Reeves says people can support racist policy without being racist, in reference to PM’s comment about Reform UK
Ferrari asks about what Keir Starmer said yesterday about Reform UK’s plan to end indefinite leave to remain being racist.
Q: Does supporting that policy make someone racist?
No, says Reeves.
Q: So you can support a racist policy but not be racist.
Reeves says it is a racist policy.
Q: But how can you support a racist policy and not be racist?
Reeves says people support Reform UK for all sorts of reasons.
Ferrari says he does not see how you can support a racist policy and not be racist.
Reeves says she is not sure lots of people do support this policy. She says:
I think there are lots of people who back Reform would be horrified by the thought that people who came to this country legally, are working and contributing, will be deported from this country. And we had to call out Reform for their policies. And this is a racist policy, and it’s a bad for our country, and we need to call that out.
Key events
At the Labour conference a delegate from the Jewish Labour Movement said that the “genocide” motion on Gaza did not even mention. If delegates passed the motion, they would be dishonouring the victims of the 7 October massacre, he said.
At the Labour conference Christine McAnea, the Unison general secretary, proposed the Gaza motion saying genocide is taking place. (See 10.31am.).
The wording of the two motions is available on this Labour document.
McAnea urged delegate to back the second motion, and to oppose the first.
Labour activists urged to back motion saying Israel has committed genocide in Gaza
Labour activists at the conference are today proposing a motion saying Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
The debate this morning will cover foreign affairs, and there are two emergency motions on the Middle East.
As the motions were being drafted last night, there was a row as the Labour leadership pushed for wording in one motion saying “the United Nations independent commission of inquiry found a risk of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”.
This was seen by activists as a pro-Israel falsehood. The commission did not find “a risk” of genocide; it said genocide was happening.
A second motion, proposed by the unions Unison and Aslef, says commission concluded “Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, said that if this motion is passed, it will be a “major defea” for Starmer.
He said:
Trade unions and conference delegates have forced the party to allow a debate and vote on Palestine after dozens of motions were initially blocked.
In the teeth of opposition from the government, trade unions and Labour members will now vote on a motion that accepts the findings of the UN commission of inquiry report, which confirms Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and calls for meaningful action, including a full arms embargo on Israel.
What is happening inside the conference reflects the growing pressure of the solidarity movement – Starmer’s own party share the mounting disgust at Britain’s ongoing complicity in Israel’s crimes and want it to end.
Jackie Baillie tells Burnham to shelve leadership positioning, amid concerns it will harm Labour at Holyrood elections
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Labour’s Scottish leadership has accused Andy Burnham, the erstwhile Labour leadership contender, of peddling “nonsense”, and urged him to stay in Manchester and “shut up”.
In a clearly choreographed series of remarks, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said at a conference fringe event:
Andy is doing a fantastic job as the mayor of Manchester. I think the people of Manchester need him.
Jackie Baillie, the deputy leader of Scottish Labour, was more direct. At a Fabians fringe meeting, she said:
I have one very clear message for this Labour party conference, and actually, it’s not so much to conference as to the person who calls himself the king of the North. Well, all I would say to him is Manchester needs you. OK? We need to stop this nonsense and we need to focus very much on the elections ahead of us.
Scottish Labour leaders are deeply irritated because Burnham’s interventions feed into the air of instability and crisis around Starmer’s premiership, when Labour faces a very difficult task in unseating the Scottish National party in next May’s Scottish parliament elections, as well as the senedd elections in Wales and for English councils.
This spat sours a previously productive relationship. Scottish Labour has collaborated with Burnham and other Labour metro mayors, such as Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, to project Labour’s wider constitutional agenda to empower the UK’s nations and regions.
While Labour strategists believe their ratings will recover once the election contest starts, recent polls show Scottish Labour some distance behind the SNP, and neck and neck with Reform UK. The latest Norstat poll for the Times and Sunday Times in Scotland puts the SNP on 34% in a constituency vote, Reform 20% and Labour at 17%.
Michael Marra, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesman, boiled down the party’s position: “I think he should shut up.”
Reeves suggests big tax rises coming in budget, saying ‘world has changed’ and pledges made at CBI last year no longer apply
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has now finished her media round. Here comments about Reform UK are getting a lot of attention, but that’s not part of her portfolio. Her comments about the economy, and the budget, were probably more significant.
