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?
Starmer says:
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.
They 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
Anas Sarwar suggests Starmer should ‘stop being shy’ of promoting UK government’s successes
Anthony Albanese says Labor in Australia has shown patriotism can by ‘truly progressive force’
Reed says housebuilding will start in at least 3 new town locations before
Modern Tories like Jenrick don’t have ‘values system’ like old-style Conservatives, Labour’s general secretary claims
Labour members welcome Starmer’s decision to describe Reform UK’s immigration policy as racist
Armed forces families and veterans to get priority for some housing built on surplus MoD land under ‘Forces First’ plan
Badenoch claims Starmer’s ‘manifesto stands’ interview answer implies VAT may rise in budget
Labour activists applaud Angela Rayner as Reed calls her ‘true working class hero’
Reform UK accuses Starmer of describing its supporters as racist – despite PM saying he wasn’t
Anas Sarwar says he, not Starmer, will lead Labour’s campaign in next year’s Holyrood elections
Steve Reed says he does not think Unite will disaffiliate from Labour, despite Sharon Graham saying it could
Starmer thanks campaigners as he opens conference saying Hillsborough law show government ‘on side of justice’
Government identifies sites for 12 new towns
Starmer’s BBC interview – snap verdict
Starmer says goverment will restrict spending on taxi rides for asylum seekers in hotels after huge bills revealed
Starmer says he has ‘for some time’ thought left wrong to ignore concerns about illegal immigration
Starmer brushes off criticism, saying it’s part of ‘job description’ and he’ll be judged on his 5-year record
Starmer denies putting donkey field he bought for his parents into trust, after report claims he did, with potential tax benefits
‘Manifesto stands’, Starmer says, when asked he remains committed to election commitment not to raise VAT
Starmer says Reform’s indefinite leave to remain policy immoral and ‘racist’
Starmer says Reform UK’s plan to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants who have it would ‘tear country apart’
Starmer stresses he always said turning Britain around would take time, in response to questions about poor Labour polling
Steve Reed says he is confident Starmer will lead Labour into next election, after poll suggests members want him replaced
53% of Labour members want new leader before election, poll suggests
Shabana Mahmood says migrants who want indefinite leave to remain should have to be contributing to communities
Starmer calls on Labour to stop ‘navel-gazing’ and join ‘fight of our times’ as Labour conference begins
Anas Sarwar suggests Starmer should ‘stop being shy’ of promoting UK government’s successes
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has challenged Keir Starmer and party strategists to “stop being shy” of the UK government’s successes, implying that without a dramatically bolder sales pitch Labour faces obliteration in next year’s Holyrood elections.
In a speech peppered with direct attacks on John Swinney, leader of the “knackered” Scottish National party leader, and “poisonous” Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, Sarwar directly his main message internally.
He repeatedly chided Labour for being too shy on boasting about its achievements – appearing to echo growing concerns within the party and the cabinet Starmer is failing to construct a coherent story about Labour’s policies.
With Scottish Labour has surprised its critics by winning several key byelections, its popularity as measured by opinion polls has plummeted, in line with the UK party’s steep decline.
The latest Norstat poll for the Sunday Times Scotland underscored growing anxiety in Sarwar’s party, by placing Labour third behind reform in a Holyrood constituency vote, at 17% to Reform’s 20%. The SNP are comfortably in the lead at 34%.
Despite the byelection wins, many of Sarwar’s allies fear those findings demonstrate Labour is in deep trouble. Sarwar is seen as being increasingly equivocal about whether he believes Starmer is the right Labour leader.
Sarwar used the word “shy” eight times in his speech, as he drummed home his appeal.
Conference, since getting rid of the Tories last summer, we have begun the work of clearing up their mess, and changing this country for the better.
But let’s be honest, it’s not been easy. It was never going to be. That’s why we need to be more confident in telling our Labour story.
We can’t expect the right-wing press to do our jobs for us. We can’t afford to be shy about the successes we have had.
Or about the positive changes we are making. If we aren’t going to talk about our successes – then no one else will. If we aren’t going to tell our positive story, then people aren’t going to hear it.
Anthony Albanese says Labor in Australia has shown patriotism can by ‘truly progressive force’
Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM and Labor party leader, gave a speech that did not directly refer to Keir Starmer’s leadership difficulties (see 8.59am), but which seemed intended to be as supportive as possible in the circumstances. Speaking as someone who has already won two general elections, he was able to so so with some authority.
