‘You will not be able to work in UK if you don’t have digital ID,’ Starmer says
And Starmer ended his speech with the announcement about digital ID cards.
Today I am announcing this government will make a new, free of charge digital ID mandatory for the right to work by the end of this parliament.
Let me spell that out. You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It’s as simple as that.
Because decent, pragmatic, fair minded people, they want us to tackle the issues that they see around them.
Key events
Mark Carney, the Canadian PM, told the session that a key reason for his election victory was the strong stance he was taking against President Trump, and his threats to Canada.
Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM, is speaking now. He also won an election this year, and he says having “a positive agenda” was crucial.
‘You will not be able to work in UK if you don’t have digital ID,’ Starmer says
And Starmer ended his speech with the announcement about digital ID cards.
Today I am announcing this government will make a new, free of charge digital ID mandatory for the right to work by the end of this parliament.
Let me spell that out. You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It’s as simple as that.
Because decent, pragmatic, fair minded people, they want us to tackle the issues that they see around them.
Starmer says governments need to deliver good jobs, good public services and healthcare, and they need to cut regulation, so the private sector can create wealth.
Referring to a concept popular in US politics, he says some people call this abundance.
He says:
I have a different phrase for it. Social democracy.
He goes on:
But the way I see it, this is the defining political choice of our times – a politics of predatory grievance, preying on the problems of working people and using the infrastructure of division, against the politics of patriotic renewal, rooted in communities, building a better country.
Starmer says progressives must be ‘resolutely opposed to status quo’, which ‘hasn’t worked for working people’
Starmer says progressives need to take on the politics of grievance, using the passage briefed by Labour overnight. (See 9.52am.)
And he says it would be a mistake for progressives to defend the status quo.
We must show our politics resolutely opposed to the status quo … The worst thing we could do is to defend the status quo. It hasn’t worked for working people. We must be determined to deliver change in their interests.
Starmer mocks those who have depicted London as ‘wasteland of anarchy’
Starmer tells the activists in the audience that he hopes that they have enjoyed their time in London. He says they will have noticed that it is not the ‘wasteland of anarchy’ that some people have claimed.
That seems to be a jibe at Donald Trump, who recently wrongly claimed sharia law was in force here.
Starmer says global election results refute claim centre-left politics ‘dying out’
Starmer says the turnout at this summit today (see 9.40am) shows that centre-left parties have not been defeated by rightwing populism.
The turnout “puts paid to a story we often hear in the press these days that somehow our politics is dying out”.
Referring to the election results in Canada, and Norway, he says “centre-left parties are having quite a year so far”.
Starmer speaks at Global Progress Action Summit
Keir Starmer is about to give his speech at the Global Progress Action Summit.
He is on a panel with Mark Carney, the Canadian PM, Kristrun Frostadottir, the Icelandic PM, and Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM, and they will all be speaking too.
There is a live feed here.
Only ‘small minority’ of Labour MPs unhappy with Starmer’s leadership, says Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has said that Andy Burnham has been raising “legitimate concerns” about Keir Starmer’s leadership.
But, in a phone-in with LBC, he also said he thought only “a small minority” of Labour MPs were unhappy with Starmer’s leadership.
He said:
I think Andy’s raising legitimate concerns he has, and, you know, he’s entitled to do so.
Asked by the presenter, James O’Brien, if he thought Burnham was manoeuvring for the Labour leadership, Khan said that was “your characterisation”.
He went on:
I think we’ve got 400 MPs, so it won’t be a surprise to anybody that there may be a small minority not happy with the leadership.
I’m going to conference next week, and the joy of conference when Labour is in Government far outweighs any concerns people may have.
Khan said he had no intention of running for any other job in politics himself.
Keir Starmer hailed the “strength of our personal relationship” as he welcomed Mark Carney to a bilateral meeting on the sides of the Global Progress Action summit in London, PA Media reports. PA says:
The PM joked the only “issue we’re going to disagree on” was the women’s rugby world cup final between England and Canada on Saturday. He said: “Welcome to London, this is now your second inward bilateral.”
Starmer thanked Carney for “the way we’ve been able to work together” on Ukraine and the Middle East. He added:
On all of that we’re very close, very strong.
There’s only one issue we’re going to disagree on and that’s a certain game of rugby tomorrow.
And Carney said:
I also want to salute your leadership, Keir. In Ukraine, in the coalition of the willing, in the Middle East, more broadly in this next phase of multilaterals.
Government says it is seeking clarification as to whether UK covered by Trump’s new pharma tariffs
Lisa O’Carroll
Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent covering trade.
