Starmer says Reform’s indefinite leave to remain policy immoral and ‘racist’
Q: Do you think the Reform UK indefinite leave to remain policy is immoral?
Yes, says Starmer.
He says it is one thing to remove illegal migrants.
But removing people who are settled in the UK is a “completely different thing”, he says.
He says most elections in this country have been between Labour and the Conservatives.
But Reform are different, he says. It is the sort of politics we have seen in France or Germany, he says (implying they are far-right).
Q: Do you think this is a racist policy?
I do think that it is a a racist policy. I do think it is immoral. It needs to be called out for what it is.
But Starmer says he is not saying people who are considering voting for Reform are racist. They are people “frustrated” by the lack of change, he says.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
It is one thing to say we’re going to remove illegal migrants, people who have no right to be here. I’m up for that.
It is a completely different thing to say we are going to reach in to people who are lawfully here and start removing them. They are our neighbours.
They’re people who work in our economy. They are part of who we are. It will rip this country apart.
Asked if Reform were trying to appeal to racists, Starmer said:
No, I think there are plenty of people who either vote Reform or are thinking of voting Reform who are frustrated.
“hey had 14 years of failure under the Conservatives, they want us to change things.
They may have voted Labour a year ago, and they want the change to come more quickly. I actually do understand that.
Key events
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Anas Sarwar says he, not Starmer, will lead Labour’s campaign in next year’s Holyrood elections
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Steve Reed says he does not think Unite will disaffiliate from Labour, despite Sharon Graham saying it could
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Starmer thanks campaigners as he opens conference saying Hillsborough law show government ‘on side of justice’
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Government identifies sites for 12 new towns
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Starmer’s BBC interview – snap verdict
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Starmer says goverment will restrict spending on taxi rides for asylum seekers in hotels after huge bills revealed
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Starmer says he has ‘for some time’ thought left wrong to ignore concerns about illegal immigration
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Starmer brushes off criticism, saying it’s part of ‘job description’ and he’ll be judged on his 5-year record
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Starmer denies putting donkey field he bought for his parents into trust, after report claims he did, with potential tax benefits
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‘Manifesto stands’, Starmer says, when asked he remains committed to election commitment not to raise VAT
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Starmer says Reform’s indefinite leave to remain policy immoral and ‘racist’
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Starmer says Reform UK’s plan to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants who have it would ‘tear country apart’
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Starmer stresses he always said turning Britain around would take time, in response to questions about poor Labour polling
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Steve Reed says he is confident Starmer will lead Labour into next election, after poll suggests members want him replaced
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53% of Labour members want new leader before election, poll suggests
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Shabana Mahmood says migrants who want indefinite leave to remain should have to be contributing to communities
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Starmer calls on Labour to stop ‘navel-gazing’ and join ‘fight of our times’ as Labour conference begins
Labour activists joined the Liverpool Show Choir in singing You’ll Never Walk Alone to mark the tabling of a Hillsborough law, PA media reports. PA says:
Attendees, including Keir Starmer and David Lammy, stood as they sang the song from the musical Carousel, which has been adopted by Liverpool FC fans as their anthem.
Three men, two of whom wore Liverpool FC ties, held up a red and ochre scarf as they belted out the lyrics.
The song came after Charlotte Hennessy, whose father James, known as Jimmy, died in the 1989 football stadium tragedy, spoke on stage.
“Our input hasn’t ended just because it started its journey through Parliament,” she said.
“We will be watching, we will be listening, and we will continue to follow its progress until it is passed in its entirety.”
Anas Sarwar says he, not Starmer, will lead Labour’s campaign in next year’s Holyrood elections
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has insisted he “absolutely” has confidence in the Keir Starmer – but made clear it would be him, and not the PM, who leads Labour’s Holyrood election campaign, PA Media reports. PA says:
Sarwar added he is “confident” Labour will win the Scottish election next year, ending almost 20 years of SNP rule.
His comments came as a Norstat poll for The Sunday Times suggested the SNP is still leading in support, but voters have Labour and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK fighting for second place.
According to the poll, more than a third (34%) of Scots will vote SNP on the constituency ballot, with Reform second with 20% support, and Labour tailing on 17%.
On the regional list, 29% are planning to vote SNP, with Reform and Labour tied on 18%.
The Scottish Labour leader dismissed polls which show his party struggling for support.
Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show from the Labour party conference in Liverpool, Sarwar said: “When people are asked to actually vote, and the choice is put in front of them between a third decade of the SNP with John Swinney in charge and a new direction with Scottish Labour and me as first minister, I am confident we will win that argument and win that election.”
In a briefing last week with journalists, Sarwar was more reluctant to say he had full confidence in Starmer.
Steve Reed says he does not think Unite will disaffiliate from Labour, despite Sharon Graham saying it could
Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, has revived her union’s threat to break its links with Labour.
In an interview with Sky News this morning, Graham said:
My members, whether it’s public sector workers all the way through to defence, are asking, ‘What is happening here?’
Now when that question cannot be answered, when we’re effectively saying, ‘Look, actually we cannot answer why we’re still affiliated’, then absolutely I think our members will choose to disaffiliate and that time is getting close.
Asked when this might happen, Graham said the budget on 26 November would be “an absolutely critical point of us knowing whether direction is going to change”.
Steve Reed, the housing secretary, was asked about this in his own interview with Trevor Phillips on Sky. He said that Unite members would have more more in their pockets because wages were going up. He said Graham was “a very strong negotiator”.
But he said he did not think Unite would really disaffiliate from Labour. “I don’t think Unite will walk,” he said.
Starmer thanks campaigners as he opens conference saying Hillsborough law show government ‘on side of justice’
The conference opened this morning with a speech from Keir Starmer about the new Hillsborough law – the public office (accountability) bill published earlier this month. He said:
For the past few years, we – as a party – I – as an individual – have vowed to do what we can to bring a measure of justice to the families affected by this.
And I say a measure of justice because nothing can ever replace the loss.”
I am delighted to say that this year we do not have to make any more vows – we have a law, the Hillsborough Law.
A law which shows that this government is on the side of justice, that we will do the hard yards for working people, and that we’re building a country which sees and respects everyone.
It’s an incredibly important moment for the 97, for Liverpool, but most of all, for the whole country. And conference, we must recognise that it was an unacceptably long and hard fight for the campaigners, for the families and victims of Hillsborough to get us to this point.
And so it’s not the government that should be thanked, it’s not me that should be thanked. It’s the families and campaigners, who after such unimaginable loss, had almost every obstacle put in their path to get to justice.
Government identifies sites for 12 new towns
Steve Reed, the housing secretary, was on Sky News this morning to promote an announcement about the government building what it is calling 12 new towns. Here is Geraldine McKelvie’s story about this.
Here is the news release from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
And here are the 12 new town locations.
-A standalone settlement in Adlington, Cheshire East; to serve the growing industries in Greater Manchester and Cheshire, as identified in the government’s Industrial Strategy.
-A corridor of connected development in South Gloucestershire, across Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc; building in one of the highest productivity areas in the country with a high value research, advanced engineering and technology economy.
-An expanded development bringing together Chase Park and Crews Hill in Enfield; delivering green development and helping address London’s acute housing need.
-Redevelopment of the former airbase at Heyford Park in Cherwell; connecting to Oxford and building on the existing progress and commitment to high-quality placemaking; referencing the area’s past and supporting its future in innovative technology industries.
-Urban development in Leeds; catalysing on the city’s existing economic prospects and capturing the benefits of the governments £2.1 billion local transport funding allocation for the Combined Authority by delivering well-connected, high-quality homes in the South Bank to support the city centre.
-Inner-city development and densification in Manchester, Victoria North; supporting continued growth and attracting high-skilled workers to service the city’s diverse industries.
-A standalone settlement in Marlcombe, East Devon; strengthening the region’s labour supply and supporting the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone.
-A ‘Renewed Town’ in Milton Keynes; reinvigorating the city centre and expanding to the north and east whilst reshaping the way people travel, by delivering a Mass Rapid Transit system.
-Densified development in Plymouth; evolving Britain’s Ocean City and capitalising on the government’s £4.4 billion investment in HMNB Devonport, Western Europe’s largest naval base.
-A new settlement in Tempsford, Central Bedfordshire; to maximise the benefits of East West Rail by building a well-connected new town in the heart of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.
-The creation of a riverside settlement in Thamesmead, Greenwich; unlocking inaccessible land in the city and improving connectivity if the proposed extension of the Docklands Light Railway can be delivered to enable the development.
-Expanded development at Worcestershire Parkway, Wychavon; accelerating delivery around the existing train station to help meet regional housing need and act as a model for sustainable, carbon neutral development.
