Politics latest: Chancellor warns of 'more difficult decisions to come' as she addresses Labour MPs over winter fuel payment cut (2024)

Thank you for joining us on the Politics Hub for live coverage of the day's events in Westminster.

You can catch up on all the key lines in our 10pm bulletin here.

Join us again from 6am tomorrow ahead of a crunch vote on cutting the winter fuel allowance - and a vote to eliminate another candidate from the Tory leadership race.

Sir Keir Starmer will tomorrow become the first prime minister in 15 years to address the Trades Union Congress at their annual conference.

Amid the backdrop of controversy over plans to scrap the winter fuel payment to pensioners, the prime minister will appeal for the "politics in partnership".

"With us in government, with business, and most importantly of all, with working people… the mood is for partnership," he will say, arguing that it applies to the NHS, improving public services, and expanding clean energy.

"Partnership is a more difficult way of doing politics. I know there's clarity in the old ways, the zero-sum ways: business versus worker, management versus union, public versus private. That kind of politics is not what the British people want."

Sir Keir will reiterate his "country first, party second" slogan and say: "I make no apologies to those, still stuck in the 1980s, who believe that unions and business can only stand at odds, leaving working people stuck in the middle."

But the PM will also hit out at the Tories and the inheritance he says they left: "When we finally saw the books, and with trust in politics so low, I had to be honest with the British people when standing in the full sunlight of democracy, I owed it to them to promise only what we knew we could deliver.

"And yet even in our worst fears, we didn't think it would be this bad."

In better news for unions, he will reiterate his pledge to deliver a New Deal for Working People, saying the government is "committed to driving up living standards, improving productivity, and working in partnership with workers".

"And as part of that bill we will repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act, we will get rid of Minimum Service Level legislation, end the cheap and vindictive attacks on this movement and turn the page on politics as noisy performance – once and for all," Sir Keir will say.

"We will keep to the course of change, reject the snake oil of easy answers, fix the foundations of our economy and build a new Britain.

"More secure, more prosperous, more dynamic, and fairer. A country renewed and returned, calmly but with confidence, to the service of working people."

There are still five people left in the race to be the next leader of the Conservative Party.

James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch and Mel Stride are all set to go before a hustings of Tory MPs this afternoon.

But pollsters at Savanta have been asking the public at large for their views on the various candidates.

They quizzed 2,239 UK adults about who they thought would make a better prime minister - Sir Keir Starmer or each one of the Tory hopefuls.

It does not make pretty reading for those in blue.

The best performing was Mr Cleverly - 23% thought he would make a better PM, while 47% backed Sir Keir.

Mr Tugendhat was down by 47% to 22%, Mr Jenrick by 48% to 20% and Ms Badenoch by 49% to 20%.

Languishing in last is Mr Stride - down by 48% to 16%.

The missing percentage will be those who don't know.

One key factor in the current race is the public is not as familiar with the candidates - which might impact the results.

As she arrived at what could have been an uncomfortable meeting with Labour MPs today, the chancellor seemed confident and relaxed.

In the room, Rachel Reeves was said to be the same, approaching the unrest about changes to the winter fuel allowance defiantly ahead of a vote on the issue tomorrow.

Any suggestion of a climbdown, or even a few concessions to soften the blow of the £1.4bn cut for the poorest, were brushed aside.

Instead, a bullish message to the hundreds of MPs in the room: "There are more difficult decisions to come."

But although there were no dissenting voices prepared to pipe up in front of colleagues, away from the committee room there was still some unease.

One MP who has previously said he'll abstain was disappointed at the lack of alternative measures to protect the most vulnerable.

Others will no doubt feel the pressure from their unhappy constituents tomorrow as they linger outside the voting lobbies.

It is the first big test of discipline, and despite today's show of strength from the chancellor, she will need to keep any insubordination to a minimum if she is to maintain her authority and her tight grip on the purse strings.