I have covered a lot of what she said already. Here is a summary, with fresh or beefed-up quotes, that provides a more comprehensive account.
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Reeves said that it was possible to support a racist policy without being racist. (See 8.09am.) This is intended to counter the Reform UK claim that, when Keir Starmer described its plan to end indefinite leave to remain as racist yesterday, he was also calling the millions of people who support Reform racist. Nigel Faragel, the Reform UK leader, told the Daily Mail:
The prime minister has insulted those who believe mass migration should come to an end. Starmer thinks anybody here on a time-limited visa is entitled to stay in Britain for ever. Labour do not believe in border controls – and think anyone who does is racist.
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Reeves in effect abandoned the pledge she made to the CBI last year not to raise taxes on the scale she did last year. In a Q&A at the CBI in November 2024, Reeves at one point said she was “not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes”. The Tories have sometimes taken this as her pledging no further tax increases – a commitment did not repeat. But mostly in the Q&A she was saying she would not need to do “a budget like this ever again”, referring to the 2024 budget that raised taxes by £24bn in 2025-6, or by £41bn by 2029-20. And for months she was happy to stick her statement about not planning 2024-style tax rises again. But today she argued that the world had changed since last November. When the BBC’s Nick Robinson asked her if she would repeat the pledge not to come back with “more borrowing or more taxes”, Reeves replied:
Well, look, I think everyone can see in the last year that the world has changed, and we’re not immune to that change. Whether it is wars in Europe and the Middle East, whether it is increased barriers to trade because of tariffs coming from the United States, whether it is the global cost of borrowing, we’re not immune to any of those things.
In an LBC interview, Reeves said that some of the media comment about tax rises planned for the budget has been “rubbish”. (See 8.27am.) But on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, when asked about a report from ITV’s Robert Peston saying the Treasury assumes taxes will have to rise by £30bn in the budget, she adopted a quite different tone, and did not seriously challenge the figure. (See 8.46am.)
We also know that the Office of Budget Responsibility are reviewing the productivity numbers based on the past productivity experience under the last government, and are set to make changes, then we have to respond to those, because it’s very important.
“Respond” was a euphemism. Reeves meant she would have to spend less as a result, as Heather Stewart explained in a story on this last week.
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Reeves refused to rule out extending the freeze on income tax thresholds in the budget. She is widely expected to extend the freeze (which means people paying more tax, because the tax-free allowance does not rise with inflation). In an interview on BBC Breakfast, asked to rule this out, Reeves replied: “I’m not going to be able to do that.” This answer gave the impression a further freeze is coming.
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Reeves said Labour’s manifesto commitment not to raise VAT still “stands”. Like Keir Starmer yesterday, she said the commitment “stands”, but would not explicitly say she was ruling out raising VAT, and this evasiveness has generated speculation that either Labour is planning to abandon the commitment at the budget, or that is planning some change to VAT that might breach the spirit, if not the letter, of the pledge. (Quite what the pledge means anyway is a matter of debate. The manifesto said the party would not “increase” VAT. This normally taken as referring to the headline rate, but could refer to the scope of VAT; some items get a zero or lower rate.) Reeves did not entirely clear up this confusion, but she said she wanted to protect people from tax increases that would raise the cost of living. She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
The manifesto stands and it stands for a reason that working people bore the brunt of the economic mismanagement of the last government and the cost-of-living challenges are still people’s number one biggest concern.
That’s why I’m determined to make working people better off and why I’m determined not to increase those key taxes that working people pay, and that’s why we made those commitments in the manifesto, and that’s why we stand by them.
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She said that she wants to move to a situation where the OBR produces just one main economic forecast a year. At the moment it produces two a year (because a law says it has to), and this meant that when it downgraded its growth forecasts ahead of the spending review earlier this year, Reeves had to adjust her plans accordinginly. Many economists argue that it is wrong for the Treasury to have to revise its plans so often according to forecasts that inevitably fluctuate, and Reeves seems to agree. She told Times Radio.
The International Monetary Fund have said that we should move to just one major fiscal event a year and I agree with their recommendations. And to be able to do that we do need to change the way that the OBR do their forecasting. Two full forecasts a year make it harder to have that one fiscal event.
So there are different ways you could do it. You could do a shorter term forecast, you could do a forecast that just looks at the changes in the economy over that period of time.
