Davey says far right in Britain now better funded and supported than in the past – UK politics live
Davey starts by warning “something big and dangerous is happening in our country”.
He explains:
Hundreds of thugs, in black shirts and balaclavas, are marching on our streets.
First Dover. Then Portsmouth.
Their aim? To intimidate. To spread fear. To stoke racism.
They may call themselves patriots, but they would tear our country apart.
We must not let them.
He says there are precedents for what is happening now.
There has always been a small minority hellbent on destroying them.
Mosley’s fascists in the thirties. The National Front in the seventies. Nick Griffin and the BNP just two decades ago.
Each time, they tried to turn neighbour against neighbour, tried to pit community against community, tried to turn our streets into battlegrounds.
But we didn’t let them. The British people said no.
The East End stood firm on Cable Street. Lewisham and Wood Green turned them back. Voters shut the BNP out.
Every generation, we have these men, who pretend to be patriots. Who claim to speak for “real Britain”.
And every generation, the real Britain refuses to accept it.
But this time there is a difference, he says.
Because the blackshirts marching today aren’t doing it in isolation.
They are just the most visible part of a far-right threat that is extremely well-funded.
That extends well beyond the shores of our United Kingdom.
That is promoted by the world’s richest man – Elon Musk – with all the might of his social media platform.
Key events
Davey calls for UK to rejoin EU's single market, as well as joining new customs union
Davey says state of maternity services in Britain a 'scandal'
Davey says liberalism about 'giving people more power'
Davey praises Lib Dems' commitment to community politics
Davey says liberalism 'rooted in seeing the value of every human being"
Davey accuses Farage of promoting 'hatred and intolerance' to 'make himself richer' and gain power
Davey says far right in Britain now better funded and supported than in past
Jenrick declines to criticise Reform UK council for ending partnership with football anti-racism charity
Burnham meets Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez in New York's Central Park
Reform UK names former Tory suspended last year for 14 days over racial slur as deputy leader in Wales
Burnham rejects accusations of complacency over threat from Russia, but says he wants to avoid escalation
Burnham urged by ex-cabinet minister to join allies calling for compulsory, pre-release testing of frontier AI models
No 10 confirms Manchester to host next year's G20 summit
UK to give support to Saudi jets in attempt to counter Houthi fighters
Burnham plays down past critical comments about Trump, saying it's right to 'move beyond' them
Burnham fails to rule out Brexit reversal being in next Labour manifesto
UK not ‘on the slide’, Burnham to tell UN as he gears up for first meeting with Trump
Davey says people are struggling with the cost of living.
He goes on:
And we know what has brought us to this point, don’t we Conference?
The terrible economic damage of the Conservatives’ Brexit deal – backed, let’s never forget, by Nigel Farage.
A deal that put up barriers to trade, that tied up British businesses in costs and red tape, that pushed up prices on our supermarket shelves.
A deal that took opportunities away from our young people.
The botched Brexit deal. All the Conservative chaos that followed.
And then Labour – instead of fixing it – have only added to the pain with damaging tax hikes and their own chaos and their own infighting.
And even now, Andy Burnham refuses to open the door to the European single market.
We are the only ones with the courage to say it, aren’t we Conference?
Fixing our relationship with Europe is the only way to get our economy back on track.
And we are fighting to do just that.
To put Britain back where it belongs. Back at the heart of Europe.
This, too, is the fight of our lives.
Davey says the Lib Dems want, not just a customs union with the EU, but to rejoin the EU single market.
Last year, I set out our plan for a new customs union, to slash the Brexit red tape.
Now I’m going further, because this moment demands it.
Not just a customs union, but joining the single market too.
Bringing down those barriers to trade. Breathing new life into our economy. And bolstering our collective security too.
Not just a growth plan. A defence plan.
Davey says the same should apply to women giving birth. But maternity services are a scandal, he says.
Inquiry after inquiry has found the same horrifying pattern.
Mothers and babies left with life-changing injuries – or worse – because of a maternity system stretched far beyond its limits.
Midwives doing their best, but exhausted, and in buildings that aren’t fit for purpose.
That shames our country. And we won’t accept it.
We will give mothers the one-to-one care they need, make every maternity unit safe, and end this scandal once and for all.
Davey turns to special needs, and his disabled son, John. He says he and his wife were told John would need a wheelchair all his life. But they worked themselves on his mobility, with support from therapists, and now he can ride a tricycle.
I’m an MP. Emily is a councillor and a lawyer. We’ve had a lot of support from family and friends.
But even so, we have had to fight for John, every step of the way.
And I know that, for most people who aren’t so lucky, the fight is much harder.
I see them every week in my constituency surgery. Like the parents fighting for their kids with special educational needs.
Battling a system that’s supposed to be there for them and their child. But instead it beats them down and makes them feel hopeless. Trapped. Powerless.