By Alix Culbertson, political reporter

Prisoners set to be released early tomorrow have been trawled through in an attempt to not let domestic abusers go, the policing minister said.

Tuesday will see about 1,700 prisoners released early in an attempt to alleviate overcrowded prisons in England and Wales.

The government said serious violent criminals, terrorists and domestic abuse perpetrators will not be released as part of the scheme.

However, the domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs told The Times victims of domestic abuse are having "sleepless nights" over the release as they fear those who have been convicted of crimes such as common assault towards a partner will not be flagged as domestic abusers.

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said the government has been trying to ensure that does not happen.

She told Sky News: "There's been a real trawl through to try and identify where their primary offence isn't domestic abuse, we know there's a history and that's where the steps have been put in to protect as best we can.

"Because we know, unfortunately, domestic abuse is so prevalent amongst the offending community."

By Nick Martin, people and politics correspondent

A loud crash jolts Paul Wheeler into waking up in the middle of the night.

As he peers out of his bedroom window, which overlooks the park at the back of his home in a quiet, suburban part of Kent, he sees a shadowy figure setting fire to something.

It's a warm summer night, Labour is celebrating its landslide election win. For the first time in 14 years, there is a new government in place, which has made big promises on crime.

As the flames rage close to his garden fence, Paul, 46, starts to film the drama unfolding outside his home, while his two children sleep soundly in the next room.

"You need to ring 999 right now," he tells his wife. "People are setting light to something right by the gate at the front of the park."

Then there's an explosion and smoke fills the air.

For the last four years, gangs of mainly teenagers have caused trouble in the park behind Paul's house, terrorising him and his neighbours. He pleaded with the council to install CCTV but his request was turned down.

The next morning, the charred remains of a motorbike lie at the park entrance. The gate is damaged and the ground is covered in debris including bits of wire, nuts and bolts. The flames have turned the leaves of a large tree a rusty brown.

Paul's experience mirrors that of thousands of other communities around Britain who say their concerns about anti-social behaviour, which includes anything from vandalism to public drunkenness and noise disturbances, aren't being taken seriously by police and local councils.

Read the full story here:

That concludes tonight's edition of Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge.

Scroll down for all the key moments from tonight's interviews, and analysis of the latest events in UK politics.

Next, we ask Lord Tony Sewell if the riots across Britain this summer were racist.

He replies: "There's no doubt about it - somebody barricading people in a hotel who are from a particular group, and that had a racial motive? Of course it did.

"However, you have to also ask yourself the question, why were there protests from a particular group and from a particular geographical area in England?"

He criticises politicians for using the term "far-right" as a blanket descriptor, saying there are "probably white people listening to this programme now who have got serious concerns that there are low incomes going to poor schools, they've got the worst outcomes in health, and also the issue of migration".

Those people would probably hate those rioting more than anyone, he argues.

But because we are "not listening to people", we have "allowed these other groups to come in and take charge", he adds.

Lord Sewell calls on Sir Keir Starmer to read his report, saying: "Stop being ideological about it."

On history education, he criticises Labour, saying: "You can't end up with an education system that makes white kids feel totally ashamed, and they've got nothing to do with that colonialism, and makes black children feel in a sense that because of that past, they lose their confidence."

On Tory politics, Lord Sewell reveals that he is backing Kemi Badenoch for leader because she "really championed" his 2022 report, calling for a "unified Britain, not a diversified Britain".

Lord Tony Sewell is the next guest on tonight's Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, and we start by asking about the controversy surrounding a 2022 report in which he said Britain is not institutionally racist.

He says he wants to "dispel a myth", and clarifies that "institutional racism wasn't really defined", and so they used their "own framework" to assess racial disparities in Britain.

They found that "racism does exist", but looking at the data, the white working class struggled the most.

"If you're looking at, really, the issues in education and employment and health, the numbers showed that, in fact, white groups were doing worse than any other ethnic group," he says.

"The more interesting thing was there were greater disparities between ethnic minorities within that than they were between white and black."