Labour conference live: Rayner promises major rent reform in optimistic speech as party battles freebies row

Labour and Just Stop Oil donor Dale Vince will call for the government to be more radical in their climate policy.

The Ecotricity owner, who also owns Forest Green Rovers, will back the Climate and Nature Bill, a proposed bill which would force Labour to meet climate targets.

The bill has been introduced in multiple parliaments but has never progressed into law.

Energy minister Alex Sobel, who will attend the event with Mr Vince, championed the bill while in opposition.

Mr Vince told PA: "If we're serious about tackling the biggest threat we face, climate breakdown and nature's destruction, we need the right laws to guide us, and we need them fast.

"Let's be real, we've got a small window left and the next five years are make or break. That's where the Climate and Nature Bill comes in.

"It's the only thing out there that tackles the twin crises of climate and biodiversity at the same time."

Foreign Secretary David Lammy will take to stage later this afternoon at 14:30, after a morning discussing the crises in Ukraine and the Middle East.

He will follow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones and Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell, due to speak at 2pm and 2:05pm respectively.

Diane Abbott is currently speaking at a Stand Up To Racism fringe event, while transport union bosses Mick Lynch and Mick Whelan are attending an RMT event on public transport.

At 3pm, Wes Streeting will attend a at Unison/Fabian Society fringe meeting on health and social care.

Streeting will later be joined by Andy Burnham and Stephen Kinnock at the Future Social Care Coalition rally from 4pm.

Angela Rayner may have floundered on the BBC this morning while talking about gifts from wealthy donors but her opening speech to the Labour conference injected some life into what was threatening to be a despondent affair.

The dark clouds gathering over Liverpool as activists arrived today seemed symbolic of a sense of foreboding about the state of the new Labour government.

The party is still less than three months on from the exhilaration of that massive election victory over the Tories.

Read the full report from our Political Editor David Maddox here:

David Lammy has expressed his concern about violence in the West Bank at a fringe event at the Labour Party conference.

The foreign secretary said he is “deeply, deeply concerned” by recent violence during Israeli raids, and has not ruled out sanctions for those involved in “escalatory behaviour”.

"I’m not announcing further sanctions today but that is kept under close review," he told a Labour Together event.

"As you would expect, I’m deeply, deeply concerned by what I’ve seen at this point in time."

Israeli troops were seen to push three apparently lifeless Palestinian bodies from rooftops during a recent raid.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke reports from Liverpool:

Angela Rayner has confirmed that Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, which will seek to boost wages and employment rights, will be introduced next month.

She told the Labour Party conference that “insecurity at work is the daily reality for so many”, saying the country is now “on the verge of historic legislation to make work more secure”.

The bill will include measures such as banning zero-hour contracts and outlawing fire and rehire tactics, as well as making parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal available from the first day on the job.

Speaking on the main stage at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, to loud applause from the audience, the deputy prime minister said: “They said we couldn’t do it, some tried to stop it in its tracks.

“But after years of opposition, we are on the verge of historic legislation to make work more secure, make it more family friendly, go further and faster to close the gender pay gap, ensure rights are enforced and trade unions are strengthened.”

She added: “Conference, this is our plan to make work pay and it’s coming to a workplace near you.”

Our political editor David Maddox offers his analysis from Labour party conference:

Angela Rayner may have floundered on the BBC this morning talking about gifts and ministers being on the take from wealthy donors and friends but her opening speech to conference has injected some early life into what was threatening to be a despondent affair.

The whole event should be a celebration of a historic victory for the party but was being overshadowed by rows about Sue Gray, Lord Alli, football tickets, holidays in New York and clothes for the prime minister’s wife.

There is a concern among unions and people on the left that Starmer is also leading them to a new age of austerity after the winter fuel payments were removed from 10 million pensioners and Rachel Reeves has been getting ready to wield the axe to sort out the £22bn black hole in public finances.

So it was important that Rayner came out from the get-go with a robust, tub thumping speech.

She has delivered in spades, with joy about the victory, and a succession of much needed reforms that the left have been clamouring for - whether it be workers’ rights or renters reform or building much needed homes.

The cheers which greeted her speech certainly spoke of the way she delivered her much more optimistic message. A contract to the gloom that has been hanging over Sir Keir Starmer and evidence of the emotional chord between her and members.

Ms Rayner is speaking about her plans to give more power to mayors around the country and devolve power from Westminster.

“A new white paper will map out how we will move power out of Whitehall... Just this week I agreed eight devolution deals,” she explained.

She promised that “Northerners will no longer be dictated to from Whitehall”. She said this government will achieve devolution in the North and the change will be “irreversible”.

Angela Rayner has spoken about her mission that all homes are decent and safe.

“When I was growing up we didn’t have a lot, but we had a safe and secure home. But today not everyone does”, Ms Rayner told the Labour conference.

Speaking about the Grenfell tragedy, she said it was a failure of market and state. “It is completely unacceptable that we have thousands of building still wrapped in dangerous cladding seven years after Grenfell”, she continued.

She has also said that she will reverse the decline of social home building. Ms Rayner said that she will “clamp down on damp and mouldy homes” by bringing in legislation to force landlords to fix faults, in social housing and private rental accommodation.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke writes from Liverpool:

Angela Rayner urged people not to forget what the Conservative Party did in government during her main stage speech at the Labour Party conference.

Accusing the Tories of having “failed Britain” and attempting to “cover it up”, the deputy prime minister said there will be “no complacency” from the new government.

Ms Rayner, who was greeted by a standing ovation when she walked on stage, appeared to be on the verge of tears at the start of her speech.

Opening her address, she said: “I’ll try not to get too emotional. Twelve months ago, I stood here and said I’d hope to never open conference again as the deputy leader of the opposition, so it’s a great honour of my life to stand here today as your deputy prime minister.”

Ms Rayner continued: “We won because we had the courage to change our party, the discipline to make hard decisions and the determination to remain united, and now change begins.

“Even now, especially now, there will be no complacency. We’ve seen where that leads. Don’t forget what they did: Partygate, Covid contracts, the lies, division, scapegoating and the unfunded tax cuts for the richest that crashed our economy. don’t. forget any of it.

“The Tories failed Britain and they tried to cover it up.”

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner was emotional as she took to the stage at Labour party conference for her speech.

She looked tearful as members gave her a standing ovation, and told attendees: “It is the honour of my life to stand here today as your deputy prime minister.”

“You entrusted us with the task of change and we will not forget it,” she said in a direct to the British people.

Ms Rayner has said “there will be no complacency” for the new Labour government. “The Tories failed Britain and they tried to cover it up. A crater in the heart of Britain’s economy...and a £22bn black hole”, she said.