But what I’m trying to achieve here is stability for families, but also stability for businesses, because one criticism that we get and, one criticism which I think was a fair criticism of the previous government, was that policy changed all the time and it was difficult to keep up.
Reeves plays down, but does not deny, report saying Treasury expects tax will have to rise by £30bn in budget
Rachel Reeves is on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, where one of the presenters, Ed Balls, is a Labour former shadow chancellor.
Balls puts it to Reeves that Treasury officials told ITV’s Robert Peston last week that she would need to put up taxes by about £30bn.
Reeves says the final forecasts, which will determine what the final budget figures are, have not yet been provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility. But she does not try to dispute the figure.
Reeves to urge business leaders to face up to risk Reform UK poses to economy
In her Today interview Rachel Reeves was asked about a FT report saying she will urge business leaders to highlight the risks of a Reform UK government in her speech later.
The FT say Reeves will tell the Labour conference.
Who is standing up for Britain’s stability. A Labour government that is resolute in cutting interest rates and borrowing or a Reform party that cheered on Liz Truss’ mini-budget?
Who is standing up for Britain’s businesses? A Labour government that is forging a closer relationship with our nearest trading partners or a Reform party that talks Britain down and is hungry to cut us off from the world?
Nick Robinson suggested that business would not take kindly to this, given the way Reeves put their taxes up. Reeves brushed this aside.
Q: You are saying you don’t call supporters of Reform racist. But it looks as if you don’t understand people’s concerns.
Reeves says the government should call out policies that are wrong.
She says it is one thing deporting people who arrive in the UK illegally.
But the Reform UK plan would mean someone working alongside you being deported because they were born abroad, or someone living next to you being who was born abroad being deported. That is wrong, and racist, she says.
Reeves says much of speculation about possible tax rises in budget is ‘rubbish’
Q: Do you accept that you cannot tax your way to growth?
Reeves says it is not just about tax.
The government’s changes to the planning rules will promote growth, she says.
Q: People with shares, or pensions, or savings, or a valuable home – when you say you will protect working people, who are not including them, are you. You are coming for them, arent’ you.
Reeves says many of the people who claim to know what will be in the budget are “talking rubbish”. And some of the pre-budget speculation is irresponsible, she says.
Reeves confirms she no longer stands by pledge to CBI last year about not coming back with more tax rises
Reeves says her youth unemployment plan will build on what previous governments have done.
There has always been conditionality in the benefits system, she says.
Q: Can you repeat the statement you made to the CBI last year, when you said you were not coming back with more borrowing and more taxes.
Reeves says everyone can see that the world has changed since then.
Robinson says he is interpreting that as meaning taxes will go up.
Reeves says benefits bill too high
Rachel Reeves is now being interviewed by another Nick – Nick Robinson on the Today programme.
Q: Last year you spoke of iron discipline. But you buckle when you face difficult choices.
Reeves says she faced a difficult situation when Labour took power.
She says the government has maintained its commitment to economic discipline.
Q: You changed on winter fuel payments, and on disability benefits. As soon as the going got tough, you got going.
Reeves says the government had to make a number of difficult decisions.
But all the tax decisions stand, she says.
Q: Are you ever going to say no to people?
Reeves says people have seen her take difficult decisiions.
Q: Will you cut welfare spending. Spending on health and disability benefits is due to rise from £61bn to £72bn by the end of this parliament.
Reeves says Stephen Timms, the disability minister, is looking at this.
Q: Will you cut the benefits bill?
Reeves says the benefits bill is too high.
Reeves does not dispute LBC presenter’s suggestion that Andy Burnham bond market comments makes him ‘Trussesque’
Reeves ended her LBC interview by saying that anyone saying the government should just borrow more “makes no economic sense”. That was in response to a question about Andy Burnham and his comments about the bond markets in an interview last week.
Ferrari asked her if she was saying that Burnham was “Trussesque”.
Reeves laughs as Ferrari’s word, which he describes as new. She goes on:
Anybody that says you can just borrow more – I do think that risks going the way of Liz Truss.
Reeves says people can support racist policy without being racist, in reference to PM’s comment about Reform UK
Ferrari asks about what Keir Starmer said yesterday about Reform UK’s plan to end indefinite leave to remain being racist.
Q: Does supporting that policy make someone racist?
