Like the Telegraph (see 11.25am), the Times has also published a new article with a Tory endorsement for Kemi Badenoch, but this one is potentially more significant. Margaret Thatcher is no longer with us, but for Conservative party members she is still the one figure from the party’s recent past whose authority is more or less unquestioned and Peter Lilley has written an article claiming that Badenoch would be a worthy inheritor of her mantle. He says Thatcher was a scientist, and Badenoch is an engineering graduate. Like Thatcher, Badenoch is focused on facts, and what works, he says. He goes on:

Leadership candidates are under great pressure to make popular pledges, to abolish specific taxes or set a numerical limit on immigration. Kemi, rightly in my view, has refused to do so. Voters want lower taxes and much less immigration (as do I), but they have seen every glib promise broken. To convince them, a new leader will need to show first, that policies have been rigorously worked out in practical terms and second, that we truly believe in them rather than adopting them to win votes. As Margaret Thatcher said: “To carry conviction, you must have conviction.”

Conviction is the fruit of hard-nosed scepticism. Kemi’s approach is similar to Margaret Thatcher’s, for whom I once worked. When ministers took a policy to her which was in line with all her prejudices, expecting instant approval, she would tear into it, challenging every weakness. Only when satisfied that a policy was totally robust would she take it on board – but then she pursued it with unwavering conviction. Kemi is likewise willing to challenge, criticise and expose weaknesses, which does not endear her to everyone. But we cannot afford to go on adopting half-baked, unworkable policies.

As equalities minister, Kemi refused to acquiesce in Nicola Sturgeon’s policy of letting men self-identify as women and sending rapists to a women’s prison. Sturgeon’s policy duly unravelled, leading to her demise and pricking the SNP separatist balloon.

Lilley, who is now a member of the House of Lords, served in cabinet under Thatcher and is closely associated with her free market, Eurosceptic politics.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak says Reform UK leaders ‘are frauds’, not patriots, and ‘no friends of working class’

Heather Stewart

Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, has used his address to its annual congress in Brighton to attack the rightwing Reform party, in the wake of the summer riots.

He said:

I don’t believe for one minute that most of those who voted Reform at the last election are racist, but let me say this clearly, and unequivocally. Nigel Farage isn’t a friend of the working class. He’s a fraud, a public school educated, private equity loving, NHS privatising, Putin apologist fraud.

Highlighting the story of his grandfather, who came to Britain with the Polish RAF, Nowak said Reform are “not patriots, they’re frauds”.

Recalling a trip to Ukraine, where he met union leaders and visited a children’s hospital subsequently bombed by the Russians, he said:

When I see Farage, making excuses for Russia’s illegal and indefensible invasion of Ukraine, it turns my stomach.

Congress – I’ll say it again – the far-right, hate mongers are no friends of the working class. They’re not patriots. They are frauds.

As he addressed the first TUC gathering under a Labour government for 15 years, delegates cheered and joined in what Nowak called a “roll call of political failure,” as he listed Tory MPs who lost their seats in July, including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Liz Truss.

With dissent over Rachel Reeves’s cut to winter fuel allowance increasingly vocal among colleagues, he also urged TUC members to be patient, warning that “no government can put right 14 years of Tory chaos overnight,” and highlighting victories already won, including the repeal of anti-strike laws. (See 11.32am.)

Nowak himself has expressed concerns about Reeves’s decision, and Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has urged Keir Starmer to reverse it. (See 10.29am.)

Earlier contributions from union delegates in Brighton underlined the parlous state of public services, from cockroach-infested prisons, to schools teaching children in temporary classrooms.

Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, has just finished addressing the TUC conference now. He started by congratulating TUC members on their work campaigning against the Tory plans for minimum service levels during strikes – a law that would have forced some public sector workers to carry on working during strikes called by their unions.

The last government passed legislation to make this happen, but employers like train companies never tried taking advantage of the law (they concluded that using the law would only provoke unions, leading to even more disruption), and the new Labour government is going to repeal the act. Nowak told trade unionists they had “protected the fundamental right to strike for future generations of working people”.

In a move that seems timed to coincide with the TUC conference, Justin Madders, the employment rights minister, has this morning issued a written ministerial statement confirming that the the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 will be repealed. He also said that, while it remains in force, the government has “strongly encouraged” employers not to use it. Madders says:

We have begun preparations to repeal the 2023 Act as part of the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill. Amendments made by the 2023 Act to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”) will accordingly be reversed and any minimum service regulations will lapse automatically once the employment rights bill has royal assent.

Although the ability of employers to give work notices will legally continue until the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 has been formally repealed and amendments to the 1992 Act are accordingly reversed, in this interim period we have strongly encouraged employers to seek alternative mechanisms for dispute resolution, including voluntary agreements, rather than imposing minimum service levels.

I will post more from Nowak’s speech shortly.

Keir Starmer has said he wants to “double down” on efforts to tackle knife crime.

As PA Media reports, speaking at the Downing Steet meeting this morning to set up the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime, Starmer said:

Before the election, I made commitments to people around this table and others in relation to a determination to deal with knife crime. And it is a determination.

