Isabel Hardman

Have you learned anything about this Labour government from the conference speeches so far? Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ address to the hall in Liverpool this lunchtime was an announcement-free zone, and the same is true of all the other ministers who have got up to speak so far. All of them have followed the same format: attack the Tories and say things were so much worse when Labour came into office than expected, then move onto listing what the government is doing in very general terms, and then appeal to the party to work with the minister to get this done.

What is Keir Starmer wearing, how much is it worth and who paid for it? That’s normally a question only asked of female politicians, or prime ministers’ wives, but thanks to the Labour leader’s love of a freebie, his own fashion choices are going to be one of the hot topics at Labour Party conference. Unlike the scrutiny of women’s clothes, though, which normally leads Reiss to sell out of whichever dress turned up on the conference stage that week, Starmer’s outfits are causing a rush to judgement, not a rush to the tills.  One of the opening questions from interviewers will surely be ‘where is your suit from and who paid for it?

Does Keir Starmer want to use Lord Darzi’s report on the NHS today merely as the latest ‘shocking’ piece of evidence of Tory mess, or will it actually lead to meaningful reform?  The Prime Minister suggested he wanted to do both in his speech this morning. Yes, he ran through how things were much worse than anyone, even Darzi, a renowned surgeon who has worked in the NHS for decades, imagined. But he also included several phrases designed to show that he is serious about changing the health service – and about the battles he will have to fight to get there.  He told the audience at the King’s Fund that ‘I haven’t come here just to set out this appalling inheritance, though it is really important that we know it and properly understand it in detail.

Neither Keir Starmer nor Rishi Sunak were very good at Prime Minister’s Questions today. Though Starmer didn’t get his own job title wrong this time, he did still speak as though he was the leader of the opposition attacking the Conservatives in government, rather like he’s the guy in charge. Sunak decided to punch the bruise on the winter fuel payment and then make a handbrake turn to British farming, which left the Prime Minister a little discombobulated, as he clearly hadn’t prepared anything on that subject. But he was unable to talk about one of the biggest issues of the week, which was the mass early release of prisoners, because he knew that trying to scrutinise the government on this would just lead to the Conservatives being blamed all the more.

Before coming into government, Keir Starmer would use his battles with the unions, particularly Unite, as a way of defining himself against the parts of the Labour movement resistant to change. His speech to the Trades Union Congress this morning was more about suggesting that the unions could be part of that change. I say ‘could’. Parts of the speech made it clear that Starmer still thinks some union bosses need to face up to reality. He told the hall in Brighton that ‘I do have to make clear from a place of respect that this government will not risk its mandate for economic stability under any circumstances. And with tough decisions on the horizon, pay will inevitably be shaped by that.

Who was Rachel Reeves more worried about tonight when she addressed the Parliamentary Labour party? The Labour MPs who will rebel against the government tomorrow in the vote on restricting winter fuel payment to those on pension credit – or the ones who are staying loyal? No one spoke out against the cut when the Chancellor spoke this evening, but others have made their displeasure clear in broadcasts, or by signing the early-day motion calling for the government to U-turn. Reeves told the party: ‘I understand the decision that this government have made on winter fuel is a difficult decision. I’m not immune to the arguments that many in this room have made. We considered those when the decision was made.

David Lammy has just announced that Britain is suspending 30 arms export licenses to Israel. The Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons that after a review of international humanitarian law, he was left with no choice but to conclude that there was a risk of a number of weapons being used to commit or facilitate the violation of the law. He said: It is with regret that I inform the House today that the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

Could Labour be about to water down its removal of the winter fuel payment for pensioners? The chorus of muttering is getting louder in the party about restricting it to those on pension credit or other means-tested benefits, with backbenchers saying they have been shocked by the volume of letters from pensioners about it. This week, Rachael Maskell called on the government to think again about the policy after the new energy price cap went up, and now Harriet Harman has intervened with her own suggestion. Baroness Harman politely offered a compromise in which ‘they decide to make a different cut-off point’. Harman doesn’t tend to criticise her party in public: she always tries to take a positive line about its leadership or stays quiet.