Starmer’s BBC interview – snap verdict
The script has changed. For the last year, as Nigel Farage and Reform UK did all they could to ramp up public concern about illegal immgration, and immigration generally, Labour has been hestitant about taking them on. It has been willing to criticise Farage on technicalities, but nervous about making a principled argument against Reform. In some ways this was similar to Labour finding it impossible to say that Brexit was a mistake – because it does not want to alienate the voters who supported it. But in that case Starmer is supressing a view he holds strongly. (He knows Brexit has been a disaster.) On immigration, he genuinely believes that some of the concerns of the public are legitimate. As a consequence, as Farage grabbed the headlines day after day over the summer with immigration-linked scaremongering and policy announcements, Labour had almost nothing to say. Rather, what it did have to say was summed up by the parody slogan: “Nigel is right, but don’t vote for him.”
This timidity infuriated a lot of progressive voters, and is part of the reason why so many Labour members despair of Starmer’s leadership. (See 8.59am.)
Today Starmer adopted a new line, which will probably do a lot to shore up his position in his party. To what extend the electorate at large will notice remains to be seen.
Given that Labour were criticising Farage last week, and are criticising him again today, it might feel like nothing much has changed. But the terms of the criticism have changed in three important way.
First, Starmer was making a principle, moral objection to Reform UK’s plans to rescind indefinite to remain (ILR) status from people who currently have been told that they have the right to remain in this country for as long as they want. This is quite different from the position last week when Labour was criticising the plans not for being morally wrong, but for being unworkable.
Second, Starmer was even willing to call the plans racist. Normally politicians are wary of applying that term to their opponents, because it can be sound as if they are accusing all their opponents’ supporters of being racist too. Today Starmer seemed to think it was justified, and worth the risk.
And, third, Starmer linked this to an argument about patriotism. Normally Farage relishes being called “racist” by liberals, because he can argue that this just shows they are out of touch with the “people”. But today Starmer was able to innocuate himself against that by arguing that Farage would “tear our country apart” (which the Reform ILF policy arguably would, if it led to hundreds of thousands of people who have been established in the UK for many year – people like nurses – being forced to leave). And the fact that Farage in the past has spoken approvingly of Vladimir Putin, and that one of his former allies has just pleaded guilty to making pro-Russian statements in the European parliament in return for bribes, makes denouncing Reform as anti-patriotic much easier.
The polling probably stiffened Starmer’s resolve before he spoke out this morning. Yesterday YouGov published figures showing that, although voters are split almost 50/50 on the Reform plan to end the ILR status, by 2 to 1 they think it is unfair to do this retrospectively.
Starmer says goverment will restrict spending on taxi rides for asylum seekers in hotels after huge bills revealed
In the interview Starmer said that he would like to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers before the 2029 deadline set by the government.
When Kuenssberg put it to him that 2029 was some time away, Starmer replied: “I’d like to bring that forward.”
Asked if he could commit to doing that, he said the government was “doing everything we can to bring that forward”.
It was looking at what alternative accommodation could be used, he said.
Asked if it fair for some asylum seekers to get expensive taxi rides to go to GP appointments, he said:
It shouldn’t be happening. It’s not fair, and I understand that. We will stop it.
Asked when, Starmer replied “as soon as we can”.
Starmer says he has ‘for some time’ thought left wrong to ignore concerns about illegal immigration
In his interview Starmer was asked about the speech he gave on Friday in which he said the left had been wrong on immigration.
Asked when he realised the left had been wrong on illegal immigration, he said this had been his view “for some time”. He said that he had been to Oldham to discuss people’s concerns about immigration soon after being elected as an MP (when he was a shadow immigration minister under Jeremy Corbyn), and he suggested that had influenced his views.
During his interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Keir Starmer also defended his plans for a digital ID scheme.
Asked what difference it would make, he said:
The difference is this is on point of starting, not a retrospective exercise as it now is. It is an automatic collection of the information by the government so we know exactly who is working in our economy, and it will help us enforce the rules that are there.
But there’s no point people saying to me, ‘why do we need it?’ when we all acknowledge there is a problem people are working illegally in our economy. It is amongst the reasons that people want to come to the United Kingdom, we have to deal with that.
I made a pledge that we would do whatever was necessary, use whatever tools were available to deal with illegal migration. I intend to do so.