Starmer ‘very interested’ in Italy’s plan to offshore asylum applications in Albania, says Meloni – as it happened

• Keir Starmer is “very interested” in the Italy-Albania migration deal, the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said, as the UK vowed to send the nation £4million to support its controversial crackdown on illegal migration. As Aletha Adu reports, while the prime minister agreed with Meloni, stressing how important their deep relationship was, Starmer indicated that he was more interested in Italy’s strategy stopping migrants from reaching the country than its Albania deal, which Meloni said is a few weeks away from completion. The pair however, put migration at the top of their discussions, which also included topics around economic growth on Tuesday, before they were photographed joking and smiling through the gardens of the Villa Doria Pamphilj in Rome. The millions of pounds the UK will send to Italy will contribute to the Rome process, which is the Italian government’s project to tackle the root causes of irregular migration.

• Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has avoided saying whether he views his party as more leftwing or rightwing than Labour. (See 3.39pm.) In interview before he wraps up the Lib Dem conference with his big speech tomorrow, Davey also said he wanted his party to be a better opposition to Labour than the Tories are. (See 5.15pm.)

The Liberal Democrats voted for an updated version of their PR/electoral reform policy at conference this morning. There is a summary here, and the full motion that was approved is here.

The Lib Dems summarise the policy like this:

Liberal Democrats have a comprehensive plan to build a better politics, starting with a fair voting system so no one’s vote is wasted:

-Replace first past the post with proportional representation via STV for UK General Elections and local elections in England.

-Ensure that the UK has an automatic system of inclusion on the electoral register.

-Protect and strengthen the Electoral Commission, including by repealing the Government’s power to designate a strategy and policy statement for the Commission.

-Scrap the Conservatives’ Voter ID scheme.

-Enable all UK citizens living abroad to vote for MPs in separate overseas constituencies, and to participate in UK referendums.

-Give young people the right to vote in the first election after their 16th birthday, for UK general elections and referendums, and local elections in England.

There is a full list of the conference motions passed today on the @LibDemConf feed on X. Wordings for the motions are in the conference agenda.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has said that he does not want parliament to rush into taking a decision on assisted dying. Yesterday a report claimed that Keir Starmer wants a vote on a private member’s bill to allow assisted dying before Christmas. But, in an interview with Sky News, Davey said that MPs should take their time and have a “more considered” debate. And he explained why, for personal reasons, he was sceptical about the case for changing the law. He said:

This is a vote that doesn’t go along party lines. I know the people in my party would be very much in favour of it. I have to say personally, I have some concerns. When it came to parliament, quite a long time ago, I went against proceeding with assisted dying and my concerns are both quite personal.

I cared for my mother as a teenager when she was dying of bone cancer. And I saw someone with a very painful disease. And by nursing, given palliative care, she was able to enjoy life and be with us, that’s what she wanted to be.

Now I accept every case might be different. But here’s my other concern, which I want to listen to the debate about, is the pressure it could put on elderly people. Not pressure coming from necessarily from the relatives, but from them inside internally, which they may not express.

I think a situation where healthy people might think they are a burden and then proceed with this is a huge worry and I think we should focus on that.

In 2015 MPs voted overwhelmingly against changing the law to allow assisted dying. But the composition of parliament, and social attitudes, have changed since then, and it is thought there would now be a majority in favour. Starmer has said that MPs should have a free vote on the issue, and that he personally would be in favour of an assisted dying law, subject to certain safeguards.

Aletha Adu

Keir Starmer has rejected suggestions that questions around whether he failed to declare donations of clothes for his wife Victoria, could have been avoided if the government had a anti-corruption adviser.

The prime minister said:

There’s a massive difference between declarations and corruption. Declarations is about declaring properly so you and everybody else can see properly made declarations.

Starmer also he hadn’t looked at filling the vacancy for an anti-corruption adviser just yet.

Ed Davey has told the BBC that he wants the Liberal Democrats to be a better opposition to Labour than the Conservatives are. In an interview with Chris Mason, he explained:

There is no doubt that if [Labour] don’t listen to criticism, they can push things through, but that would make a very bad government.

