Starmer to deliver Labour conference speech with left alarmed by plan for crackdown on benefit fraud
Good morning. Keir Starmer is giving his speech to the Labour conference this afternoon and, as the Guardian reports, his overall message will be one of qualified, long-term optimism. Another leader might have dressed this message up in poetic rhetoric, but Starmer will be using a straightforward cliche, telling the audience “there’s light at the end of the tunnel”. He will say:
The truth is that if we take tough long-term decisions now, if we stick to the driving purpose behind everything we do: higher economic growth – so living standards rise in every community; our NHS facing the future – waiting lists at your hospital down; safer streets in your community; stronger borders; more opportunities for your children; clean British energy powering your home; making our country more secure … then that light at the end of this tunnel, that Britain that belongs to you, we get there much more quickly.
Our preview story is here.
But the Times has been told the speech will also include plans for a crackdown on benefit fraud. It says Starmer will announce that the government will introduce a fraud, error and debt bill – not something that was mentioned in the king’s speech that happened only two months ago. It says:
The legislation will allow fraud investigators to compel banks to hand over information about people’s finances if there is a suspicion they are claiming benefits they are not entitled to.
It will also give them powers of “search and seizure” of people’s property in cases involving organised criminal gangs that are exploiting the benefits system.
The crackdown is designed to save the taxpayer £1.6 billion over the next five years by tackling fraud and reducing overpayments. Starmer will say that he wants to ensure that “every penny” of taxpayers’ money is spent on Labour’s pledge to “rebuild public services” ….
Banks will be required to tell the benefit system if people have savings of more than £16,000, the cut-off point for claiming benefits, or have been abroad for more than the four weeks allowed for universal credit claimants. Inspectors will then investigate and seek to recover overpayments.
The news that a right-leaning paper has been briefed about a crackdown on benefit cheats will worry the left and, in an interview on the Today programme this morning, John McDonnell, shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, said this reminded him of George Osborne.
I don’t say this lightly. If you close your eyes, and you listen to the language being used, it’s almost like George Osborne speaking again in 2010.
And when you hear politicians talk about “tough choices” or “painful decisions”, and then you hear some of the rhetoric around fraud and social security, literally that’s a replica of a speech made by George Osborne in 2010.
McDonnell may have been thinking of Osborne comparing benefit cheats to muggers when he was chancellor in 2010, although Osborne also associated with the “strivers versus shirkers” language used to demonise people on benefits by the Tories later during the coalition years.
But, to be fair to Starmer, this does not seem to be the language he is using. The Times story includes a quote from the Starmer speech this afternoon not included in the overnight preview sent to all newspapers. It says Starmer will tell the conference:
We will get the welfare bill down because we will tackle long-term sickness and get people back to work. We will make every penny work for you because we will root out waste and go after tax avoiders. There will be no stone left unturned.
The paper also says the welfare fraud initiative is a response to growing concern that the benefit system is increasingly being targeted by organised crime. Earlier this year the Department for Work and Pensions highlighted the conviction of a gang behind a £54m fraud.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.45am: Conference opens.
10am: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, opens a debate on “Safe Streets, Stronger Policing”. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is also speaking at 11.35am.
11am: Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, takes part in an ‘in conversation’ event at a fringe meeting.
2pm: Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech.
4pm: Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, opens a “Fixing the Foundations” debate.
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Key events
Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
People don’t know what Labour’s five missions are, says Alastair Campbell, as he argues its communications must improve
In his Telegraph article this morning Prof Sir John Curtice, the leading psephologist, says Keir Starmer has not been very good at setting out “a clear vision of the kind of country he wants to create”. (See 8.46am.) In an interview with the Today programme this morning, Alastair Campbell, who used to be in charge of communications for Tony Blair and who now co-hosts the very popular Rest is Politcs podcast, said much the same.
Campbell argued that the government got off to good start, but he said the riots “knocked them slightly off course, even though they handled it well”. In the run-up to the conference season, a “gap” emerged in communication, he said. He went on:
And I think in this gap there has been maybe just a lack of that strategic communication, where you understand that in government – which is much, much, much harder than opposition – you have to all the time be devising, executing and narrating your strategy, what the government is for, what the government is trying to do, where the government is trying to get to.
