extend the energy profit levy on oil and gas producers to invest in homegrown energy here in Britain.

“We will end the non-dom tax loopholes, and we will crack down on tax avoidance and tax evasion. That is the difference our Labour government will make.”