Here are the main points he made.
[The labour movement should] should build cohesion and respect and harmony at home. We do that by embracing patriotism as a truly progressive force, by demonstrating that our love of country is what drives us to serve, and also to change it for the better.
This is now Starmer’s core argument. (See 11.23pm.)
For Labour governments, every single day counts because it takes time to turn promises into progress.
It takes time for plans to work and be seen to work. For inflation to fall, wages to rise, new homes to be finished, new energy connected, new hospitals to open, new investments in education to flow into results.
It takes time to tackle problems that have been created over decades. It takes time to repay trust by delivering on commitments, and in doing so, build trust for future action.
It takes time to make change with people and make change work for people, and none of that means we can expect or ask for patience.
But Albanese recognised that governments have to be able to respond to some problems immediately.
The challenges that the world throws at us, from economic turmoil to threats to our national security, never wait, and the action that we need to take on climate change, the work we need to do to seize the jobs and opportunities of clean energy, that cannot wait.
So while governments always need to be able to tell the difference between what’s urgent and what’s important, in the end, we have to do both.
In his BBC interview this morning Starmer said he wanted to be judged by what he achieved over five years. (See 10am.)
We didn’t pretend that we had solved every problem in just three years, but we could point to an economy that was turning the corner, inflation down, wages up, unemployment low, and interest rates starting to fall, and we offered a second term agenda that built on the patient and disciplined work we had done in our first term.
He said that, if delegates got angry at conference, it was a sign they were taking politics seriously. He said:
The debates that we hold here are not just healthy, they’re essential. They’re a sign of life.
The reason passions run high at our conferences is because we really care, because the stakes are really high, because what happens here really matters.
There has not been much dissent on the conference floor yet – although there was an argument this morning about why some Gaza motions have been disallowed.
We all know this is a time when trust in governments and institutions is under challenge.
We all sense this is an era where our capacity for peaceful disagreement is being tested.
But what I see here in UK Labour, and this man, this leader, this prime minister, my friend, is the same determination that I know lives in every member of the Australian Labor party, an absolute resolve to stand together and defend democracy itself.
These are from Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a thinktank focusing on race, identity and migration, on why he says Keir Starmer was right to describe Reform UK’s indefinite leave to remain policy as racist.
Its wrong & un-British to strip from people the promise that this was their permanent home
Is it racist too? Farage is now exempting 4m European nationals with settled status, 9/10 white, but threatening half a million non-Europeans, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Africa in a similar ethical position
The impact is discriminatory, whatever the intention. The discrimination is avoided by making new rules apply in future and not reneging on past pledges. Farage appears to accept this principle for Europeans, on reflection, but not the Commonwealth yet. How does he explain the difference?
Labour speakers from the platform at conference today have been aimed almost all their fire at Reform UK, with other opposition parties barely getting a mention. This is what Anna Turley, the Labour chair, told the conference about Nigel Farage’s party.
Let’s be clear, the Reform party isn’t new, or different, as they like to claim.
They are a party of recycled Tories with recycled ideas.
And they stand ready to exploit division for their own political gain.
Masquerading as patriots whilst their leader jets to the US to call for trade penalties on the UK.
And on issue after issue – asylum, online safety, or how to pay for their policies they have no serious answer on how to fix things aside from saying they ‘don’t know’.
Conference, that is Reform: cuts, chaos, and trying to turn people against one another.
Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM, is speaking to the conference now. He was introduced by Keir Starmer who described “Albo” as a genuine friend, and described how he turned up at Downing Street on Friday with four tins of Albo beer as a present.
Reed says housebuilding will start in at least 3 new town locations before
In his speech to the conference Steve Reed, the housing secretary, said that housebuilding would start before the next election in at least three of the 12 “new town locations” announced by the government this morning. (See 11.39am.)
He said:
I can announce today that we will go ahead with work in at least 12 locations with Tempsford, Leeds South Bank and Crews Hill identified as three of the most promising sites.
We’ll build homes people feel proud to live in.
Communities with schools, hospitals, good public transport, green spaces on the doorstep, and the investment that brings good, well paid, unionised jobs to the area.
And we’ll work with world-class architects to design each new town with its own character and distinct, unique identity.
