UK politics live: Minister stumbles over Keir Starmer freebies row

Hollie Ridley has been appointed as Labour’s new general secretary by the party’s National Executive Committee.

Ms Ridley, who joined Labour as a trainee organiser in 2011, said: “The Labour Party is the greatest vehicle for social progress in British history. But we can only do that when we win.

“Keir has shown that the Labour Party is at its best when it is outward facing and focussed on the needs of the British people. I look forward to working with him to deliver that in the years ahead.”

Sir Keir Starmer said: “I want to congratulate Hollie on her appointment as general secretary. Hollie is an outstanding leader who played a critical role in the general election campaign. She brings experience, expertise and a clear vision about what is needed for continued electoral success.”

She takes over the post from David Evans, who became general secretary in 2020.

Having visited Rome this week, Sir Keir Starmer claimed that Britain can learn lessons from Italy on how to reduce migration, after far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration saw small boat arrivals fall by more than 60 per cent this year.

Italy has long struck a hard line against migration, with deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini having tightened asylum seekers’ access to support and public services. He could now face six years in jail for preventing a boat carrying more than 100 people from docking in Italy in 2019.

But the country’s hardline policies and rhetoric had failed to prevent cross-Mediterranean migration to Italy from continuing to rise dramatically until the fall seen this year, which has been widely attributed to controversial deals struck with the north African nations from which most boats depart.

You can read more details here on the approach Britain’s PM has praised:

The Conservative leadership contest has been compared to a “new TV reality show” called “Strictly Come Pandering” by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.

Referring to the race, which is due to continue at Conservative Party Conference, Sir Ed said: “Look at the quartet heading to Birmingham in a fortnight to audition for the job of Conservative leader.

“They really are scraping the bottom of the barrel with these new TV reality shows, aren’t they?

“I hear they’re planning to call it Strictly Come Pandering.

“Or maybe The Great British Blame Off.

“Or maybe just Pointless.”

Labour minister Dame Angela Eagle defended the prime minister after he accepted more than £65,000 in gifts in the nine months to May, including football away games and concert tickets.

The Home Office minister was quizzed about the donations by Sky News presenter Kay Burley on Tuesday’s breakfast show

Burley said: “The freebies include the Royal Box at Wimbledon, hospitality at a Coldplay concert, Arsenal away games. How does that align with the son of a toolmaker, man of the people image?”

Dame Angela replied: “I think he’s an Arsenal fan, it takes all things I suppose.”

With Sadiq Khan’s reannouncement that he will pedestrianise “the nation’s high street”, The Independent’s deputy voices editor Paul Clements writes: “I hope he has as much luck as he’ll have making that stick as a slogan”, in a piece stating:

Under the mayor of London’s plans, which were first outlined in 2016 and are now to be pushed through in spite of objections from Westminster’s Labour-run council, motorised vehicles are to be re-routed onto surrounding streets, never mind the gridlock (thoughts and prayers, Fitzrovia and Marylebone).

The ultimate vision is for Oxford Street to regain its shopping chops and, as a “traffic-free pedestrianised avenue”, become a “leading retail destination in the world”, one that can compete with the Champs-Elysees and Times Square.

Pedestrianisation looks good on paper and is wildly popular with Londoners sick of their roads being clogged with traffic – but it will not be the panacea for cleaner air and “active travel” that Khan thinks. There will be unintended consequences, creating new conflict for those on foot. For pedestrians, Oxford Street will become a sniper’s alley.

Turning to the NHS, Sir Ed Davey told the Lib Dem annual conference: “We know the terrible state of the public finances thanks to the Conservatives’ shocking mismanagement. There can be no doubt about the scale of the challenge ahead.

“Yet that makes it even more important to make the investment we’ve proposed in frontline NHS services – not less. Because if you invest wisely, if you make sure people can get the care they need, when and where they need it, if you bring down waiting lists and get people back to work, if you help people to stay healthy for longer, not only will you dramatically improve people’s lives, but you will actually save taxpayers’ money in the future and give the economy the boost it needs.

“The problem is, the Treasury simply isn’t wired to think this way. Instead, we have the short-term negative thinking that leads governments to postpone hospital repairs and cancel new buildings – short-term thinking to save a bit of money now, even though you know it will only cost a lot more in the future.”

The Lib Dem leader added: “What if, instead of stumbling from crisis to crisis, instead of throwing more and more money at just plugging the gaps, what if we invested now to make the NHS winterproof?

“The government could and should make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS.”

Wing walking on a biplane was among the stunt ideas “rejected” during the Lib Dem election campaign, Sir Ed Davey has suggested.

He told conference delegates that he is “not supposed to tell you what stunt ideas were rejected – not least because they’re still trying to persuade me to do them for the next election”.

He added: “But I’ll let you into a little secret. It was only health and safety rules that stopped me putting my hand up a cow’s behind or wing walking on a biplane.”

Sir Ed Davey sang along to Abba’s “Take A Chance” as he arrived on stage for his Brighton conference keynote speech.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats said: “It’s been joyful, hasn’t it? Getting together to celebrate, and to start planning the future – having fun, but with a serious focus.

“It reminds me of our election campaign. Do you know they wanted me to wear a wetsuit today? But I said it was abseiling or nothing, so here we are, having a party after winning our largest number of MPs for over 100 years.”

Responding to the news that 10,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats since Labour came to power, a No 10 spokesperson told reporters: “Immediate work has been taking place.

“That includes starting to process asylum cases again where people have been sat in hotels without their cases being looked at.

“The prime minister spoke yesterday about 3,000 people being returned over the course of the summer and made the comparison with the £700m spent on four voluntary returns around the Rwanda scheme.

“In addition to that we have also announced a 50 per cent uplift in NCA officers in Europol and funding for 100 additional NCA officers, and you’ve also heard the home secretary announce new surveillance technology and investment in the Border Security Command.”

They added: “This is an issue that we are tackling on all fronts.”