No, says Reeves.
Q: So you can support a racist policy but not be racist.
Reeves says it is a racist policy.
Q: But how can you support a racist policy and not be racist?
Reeves says people support Reform UK for all sorts of reasons.
Ferrari says he does not see how you can support a racist policy and not be racist.
Reeves says she is not sure lots of people do support this policy. She says:
I think there are lots of people who back Reform would be horrified by the thought that people who came to this country legally, are working and contributing, will be deported from this country. And we had to call out Reform for their policies. And this is a racist policy, and it’s a bad for our country, and we need to call that out.
Reeves pushes back at suggestions VAT may rise, saying commitment not to put it up still stands
Ferrari says the UK has lower growth forecasts than other G7 countries.
Reeves says the OECD is saying the UK will have the second fastest growing economy in the G7 this year and next.
And for the first half of this year, the only period for which data is available, the UK economy grew at 1% – faster than other G7 economies.
Q: Can you rule out a VAT increase in the budget?
Reeves says the government made those commitments and they stand.
Ferrari says something stands until it falls.
Reeves says Labour made those commitments because they want working people tobe better off. She goes on:
We are continuing with standing by, whatever words you want to use, those commitments.
Q: Can you rule out a VAT increase?
Reeves says listeners “can hear the commitment that I have made”.
She says the govenment is standing by its commitments because it wants people to be better off at the end of this parliament.
Rachel Reeves is on LBC, being interviewed by Nick Ferrari.
Reeves says almost one million young people are not in work or training. That amounts to one in eight, she says, 18 to 24-year-olds.
They are more likely to suffer as a result unemployment later in life, lower wages and mental health problems.
Q: How much will this cost?
Reeves says the money for this was allocated in the spending review. Further details will be in the budget.
Ferrari keeps asking how much it will cost, and Reeves keeps insisting she will set that out in the budget.
Reeves says there are hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the economy. Employers say they struggle to hire the right people, she says.
Ferrari quotes various business leaders saying government policies are making it harder for them to operate.
Reeves says some of the first quoted by Ferrari (Next, Marks and Spencer, Asda and Aldi) have recently announced good results.
Reeves to pledge Youth Guarantee to ‘abolish’ unemployment for young people
Good morning. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was a student when the Blair government was in power and one of her heroes at the time was Gordon Brown, who ran the Treasury for 10 years. One of Brown’s flagship measures was an employment programme for young people (the new deal) and today Reeves says she wants to achieve something similar. In her speech she will say:
At the spending review, I pledged record investment in skills to support our young people. And so today, I can announce that with that investment we will fund a new Youth Guarantee …
We won’t leave a generation of young people to languish without prospects – denied the dignity, the security and the ladders of opportunity that good work provides.
Just as the last Labour government, with its new deal for young people, abolished long-term youth unemployment I can commit this government to nothing less than the abolition of long-term youth unemployment. We’ve done before and we’ll do it again.
Reeves is doing a full media interview round this morning. I will be covering it in detail.
Some newspapers are splashing this morning on previews of the Reeves speech.
As Pippa Crerar reports for the Guardian, Reeves is also going to announce funding for a library in every primary school in England.
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, is also speaking at the conference today, and other papers are splashing on what she is set to say. Rajeev Syal has a preview for the Guardian here.
And here are the frontpage headlines from the Telegraph and the Times.
And the Guardian and the Daily Mail have both splashed on Keir Starmer’s comments about Reform UK yesterday – with rather different takes.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: The conference opens. The morning speakers include Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, at 10.05am, John Healey, the defence secretary, at 10.50am, and Peter Kyle, the business secretary, at 11.40am.
Noon: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, speaks.
2pm: The afternoon session open with a speech from Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary and candidate for deputy leader. The other speakers include Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, at 2.40pm, David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, at 2.50pm, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, at 3.30pm, Liz Kendall, the science secretary, at 3.45pm, and Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, at 4pm.
2pm: Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, speaks to Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey from the Guardian’s Politics Live podcast at a fringe event.
2.30pm: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, speaks at a fringe event.
3.15pm: Burnham speaks at a fringe event on devolution.
4.30pm: Anneliese Dodds, the former development minister, speaks at a More in Common fringe.
5pm: Lammy speaks about taking on the populist right at an IPPR fringe meeting.
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