And when that doesn’t happen, then what tends to happen – particularly with a pretty hostile media which is not averse to double standards in the way it treats Labour viz a viz the Conservatives – that is when you get stuff filled with clothes and Sue Gray’s salary and all the behind-the-scenes stuff.
If you have that clear, consistent, strategic narrative, that is relentlessly being put out there, then that is when you give the country – which, by the way, doesn’t want to have politics in its face the whole time – that sense of this is what the government is about, this is what the government is trying to do.
Campbell praised Starmer’s five missions for government. He said they related to issues that people care about. But he said that talking to people at the conference last night, he was struck that even “people who are really plugged into politics” were struggling when he asked them to say what the five missions were. He went on:
You can’t blame the public for that. That’s a matter of the government being clear in its communication and the narration of that strategy, so the people cannot get any doubt about what they’re trying to do.
The Daily Mirror is also running an exclusive line on what Keir Starmer will say in his speech. In her story, Lizzy Buchan says that Starmer will confirm plans for a Hillsborough law. She says:
Speaking at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, the PM will confirm that the new legislation will be brought to Parliament by April. Known as Hillsborough Law, it will give victims of injustice greater power to take on the state, creating a legal duty of candour for public servants such as police officers.
This (unlike the fraud bill – see 8.17am) was is in the king’s speech.
And the Sun is running a story by Harry Cole saying Starmer will tell the conference that “firms found to be abusing visa rules or sponsorships will be outlawed from hiring foreigners”. It says Starmer will say in his speech:
It is the policy of this government to reduce both net migration and our economic dependency on it.
I have never thought we should be relaxed about some sectors importing labour when there are millions of young people, ambitious and highly talented, who are desperate to work and contribute.
McFadden does not rule out welfare cuts in budget
Pat McFadden did not rule out benefits being cut in the budget when he was asked about welfare in an interview with Sky News this morning.
Asked if Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was considering benefit cuts, the Cabinet Office minister replied:
She won’t start from that point of view, but she will start from saying there are too many people on long-term sickness benefits.
What can we do to get people back into work? There is some fraud in the system too, which we’re going to act on.
It’s really important that if money is spent on benefits, it goes to those who are genuinely in need of it, and where there’s fraud in the system that we try to root that out.
That’s two things that we do want to do. To get people back to work, and to make sure that money spent in this system goes to those who are genuinely in need of it.
When Reeves made her statement to MPs about the £22bn black hole in the public finances, she said the budget on 30 October would involve “difficult decisions to meet our fiscal rules across spending, welfare and tax”.
Starmer will tell conference ‘good times on the horizon’, says Pat McFadden
Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, has been doing an interview round this morning to roll the pitch for Keir Starmer’s “light at the end of the tunnel” speech. Speaking on Times Radio, McFadden said there were “good times on the horizon”.
We’ll hear from the prime minister today in what is a really big moment for us, the first speech from a Labour prime minister to Labour conference for 15 years, is that although the fiscal government budget situation is tough, there are good times on the horizon if we get stability right.
McFadden has never been seen as a purveyor of Boris Johnson-style boosterism – during Labour’s opposition years, his main role in the party was to warn against complacency – and in the interview Stig Abell put it to him that he was an unlikely spokesperson for hope. McFadden seemed willing to joke at his own expense. He replied:
I’m shocked. If it’s optimism and sunshine you want, I am your man.
The Daily Telegraph is running an article this morning by Prof Sir John Curtice, the BBC’s lead elections expert and one of the most respected psephologists in the country. The headline says: “The writing is already on the wall for Labour’s floundering government.” In an interview on the Today programme this morning, Curtice distanced himself from that headline, saying “floundering” wasn’t what he wrote. But his assessment in the article is still quite negative.
Curtice said that Labour won the election, not because voters were enthusiastic about the party, but because they were determined to get rid of the Tories. Reform UK, not Labour, gained most from this, he said. He went on:
Nearly one in four 2019 Conservative voters switched to Reform compared with just one in eight who backed Labour.
As a result, Labour won just 35 per cent of the vote – in an election where only three in five voted. Never before has a party won an overall majority with so low a share of the vote. Consequently, the pool of voters willing to give it the benefit of the doubt is unusually small.