We’ll back the builders by streamlining planning rules so local people have a voice but we can get spades in the ground much faster.
So we’ll start building homes in at least three new town locations before the next general election …
When I said ‘build baby build’, I meant it.
In her speech Hollie Ridley, Labour’s general secretary, said that in 2026 the party would be fighting “the Greens with their ‘let’s be all things to all people’ strategy”.
If that is the Greens’ strategy, it seems to be working. The Green party of England and Wales has just announced that its membership has passed 80,000 – an increase of almost 20% since Zack Polanski was elected leader at the start of September.
Modern Tories like Jenrick don’t have ‘values system’ like old-style Conservatives, Labour’s general secretary claims
Hollie Ridley, the Labour general secretary, claimed that modern Tories are less principled than their predecessors in her speech to the conference this morning.
Without even mentioning Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, she said:
Gone are your grandparents’ Tories.
We may have disagreed with them. But they had a code – a values system.
They have been replaced by the likes of Robert Jenrick – a man driven by nothing but his own personal ambition.
Conference, the country can never be led by somebody like that.
And, on Reform UK, she said:
That brings me on to Nigel Farage.
A man who wants to replace our NHS with an insurance model of healthcare.
A man who voted against banning zero hours contracts.
A man who called for the US to implement trade penalties on the UK, even though he knew it could cost jobs and drive up bills for the British public.
The man is fundamentally unfit for office.
Ridley also made a point of thanking the party’s donors.
Conference, I cut my teeth as a trainee organiser. When I was first employed by the Labour party, my role was part funded – part by the GMB and part by a private donor, Graham Cole.
And because of them, the Labour party was able to take a chance on a working class girl from Dagenham and change my life forever.
But being a donor to a political party isn’t easy. It comes with a huge amount of scrutiny.
People question your motives.
But conference, I have worked with so many of our donors over the last year.
I have seen first-hand that they are driven by the same thing that drives us all – a desire to deliver positive change in the world.
We are very lucky to have them.
Labour members welcome Starmer’s decision to describe Reform UK’s immigration policy as racist
Helena Horton
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Leading Labour figures have praised Keir Starmer for calling out of what he called Reform UK “racist” policy to remove indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from immigrants to the UK.
Speaking at a Labour List fringe on how to “turn the green tide”, John McTernan, former advisor to Tony Blair, said:
Starmer was right this week to name [Reform] as the enemy. He’s right today to say they’re racist. We were wrong about the last month or so to say “that won’t work. Their proposals won’t work. They’re a gimmick.” Their proposals are morally wrong.
McTernan added that Starmer needs to keep making a strong argument against Reform up to the next election.
It’s wrong for them to say, if you’ve chosen to live in our country and work in the country, that you can have your indefinite leave to remain ripped away from you. This is a generational battle, and I trust in the British people, but this party wins when it’s united.
But Thangam Debonnaire, Labour peer and former MP who lost her Bristol seat to the Greens, said that the party could no longer rely on people of colour to vote for them and needs to stand up against racism. Referring to Shabana Mahmood’s comments in an interview published today about ILF (see 8.39am), Debonnaire said:
For many generations, the Labour party has always banked on the votes of people of colour. That is no longer true.
And one of the reasons we can’t be banked is some of the people who are going to be affected by what was announced this morning from us on indefinite leave to remain. [The proposals] affect us in particular, and they affect us in very particular ways. And even if the rules end up not quite affecting us all, it feels like that’s where the arrow is being shot.
Bella Sankey, leader of Brighton and Hove Town Council, also on the panel agreed that Labour needs to keep speaking strongly against racist, far-right comments. She said:
As a mixed heritage person, it’s very clear to me that the party needs to call out proactively and consistently the racism of our opponents. I was pleased to see the prime minister do it this morning. Reform is a racist party.
She said that mainstream Conservatives were also now making racial, far-right comments and that that had to be “called out” too.
Armed forces families and veterans to get priority for some housing built on surplus MoD land under ‘Forces First’ plan
Labour has announced that serving and former members of the armed forces will get priority for some homes build on surplus Ministry of Defence land.
John Healey, the defence secretary, will mention the pledge in his conference speech tomorrow, but the party has announced details this morning, confirming a Telegraph story.
