Your Labour Party conference questions answered by John Rentoul as Keir Starmer pledges to ‘face the storm’

I’ve been responding to your questions following a significant week for Labour, as they held their first conference in government in over a decade.

Sir Keir Starmer steadied his party on Tuesday in a keynote speech, reminding of Labour’s mandate to reshape Britain with a simple message: "We won."

The prime minister pledged to "face the storm" of unpopular decisions and declared "we're all in this together" at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool.

Amid criticism over winter fuel payment cuts, gifts, and tensions in Downing Street, Sir Keir sought to silence doubters with a long-term vision. He promised "homes for heroes" for veterans, unveiled a Hillsborough Law to tackle cover-ups, and his justice secretary vowed to reduce the number of women in prison.

As the conference unveiled more of Labour’s platform and policy positions ahead of the upcoming budget, it was only natural that our readers had questions.

Here are six questions from Independent readers – and my answers from the “Ask Me Anything” event.

Q: Why is everyone obsessed with “the first 100 days” and do you think the gap between forming a government and the first Budget has been the big problem?

TimC

A: I agree that the obsession with “100 days” is an irritating journalistic device, but we humans like round numbers. You make a good point about the lateness of the Budget: I think it would have been better to have an early emergency Budget in July and got the pain out of the way in one go.

Part of the thinking was presumably the need to give the Office for Budget Responsibility 10 weeks’ notice – after criticising Liz Truss for ignoring the OBR, Rachel Reeves obviously wanted to play it by the book (but possibly could still have had a Budget in September?).

Q: Shouldn’t we give labour (I didn’t vote them in) a little while to sort out the dog’s breakfast that the Tories have left us with?

WaitWhat

A: I think most people are prepared to give Labour time to sort out the problems they have inherited. They have settled some strikes, but without securing changes in working practices.

But the acceptance of gifts has struck home with a lot of people, especially with pensioners who are just above pension credit level.

Q: Where are the tax reforms aimed at closing loopholes and preventing tax avoidance by wealthy high earners? What tangible benefits are being provided for low-income individuals? Additionally, where is the promised review of employment laws addressing zero-hour contracts and workplace bullying?Worker

A: The tax changes will be announced in the Budget, and Keir Starmer hinted in his speech that they will fall on the better off. He said: “The cost of filling that black hole in our public finances, that will be shared fairly.” I am not sure why the winter fuel payment cut was announced so much earlier.

As for the employment rights measures, Angela Rayner promised the bill would be published when parliament resumes in a couple of weeks’ time, although not all the detail will be decided until later. It seems reasonable to take some time to get it right – although I think Labour should have done more work on these policies in opposition.

Q: No mention of climate change which is getting exponentially worse and will consume more and more of our national resources. It is also an opportunity for industry (flood resilience, food resilience, renewable energy, EV) Where will Labour go on all this?

JPCoetzee

A: Keir Starmer mentioned “climate change” three times in his speech, but each time only as an item in a list of things that the government has to attend to. But Ed Miliband delivered a substantial speech yesterday – you can find a copy on the Labour Party website.

Q: Now that the Labour Party has taken away the winter fuel allowance do they still subscribe to the statements they made back when the Tories wanted to do that and Labour said 4,000 people would die? What has changed, maybe mild winters?

Daleel

A: I think the Labour Party would say that it is a changed party, and the 4,000 figure was produced when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.

Q: According to Starmer We should ‘respect the ballot box’, but under our corrupt system, Starmer is wielding his ‘majority’ on the 24 per cent Labour vote. The majority of British people abstained or voted against Labour. How is this fair?

will121

A: I am not in favour of compulsory voting. If people don’t want to vote, that’s up to them. Their abstention cannot then be used to make an argument about the democratic legitimacy about the process that took place without them.

But I’m not in favour of proportional representation either. Our system is easy to understand and I think most people got the result they wanted.

These questions and answers were part of an ‘Ask Me Anything’ hosted by John Rentoul at 4pm BST on Tuesday 24 September. Some of the questions and answers have been edited for this article. You can read the full discussion in the comments section of the original article.

John also sends a weekly Commons Confidential newsletter exclusive to Independent Premium subscribers, taking you behind the curtain of Westminster. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, head here to find out more.