Now I want to double down on that commitment. It wasn’t a commitment said before the election that’s then forgotten the other side of the election – I think many people are far too familiar with that kind of politics.

Starmer said that knives were “too easily available”, and that it was “shocking” how straightforward it was to get them online. He also hinted tougher punishments might be needed, saying:

We also need to deal with the sanctions for those that are found with knives.

The actor Idris Elba, who was at the meeting because of his campaigning on knife crime, told the meeting that he hoped that, by tackling the factors behind the problem, the new initiative could make a practical difference over the next few years. He said:

We aren’t going to end knife crime. We can’t, that’s not realistic.

But we can tackle the attributes towards it. At the centre of it is obviously young people – my son’s 10, and I’m hoping the work that we do annually, keep pushing, [can] help him by the time he’s 16.

There are kids right now that are 16-24, they’re in that cycle right now that we might not be able to help, but with our joined-up thinking we can help future generations.

Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, told the Today programme this morning that Keir Starmer should be “big enough and brave enough” to perform a U-turn on the plan to means-test the winter fuel allowance. She said:

We need to make sure that [Starmer] is making the right choices and leadership is about choices. He needs to be big enough and brave enough to do a U-turn on this choice. It’s completely wrong.

People do not understand how a Labour government has decided to pick the pocket of pensioners and, at the same time, leave the richest in our society totally untouched. That is wrong and he needs to change course.

Graham said Britain could not afford another round of austerity.

I’m a trade union leader and my job is to defend workers. I also have 100,000 pensioners in the union … and I’m talking on behalf of those as well today. The point here is, when you’re hearing words [like] ‘tough choices’, that says to me ‘cuts’.

And this country cannot go through another round of austerity, it’s not possible for people to go through another round of austerity. If it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck, it’s a duck.

And she renewed her call for a wealth tax instead.

Let’s be really clear here, this is saving minutiae in terms of money. It’s £1.2bn in saving. And at the same time you’ve got the 50 richest families in Britain worth £500bn. £500bn in the hands of the 50 richest families.

Why has Labour made a choice to not tax the 1% wealthiest, which would get £25bn back into the pot, black hole gone, £3bn left over? Why have they decided to put pensioners through pain to save £1.2bn, which quite frankly doesn’t touch the sides of this so-called black hole? It’s wrong-footed, they should change their decision and he needs to be big enough and brave enough to say ‘look I’ve made an error here’. People make errors. Leadership is about making choices and knowing when you’ve done something wrong.

Good morning. When Keir Starmer says he is willing to take tough, unpopular decisions as PM, he is using language leaders have relied on for centuries, often quite effectively. But the problem with this approach is that it is not just a rhetorical device; it can get very, very tough, and it might make you exceedingly unpopular. This week, with MPs voting on the plan to means-test the winter fuel payments tomorrow, and peers voting on it on Wednesday, Starmer is facing arguably the first serious test of his resolve on the “tough decisions” front as PM. It won’t be his last.

Judging by events this morning, he is holding firm. Government sources have said that a minister was wrong this morning when she implied ministers are considering watering down the plans to means-test the winter fuel payment.

Critics are angry because – under the proposal announced by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, in July – only the very poorest pensioners, those claiming pension credit, will continue to get the winter fuel allowance, which is worth up to £300 per person. More than a million pensions who are regarded as living in poverty will still lose the allowance, according to some estimates. Diana Johnson, a Home Office minister, was doing an interview round this morning (she was meant to be talking about knife crime) and on the Today programme she was asked by Mishal Husain if the government would consider means-testing the winter fuel allowance in a more generous way, allowing more pensioners on low and moderate incomes to keep it. Johnson twice insisted that she was not privy to these discussions, and that it was a matter for the Treasury and the DWP. But when Husain asked her a third time, saying that one idea is for pensioners in council tax bands A to D to carry on getting the winter fuel payment, and another is for a social tariff that would force firms to offer cheaper energy to poor pensioners, Johnson replied:

I am sure across government all these measures are being looked at.

In context, this sounded more like Johnson trying to give a slightly more sophisticated version of the ‘I don’t know’ answer (in theory government is always looking at ideas if people are talking about them). But Johnson’s comment could have been interpreted as implying that ministers are actively planning some sort of U-turn, and within minutes the government briefing machine was in action to say that no concession is on the way. This is from Henry Zeffman, the BBC’s chief political correspondent.

Government sources saying that Home Office minister Diana Johnson misspoke this morning when she said that the Treasury was looking at ways to soften the impact of the winter fuel allowance cut, including a social tariff for energy bills

I will post more from Johnson’s interview round soon.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Keir Starmer hosts a meeting on knife crime at 4Downing Street.

10am: Ros Altmann, a former Tory pensions minister who is leading attempts in the Lords to block the proposed cut to the winter fuel payment, speaks at a Resolution Foundation conference.

10am: The Covid inquiry module looking at the impact of the pandemic on healthcare opens, with statements from counsel.

11am: Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, speaks at the TUC conference in Brighton.

Lunchtime: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

2.30pm: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, takes question in the Commons.

4pm: The five Tory leadership candidates still in the contest hold a hustings with MPs in private.

6pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is due to address Labour MPs in private at the parliamentary Labour party.

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