Ask any parent in that position – and I know there are lots of you here in this hall – and they’ll tell you.
We don’t want charity. We don’t want a system that does everything for us.
We know our children best, and we love them like no one else can ever love them.
What we want is a system that empowers us and our children, so we can help them thrive.
That’s what real care is all about. It doesn’t just manage people – it unlocks their potential.
That’s what I’m fighting for. A liberal country. A caring country.
Davey says liberalism is about giving people more power.
We must also pay attention to the other half of our liberal equation.
Giving people more power.
Not just doing things for them, because “the state knows best”, as I fear Andy Burnham may be inclined to do.
Or leaving them to sink or swim – as Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage are already promising to do.
But empowering people by helping everyone to be the best they can be – for themselves.
That is the liberal mission.
Davey is now talking about AI. This passage from the speech was briefed overnight.
Davey says:
Can we leave it to Trump to save us all? No!
Can we leave it to Mark Zuckerberg? To Sam Altman? To Elon Musk? No!
But I’m afraid the plan Andy Burnham has set out – a partnership with Trump’s Department of War – doesn’t come close to meeting the scale of this threat.
It only risks making us more dependent on a Trump administration in the pocket of the tech bros.
So it’s up to us to rise to this challenge, friends.
We need a global treaty to press pause on super-intelligent AI now, before it’s too late.
We need a new International AI Safety Agency – like we have for nuclear – to stop anyone from developing this technology recklessly.
A liberal solution – because the problem is fundamentally one about power. It’s too concentrated, and we must break it up.
And this is how the Lib Dems campaign, Davey says.
Conference, if this all sounds eerily familiar – it should!
Because this is exactly what our party has always been about.
The community politics we practise day-in, day-out. Real community politics. That’s the answer.
He gives an example – the work done by his wife, Emily, as the councillor in charge of housing on Kingston council.
When Emily took over, there was already a plan to regenerate the borough’s biggest council estate.
But it was a plan drawn up by the old Conservative council – who’d given no say at all to the people who actually live there.
It was something being done to them, not with them.
So Emily said no. It’s their home. They should have a say.
And she insisted on an estate-wide ballot.
That decision was transformative.
It forced council officers and the developer to visit the estate. It forced them to actually talk to the tenants – and listen to them.
And guess what? It resulted in better homes, better designed.
And the residents voted for them in big numbers. But just as important – they felt good about it.
They could hardly believe someone had asked their opinion. Gave them a say. Took power and put it in their hands.
Families have started moving into the first new homes, and Emily’s been to see some of them.
One told her something that still chokes both of us up.
They said about their new flat, “We don’t deserve this.”
“We don’t deserve this.”
That’s how hopeless the old system had made them feel.
But now they’re hopeful again.
That, my friends, is real community politics. Real Liberalism.
Davey says it is important to understand why people are attracted by far-right politics.
People are fed up.
They see a politics that promises change and fails to deliver.
Their bills keep rising. Their kids still can’t afford a home of their own. Their loved ones still wait too long for a GP appointment.
When people stop believing politics can change their lives, they get cynical. Angry. And they’re not wrong.
When our young people can’t see a future for themselves in our communities, they stop looking. And they turn to their screens instead.
Screens that offer the illusion of excitement. The illusion of connection. The illusion of belonging.
But screens that only deepen the sense of emptiness and loneliness that no amount of scrolling can ever fill.
Is it any wonder the populists have found something to exploit?
Their whole agenda is to tear everything down. And when people are desperate for change, “tear it all down” starts to sound like the only honest thing left.
Davey critcises Kemi Badenoch for excluding from the Conservative party anyone “who cares about human rights or climate action”.
And he says liberalism can take on populism because it means appreciating the worth of every individual.
Real Liberalism is rooted in seeing the value of every human being – not just the ones who share our appearance or our beliefs.
A free society is messy. It’s full of disagreement.
And as Liberals, we don’t erase our differences. We confront them.
The way people across our country overcome their differences every day.
Not by shouting past each other, but by building real human connections.
Person to person. Neighbour to neighbour. Street by street.
Because when that person you disagree with stops being just another little box on your social media feed, and becomes a human being with a face, a home and a life –
That’s when we make progress.
Davey says the Lib Dems are in “the fight of our lives”.
But they are “already winning”, he says.
I look around this hall and I see so many councillors, so many council leaders, so many Members of parliament – in Westminster, Holyrood and Cardiff Bay.
And all of you who’ve helped get them elected.
We’re even winning in Devon – whatever you might have heard!
That is a joke about the Lib Dem leader of Devon county council slagging him off at conference.
Davey says Nigel Farage must be stopped from making Britain like Donald Trump’s America.
This is a far-right movement that is given oxygen, and heat, and fuel by politicians and parties who claim to be serious contenders to lead our country.
Cynical politicians like Nigel Farage.