Labour says:
The move will see a presumption for armed forces personnel and veterans to receive priority access through ‘first dibs’ on new homes built on surplus MoD land. It will also see high quality new service family accommodation (SFA) for serving personnel to rent, as Labour works to ‘stop the rot’ of poor military housing and turn around years of falling military morale under the Tories.
The measures would apply to a proportion of new homes on selected sites, agreed between MoD, the local authority and the developer based on demand and site viability.
The ‘Forces First’ proposals form part of the upcoming defence housing strategy which will deliver a generational renewal of armed forces housing, while supporting a drive to supercharge housebuilding on surplus defence land, delivering high quality affordable homes for working families across Britain. The defence secretary has identified the long-term potential for over 100,000 homes on repurposed Defence land.
A trailblazer for this approach is already underway at MOD Feltham in south-west London, where the MOD, the London Borough of Hounslow and the GLA have agreed to adopt a ‘Forces First’ approach as part of a groundbreaking partnership to develop the site. Once vacated, this new development alone is expected to deliver hundreds of homes and jobs. Under the new approach, the aim will be for a portion of the homes to have first priority for military personnel or veterans, including some of the intermediate affordable housing built on site.
Badenoch claims Starmer’s ‘manifesto stands’ interview answer implies VAT may rise in budget
Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Keir Starmer’s VAT answer on the BBC this morning implies it is likely to go up in the budget. (See 9.32am.) She posted this on social media.
Keir Starmer just failed three times to rule out a hike in VAT.
Claiming that ‘the manifesto stands’ is not the same as saying ‘no rise in VAT’.
The PM must rule out hiking VAT immediately, or working people will fear another Labour tax bombshell in the budget.
Labour activists applaud Angela Rayner as Reed calls her ‘true working class hero’
Steve Reed, the housing secretary, is speaking now.
He started by paying tribute to his predecessor, Angela Rayner, calling her “a true working class hero”. That generated loud applause.
Reed became housing secretary three weeks ago after Rayner resigned over her inadvertent failure to pay the right amount of stamp duty when she bought a flat.
UPDATE: Reed said:
So I can begin by thanking my good friend Angela Rayner for all she has done for our party and our government over so many years.
For workers rights, for local government, for building council homes – Angela, you are a true working class hero.
Ellie Reeves, chair of Labour’s national policy forum, used her speech to the conference this morning to ridicule Reform UK’s approach to making policy. She said:
Until recently, [Reform UK] was literally owned by one individual: Nigel Farage.
A man who when asked about his policies said, and I quote: “If you ask me, how are you going to do this, I can’t really give you an answer”.
So how do they solve that problem?
By importing failed Tories to help them write their policies.
If the answer is Nadine Dorries, then you’re asking the wrong question.
Conference that is not how a serious party responds to the challenges our country faces.
Reeves said Labour members were involved in party policy making, unlike their counterparts in Reform or the Conservative party.
She said the national policy’s forum’s annual report, published by the party, showed “our collective voice continues to drive our Labour government’s work”.
Labour activists applauded in tribute to party figures who have died since their last conference, PA Media reports.
Included on the memoriam list was Hefin David, the member of the Senedd for Caerphilly between 2016 and his death at age 47 earlier this year.
Labour faces competition from rival parties in a by-election for the seat on 23 October.
The applause rose in a crescendo when ohn Prescott’s picture was displayed on screens in the conference hall.
The former deputy prime minister died age 86 in November.
Reform UK accuses Starmer of describing its supporters as racist – despite PM saying he wasn’t
But Nigel Farage’s colleagues are claiming that Keir Starmer was calling Reform UK supporters racists.
This is from Zia Yusuf, the Reform UK head of policy.
“Pay hundreds of billions for foreign nationals to live off the state forever, or we’ll call you racist!”
Labour’s new message to the British electorate just dropped:
And this is from the Reform MP Sarah Pochin.
Wanting to stand up for our country and stop our welfare system being abused is not racist, @Keir_Starmer. It is called standing up for the British people. You should try it sometime.
In his interview Starmer made a point of stressing that he was not calling Reform supporters racist. See 9.22am.
This is what Nigel Farage has posted on social media this morning responding to what Keir Starmer said about him this morning. He has not commented in detail on Starmer’s criticism of his plans to remove indefinite leave to remain.
Farage is referring to this More in Common polling.