Curtice also said that, although Starmer’s popularity rose at the time of the election, that boost has “rapidly disappeared”. He went on:
The trouble is, Sir Keir entered 10 Downing St having conspicuously failed – in contrast to Tony Blair or David Cameron – over the previous four years to impress himself favourably on voters. It was never going to take much of a slip for Sir Keir’s post-election halo of success to disappear.
One key weakness underlay his lack of popularity before entering office – an apparent inability to articulate a clear vision of the kind of country he wants to create. Labour’s slogan in July was “Change” – and at this week’s conference it is “Change Begins”. Neither makes the intended destination clear.
There was a much more negative assessment of Labour’s position in polling published by More in Common yesterday. I posted the highlights on the blog last night just before we closed down.
Starmer to deliver Labour conference speech with left alarmed by plan for crackdown on benefit fraud
Good morning. Keir Starmer is giving his speech to the Labour conference this afternoon and, as the Guardian reports, his overall message will be one of qualified, long-term optimism. Another leader might have dressed this message up in poetic rhetoric, but Starmer will be using a straightforward cliche, telling the audience “there’s light at the end of the tunnel”. He will say:
The truth is that if we take tough long-term decisions now, if we stick to the driving purpose behind everything we do: higher economic growth – so living standards rise in every community; our NHS facing the future – waiting lists at your hospital down; safer streets in your community; stronger borders; more opportunities for your children; clean British energy powering your home; making our country more secure … then that light at the end of this tunnel, that Britain that belongs to you, we get there much more quickly.
Our preview story is here.
But the Times has been told the speech will also include plans for a crackdown on benefit fraud. It says Starmer will announce that the government will introduce a fraud, error and debt bill – not something that was mentioned in the king’s speech that happened only two months ago. It says:
The legislation will allow fraud investigators to compel banks to hand over information about people’s finances if there is a suspicion they are claiming benefits they are not entitled to.
It will also give them powers of “search and seizure” of people’s property in cases involving organised criminal gangs that are exploiting the benefits system.
The crackdown is designed to save the taxpayer £1.6 billion over the next five years by tackling fraud and reducing overpayments. Starmer will say that he wants to ensure that “every penny” of taxpayers’ money is spent on Labour’s pledge to “rebuild public services” ….
Banks will be required to tell the benefit system if people have savings of more than £16,000, the cut-off point for claiming benefits, or have been abroad for more than the four weeks allowed for universal credit claimants. Inspectors will then investigate and seek to recover overpayments.
The news that a right-leaning paper has been briefed about a crackdown on benefit cheats will worry the left and, in an interview on the Today programme this morning, John McDonnell, shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, said this reminded him of George Osborne.
I don’t say this lightly. If you close your eyes, and you listen to the language being used, it’s almost like George Osborne speaking again in 2010.
And when you hear politicians talk about “tough choices” or “painful decisions”, and then you hear some of the rhetoric around fraud and social security, literally that’s a replica of a speech made by George Osborne in 2010.
McDonnell may have been thinking of Osborne comparing benefit cheats to muggers when he was chancellor in 2010, although Osborne also associated with the “strivers versus shirkers” language used to demonise people on benefits by the Tories later during the coalition years.
But, to be fair to Starmer, this does not seem to be the language he is using. The Times story includes a quote from the Starmer speech this afternoon not included in the overnight preview sent to all newspapers. It says Starmer will tell the conference:
We will get the welfare bill down because we will tackle long-term sickness and get people back to work. We will make every penny work for you because we will root out waste and go after tax avoiders. There will be no stone left unturned.
The paper also says the welfare fraud initiative is a response to growing concern that the benefit system is increasingly being targeted by organised crime. Earlier this year the Department for Work and Pensions highlighted the conviction of a gang behind a £54m fraud.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.45am: Conference opens.
10am: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, opens a debate on “Safe Streets, Stronger Policing”. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is also speaking at 11.35am.
11am: Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, takes part in an ‘in conversation’ event at a fringe meeting.
2pm: Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech.
4pm: Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, opens a “Fixing the Foundations” debate.
Comments are not available yet, but they will open quite soon. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. I’m still using X and I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I’m also trying Bluesky (@andrewsparrowgdn) and Threads (@andrewsparrowtheguardian).
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.