The UK government has said it is pressing for clarification over Donald Trump’s threat to impose new 100% tariff on pharma imports.
Trump promised the UK “preferential treatment” on pharma tariffs as far back as May but has yet to deliver on the pledge.
A government spokesperson said:
We know this will be concerning for industry, which is why we’ve been actively engaging with the US and will continue to do so over the coming days.
Sectors such as pharmaceuticals are critical to our economy… so we will continue to press the US for outcomes that reflect the strength of our relationship and deliver real benefits for UK industry.
Starmer claims left ‘went wrong’ on migration, ignoring concerns about both legal and illegal immigration
Keir Starmer has also published an article in the Daily Telegraph today setting out his ideas about how to counter what he calls the “nativist, populist right”. Some of it just echoes the language he will use in his speech this morning, briefed overnight. (See 9.52am.) But in the Telegraph he also argues that in the past Labour has been wrong about immigration – ignoring concerns about illegal migration, while been overly positive about the impact of legal migration.
Starmer says:
The first essential part [in taking on the populist right involves] recognising where some on the left went wrong on the issue of immigration.
There is no doubt that for years, leftwing parties, including my own, did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration. It has been too easy for people to enter the country, work in the shadow economy and remain illegally.
We must be absolutely clear that tackling every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration is essential …
Equally, the belief that uncontrolled legal migration was nothing but good news for an economy should never have been accepted on the left. It is not compassionate leftwing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages.
The huge increase in immigration that happened under the Conservatives was based on a hyper-liberal free-market viewpoint. Labour is clear that there must be no return to that.
To be fair, there is no Labour government in history that has favoured “uncontrolled legal migration” in a literal sense. Starmer is referring in particular to the Blair government, its relaxed attitude to seeing net migration rise, and in particular its decision not to impose transitional controls when 10 mostly eastern European countries joined the EU in 2004, giving their citizens the right to work in the UK.
We would like to hear from you about what you think of the plans for digital ID cards. If you would like to respond, please do so here.
YouGov MRP poll suggests Reform UK would crush Labour and Tories if election held now
The Keir Starmer speech comments briefed overnight by Labour (see 9.52am) are, in the UK context, all about Reform UK. Today YouGov has published the results of its latest MRP polling (more on the MRP method here) and it suggests that, if there were an election now, Nigel Farage would almost certainly be forming the government, although he would be just short of an overall majority.
Summing up the results, YouGov says:
-Projection shows Angela Rayner, Bridget Phillipson, Yvette Cooper, John Healey, Wes Streeting, Ed Miliband, Pat McFadden and Lisa Nandy losing their seats to Reform
-Model shows Jeremy Hunt’s seat being taken by the Liberal Democrats, and Reform UK unseating Mel Stride, James Cleverly and Suella Braverman
-SNP projected to win 37 seats in Scotland, where Labour would be reduced to 9
-Reform projected to win 23 out of the 32 Welsh Westminster constituencies
The MRP also suggests the Liberal Democrats will beat the Tories in terms of seats, but not votes.
The next election might not take place until 2029, a lot could change before then, and polls are not always reliable. But normally they are at last half-right, and these are finding that MPs won’t ignore.
Starmer to call for ‘politics of patriotic renewal’, warning ‘you don’t need to be historian’ to understand far-right threat
Keir Starmer has been criticised over the summer for letting Nigel Farage and Reform UK dominate the national argument, about immigration and much else. (Lucy Powell, a candidate for the Labour deputy leadership, has set out a good version of this critique in a Guardian article today.)
In his speech today Starmer is expected to offer his most detailed response to this charge since the summer. Labour has released some extracts in advance, and two lines stand out.
An industrialised infrastructure of grievance – an entire world – not just a worldview, created through our devices. That is miserable, joyless, demonstrably untrue. And yet in another way – totally cohesive. That preys on real problems in the real world. Identifies clear enemies – that’s us.
And, at its heart – its most poisonous belief – on full display at the protests here in London, just a week or two ago, that there is a coming struggle, a defining struggle, a violent struggle, for the nation. For all our nations.
Now – you don’t need to be a historian to know where that kind of poison can lead. You can just feel it.
A language that is naked in its attempt to intimidate.
In this extract, Starmer is not using the term fascism, but it is clear what history he is talking about. The point he is making might seem unremarkable. But Starmer himself has generally avoided 1930s references when describing the threat posed by the far-right today.
This is the defining political choice of our times: a politics of predatory grievance, preying on the problems of working people. Using that infrastructure of division… against the politics of patriotic renewal.