Not just willing, but eager to fan the flames of hatred and intolerance to make himself richer. To get himself into power.
Trying to create a nation of division and fear – because that’s what keeps him going.
Well Conference, that is not our country. That is not who we are.
It is the worst of Trump’s America.
We must not let it become Farage’s Britain.
Davey starts by warning “something big and dangerous is happening in our country”.
He explains:
Hundreds of thugs, in black shirts and balaclavas, are marching on our streets.
First Dover. Then Portsmouth.
Their aim? To intimidate. To spread fear. To stoke racism.
They may call themselves patriots, but they would tear our country apart.
We must not let them.
He says there are precedents for what is happening now.
There has always been a small minority hellbent on destroying them.
Mosley’s fascists in the thirties. The National Front in the seventies. Nick Griffin and the BNP just two decades ago.
Each time, they tried to turn neighbour against neighbour, tried to pit community against community, tried to turn our streets into battlegrounds.
But we didn’t let them. The British people said no.
The East End stood firm on Cable Street. Lewisham and Wood Green turned them back. Voters shut the BNP out.
Every generation, we have these men, who pretend to be patriots. Who claim to speak for “real Britain”.
And every generation, the real Britain refuses to accept it.
But this time there is a difference, he says.
Because the blackshirts marching today aren’t doing it in isolation.
They are just the most visible part of a far-right threat that is extremely well-funded.
That extends well beyond the shores of our United Kingdom.
That is promoted by the world’s richest man – Elon Musk – with all the might of his social media platform.
Ed Davey is taking to the stage at the Lib Dem conference.
In May Reform UK took control of Sunderland city council. The authority has now decided to withdraw its support for Show Racism the Red Card, the charity that fights racism in football. Chris Eynon, the council leader, said the council would not support “politically charged organisations with an agenda”.
In an interview with LBC this morning, Robert Jenrick, the party’s Treasury spokesperon, was repeatedly asked to defend the decision. He repeatedly said that he did not know the reasons behind the decision, but eventually he said it was “perfectly reasonable for a local council to decide that they don’t want to give taxpayers money to an organisation”.
In a statement, the charity said:
In our experience, the people of Sunderland have traditionally demonstrated a welcoming, inclusive and anti-racist attitude, and believe it is important that voters see this decision as further evidence that the council are unsupportive of equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Jenrick was giving an interview to promote an announcement about how, if his party wins the election, it will abolish the Labour legislation letting mayors impose an overnight visitor levy (aka the tourism tax).
At the Lib Dem conference, Ed Davey will be giving his keynote address shortly.
Before he starts, Josh Babarinde, the party president, is giving a warm-up speech, with thanks to everyone involved in organising the conference.
With the Liberal Democrat conference coming to an end, here is Peter Walker’s assessment of where the party stands. He says that in private the Lib Dems are talking about having perhaps as many as 140 MPs after the next election (they are on 71 now), and holding the balance of power.
Here is a slightly better picture of the Andy Burnham sock. (See 1.33pm.)
Presumably that was not given on the premise that Donald Trump, or anyone else, is going to walk all over him.
It is still quite early in New York, but Andy Burnham is already up and about.
He has met the Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, in Central Park.
Burnham also met the Manchester-born social entrepreneur Josh Turner, who runs Stand 4 Socks. The company donates one pair of socks to the homeless for every pair bought by a customer.
Turner presented Burnham with a pair of socks decorated with a cartoon of his face. And Burnham praised Turner’s work, saying: “You get on and you give back.”
Reform UK has announced that Laura Anne Jones has been elected as its deputy leader in Wales. Yesterday the party’s Senedd members elected Helen Jenner as the new leader.
Jones is one of the most experienced of the Reform UK MSs (members of the Senedd), having first been elected to the Welsh assembly as a Conservative in 2003. She served in various spokesperson roles for the Tories and only defected to Reform UK last summer. At the time she was the party’s only Senedd member.
In November last year she was suspended from the Senedd for 14 days for using a racial slur against Chinese people in a WhatsApp group.
Last night it was Glee Club at the Lib Dem conference, where activists use satirical songs to send up opponents (and themselves). According to Politico’s London Playbook briefing, one of the targets was the new guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission on trans rights.
Lib Dem activists sang a pro-trans song at Glee Club – “Let Us Pee,” to the tune of “Let It Be” – to celebrate the passing of a motion rejecting “discriminatory and unworkable” guidance from the equalities watchdog on transgender people.
Earlier yesterday, as Peter Walker reports, the party overwhelmingly passed a motion rejecting the guidance.
As Peter says, the Lib Dems are the Lib Dems the first of the big three parties in parliament to call for a new approach to implementing last year’s ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex only. The Greens have previously done so.
This is quite a good example of the Lib Dems being a party that does not believe anyone should be “enslaved … by conformity”.
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