Keir Starmer says workers asking for £15 an hour ‘not asking the earth’
Keir Starmer has admitted to having “huge disagreements” with his deputy Angela Rayner, three days after she called the Conservatives “scum”.
Speaking at the party conference on Saturday, Ms Rayner described the Tories as “homophobic, racist, misogynist…scum”. She later refused to apologise for the comments.
The Labour leader has sought to distance himself from her remarks. He told Sky News that he would not have used such language, before saying the pair have “huge agreements and disagreements”.
Meanwhile, the bakers’ union has decided to split from the party after working with it for almost 120 years.
Explaining the decision, the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union blamed Mr Starmer, citing “a factional internal war led by the leadership”.
“The decision taken by delegates who predominantly live in what’s regarded as Labour red wall seats shows how far the Labour party has travelled away from the aims and hopes of working class organisations like ours,” it said in a statement.
This comes the day after Andy McDonald, a friend of Jeremy Corbyn, resigned from the shadow cabinet over Mr Starmer’s refusal to support raising the minimum wage to £15 per hour.
McDonald resignation looks like ‘planned sabotage’
A frontbencher has suggested the resignation of Ian McDonald over the £15 minimum wage row was aimed to sabotage Sir Keir Starmer’s first in-person party conference.
Asked about the departure on the BBC, Ian Murray, shadow Scottish secretary, said: “We’re not quite sure why he resigned yesterday, he seems to have said one thing and written another.
“That looks as if it might be a planned sabotage of conference, rather than it being about any principle.”
He added: “This was a policy, don’t forget, that Andy McDonald and the shadow cabinet wrote, he put through shadow cabinet and he launched with much acclaim in the conference hall 48 hours before he resigned.
“We’re not quite sure why he resigned, but these things happen in politics and we’re all very angry and frustrated that the headlines are being dominated by one person when we should be talking about the big issues of the future.”
Liam James28 September 2021 10:14
Recap of last night’s resignation
Catch up on last night’s resignation row with Jon Stone’s coverage:
Liam James28 September 2021 10:21
Starmer showed support for £15 minimum wage in past
Sir Keir Starmer faces pressure over previous comments seemingly supporting a £15 minimum wage.
Andy McDonald last night resigned saying the Labour leader’s office told him to argue against bringing the minimum wage to £15.
Sir Keir shared a photo of himself on Twitter marching with McDonald’s workers for a £15 hourly wage during the 2019 election campaign.
At the time, he said: “They’re asking for the basics – £15 an hour, the right to know their hours in advance and to have trade union recognition. That ought to be the norm in 21st Century Britain.”
Liam James28 September 2021 10:37
Labour invokes Tony Blair with ‘tough on crime’ and anti-social behaviour push
Labour is to invoke Tony Blair’s “tough on crime” message and promise a crackdown on antisocial behaviour if it is elected, writes Jon Stone.
In a speech to the party’s conference, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, will accuse the Tories of being “soft on crime and soft on causes on crime”.
The comments are a knowing reference to Mr Blair’s claim New Labour would be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”.
The slogan was coined by Mr Blair when he was shadow Home Secretary in 1993, and kept on when he took over the party leadership.
More on the party’s proposals here:
Liam James28 September 2021 10:56
Diane Abbott: ‘Nonsense’ to say resignation was sabotage
Diane Abbott, who was shadow home secretary for Jeremy Corbyn, said it was “nonsense” to suggest Andy McDonald resigned to sabotage the Labour conference.
“Andy McDonald is not like that at all,” the Hackney North MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“It is a fact though that Keir Starmer supported £15 an hour until recently, and he’s been on protest demanding it.
“So it’s quite strange that he was so insistent that Andy McDonald argue with conference delegates for just £10 an hour.”
She added: “A lot of constituency delegates support £15 an hour. It’s the very least.”
Liam James28 September 2021 11:13
Thomas-Symonds says Starmer was ‘showing solidarity’ in £15 wage photos
Asked about photos of Sir Keir Starmer seemingly supporting a £15 minimum wage, Nick Thomas-Symonds, shadow home secretary, said the Labour leader had been “showing solidarity with those workers who were seeking to fight for it”.
He told LBC on the minimum wage that “what we will look at is the particular economic circumstances and make sure we offer something we can deliver”.
Liam James28 September 2021 11:22
20 delegates banned from Labour conference
Labour banned 20 delegates from its party conference for disciplinary reasons, the chair of the party constitutional arrangements committee revealed this morning.
Harry Donaldson said no constituency party had been disenfranchised by the bannings. In one case, he said, the sole delegate of a constituency was banned and a replacement was found.
Liam James28 September 2021 11:37
Corbyn column says Starmer wants to ‘prop up the rich and powerful’
Writing in the i today, Jeremy Corbyn attacked the stance of the Labour party under Sir Keir Starmer.
He said Sir Keir and his team had shown “they want to prop up, not challenge” the “wealth and power of the few”.
Here follow a few excerpts:
“This year we meet at a time of great change and crisis, perhaps larger than any other time in my 50-plus years of party membership. … The Tories have no solutions. There is a positive alternative, a common-sense programme that Labour could offer. But that road ahead does not run through attacking the energy and ideas of our members and trade unions.”
“We need public ownership of our energy system if we’re going to manage it effectively, keep bills down and rapidly decarbonise.”
“All over the world people are thirsting for massive social change – we should be part of that global movement, not apart from it.
If our leadership won’t champion that path, our movement must and will.”
Liam James28 September 2021 11:53
MP who quit Labour over antisemitism rejoins party
Dame Louise Ellman, a former Labour MP who quit in 2019 over antisemitism, met Sir Keir Starmer today after rejoining the party.
She said Labour was now being led by someone in whom “Britain’s Jews can have trust”.
Liam James28 September 2021 12:07
Starmer filmed saying £15 wage ‘should be the norm’
Taken during the McDonald’s workers and Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union protest in November 2019.
Liam James28 September 2021 12:21