Rooted in communities, building a better country. Brick by brick, from the bottom-up – including everyone in the national story.
Difference under the same flag.
Starmer to join 5 other PMs speaking at Global Progress Action Summit
Keir Starmer will be making the formal digital ID cards announcement in a speech this morning at 11am at the Global Progress Action Summit. Newsy as this might be, it is fair to say that he won’t have the headlines all to himself. There are five other prime ministers speaking, as well as two former prime ministers and two American politicians seen as potential Democratic candidates for president in 2028. If there is a progressive global alliance, they will all be at the Methodist Central Hall in London.
The event starts at 9.30am, but here are the timings for what might be the most interesting sessions.
11am: Keir Starmer speaks in a session where he will be followed by Mark Carney, the Canadian PM, Kristrun Frostadottir, the Icelandic PM, and Anthony Albanese, the Australian PM.
12pm: JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois, speaks.
1.30pm: Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish PM, speaks at a session where he will be joined by Jacinda Ahern, the former PM of New Zealand.
2pm: Mette Frederiksen, the Danish PM, speaks at a session where she will be joined by John Healey, the UK defence secretary.
4.45pm: Stefan Löfven, the former Swedish PM, speaks.
5.30pm: Pete Buttigieg, the former US transport secretary, speaks.
There is a live stream of the conference here.
No 10 says digital ID cards scheme will take in ‘best aspects’ from similar schemes around world
Andrew Sparrow
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Amy Sedghi.
Downing Street has now sent out a news release about its identity cards scheme. It promotes the idea as a means to combat illegal working, but it also argues that the system will provide a consumer benefit to ordinary citizens not related to the illegal migration issue.
And it says the government is learning from model digital ID schemes around the world. It says:
In designing the digital ID scheme, the government will ensure that it works for those who aren’t able to use a smartphone, with inclusion at the heart of its design. The public consultation will engage with groups who aren’t as experienced with the digital world, like the homeless and older people, learning from other countries that have done this well.
The scheme will be rolled out alongside an outreach programme, including face-to-face support for citizens who are struggling to access the scheme.
This will result in a service that takes the best aspects of the digital identification systems that are already up and running around the world:
-In Australia, citizens can access a range of private services, from banking to buying alcohol, with their digital identification, reducing the need for multiple separate accounts and pieces of paper.
-In Estonia, digital ID has revolutionised parents’ lives by enabling access to child benefits, health records and applications for nursery places seamlessly, never having to provide the same information twice.
-In Denmark, students can use their national digital ID to log in and automatically retrieve education records and qualifications in job and university applications.
-And in India, the government has saved around US $10 billion annually by reducing fraud and leakages in welfare schemes.
Labour MPs call for action to tackle deprivation in coastal ‘sea wall’ seats
Peter Walker
A group of Labour MPs representing coastal areas will demand urgent action to tackle deprivation in their seats, warning a lack of progress could leave them vulnerable to Reform.
They will use the party conference this weekend to call for an equivalent of the London Challenge, which turned around failing schools in the capital under Tony Blair’s government, but with a focus on post-16 training and apprenticeships.
The Coastal Parliamentary Labour party group, set up earlier this year by Polly Billington, MP for East Thanet, which takes in the Kent coast around Margate and Ramsgate, is also demanding a dedicated minister for coastal communities, as well as spending on public transport and efforts to reduce entrenched health inequalities.
The campaign is a counterpoint to the repeated focus on “red wall” seats, generally based in formerly industrial towns and cities in the north and Midlands, dozens of which were won by the Conservatives in 2019 and re-taken by Labour last year.
While definitions of the “red wall” differ, Labour holds at least as many“sea wall” seats, with 66 MPs in the coastal group, and many of them face similar or greater levels of deprivation.
The call for major investment in skills and training, with a focus on non-graduate jobs, is because of the particular problems faced by many coastal areas of young people being neither in work nor education, and the “brain drain” of young people who do get degrees away from such areas.
The London Challenge is often cited as one of the greatest policy successes of the Blair years. When Labour came into power in 1997, many London schools were failing, with only 16% of students reaching the then-accepted standard of getting five GCSEs at grades A to C.
But a combination of extra investment of about £40m a year, which involved not just new school buildings but also better school leadership, meant that by 2010, London schools tended to out-perform those elsewhere in England.
The coastal MPs said there is also a political imperative for ministers to focus on improving their areas, given Reform’s record in performing well in such places – of the five seats the party won in 2024, four were coastal.