What our democracy needs is good opposition. So we can check the government, show where making mistakes, scrutinise them properly.

And what I want for the Liberal Democrats in this parliament is to be the best opposition. I think we can be a much better opposition [than] the Conservatives, who are pretty divided, whose credibility on health and care is shot through – they’ve got none at all. Frankly, their position and their record on the economy means they have no credibility on the economy either.

So this country, our parliament, needs a party that has credibility on the economy, credibility on health and care. We’re that party and with 72 MPS, we will get our voice heard.

Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, has blamed the Tories for the fact that the government decided to abandon plans to redevelop the derelict Casement Park stadium in Belfast so that it could be used as a venue for Euro 2028 matches. The announcement, which was particularly disappointing to nationalists, was announced on Friday night.

Speaking to PA Media today, Benn said:

This is a major international football tournament and we can’t be in the position where the country says we are going to build that stadium and then not be able to deliver it.

The risk was too great and reluctantly we came to the conclusion that the project could not go ahead.

Where does the blame lie? Well, I would point out that in the 18 months between the awarding of the tournament to the UK and Ireland and July 4, the day of the general election, the last government talked a lot, did absolutely nothing to progress the project at all, which is why we were left with what turned out to be an impossible situation.

I thought it was right, Lisa Nandy the culture secretary thought it was right, that we let people know as swiftly as possible once the decision had been made because we have now got to take stock about how to take forward the rebuilding of Casement, albeit in a very different form.

The Conservative party has revived its attack on Keir Starmer over accepting clothes donations from Lord Alli, a Labour donor. (See 10.53am.)

In a statement issued by CCHQ, before Starmer’s press conference in Rome, Andrew Griffith, the shadow science secretary, said:

It beggars belief that the prime minister thinks it’s acceptable that pensioners on £13,000 a year can afford to heat their home when he earns 12 times that but apparently can’t afford to clothe himself or his wife.

While his top team want a taxpayer-funded clothes budget to look sharp, people across the country are forced to make tough choices in the face of Labour’s damaging decisions.

CCHQ also said that a Conservative MP it did not name has written to the parliamentary commissioner for standards calling for an investigation into Starmer and the “scandal” that a gift of clothes for his wife was not initially disclosed in the register. The letter says: “There must be a full investigation into this scandal given this is not the first instance of the prime minister failing to declare donations and abiding by parliamentary rules.”

In an interview on the Today programme this morning Ed Davey said the Liberal Democrats were “the party now of rural Britain” (which may help to explain what he was doing repairing stiles this morning – see 1.04pm). He used the phrase in an interview where Justin Webb was trying to get him to explain whether he saw the Lib Dems as being to the right or to the left of Labour. Davey refused to choose, saying he did not see politics in those terms.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a substantial increase in health spending, funded by higher taxes largely on the wealthy, companies and banks, and most analysts would describe that position as being more leftwing than Labour. Webb said most Lib Dem policies involved spending more money, and he asked Davey if that meant the Lib Dems would be opposing Labour from the left.

Davey replied:

No, I don’t think like that at all.

I don’t think the health service is a left/right issue. We need reforms, and we want to make sure those reforms work.

Davey also argued that, if social care was improved in line with Lib Dem proposals, that might take pressure off the NHS (saving money, he implied).

Webb then asked him if he could identify any issues where the Lib Dems were opposing Labour from the right.

Davey replied: “Well, it depends on what you think on the economy.”

He said the Lib Dems were more pro-European than Labour, and were calling for the UK to rejoin the single market. He said he did not really see that as a left/right issue, but he said the Lib Dems were “pro-trade”, implying that was arguably a more rightwing position than Labour’s.

Webb then asked if Davey was worried that his party might end up opposing Labour on grounds that would not appeal to the former Tory voters who backed the Lib Dems for the first time in dozens of Tory seats they won at the election. Asked if he thought that was a potential problem for his party, Davey replied:

I genuinely don’t. We had hundreds of thousands, millions of conversations during the general action with people in those areas that we won from the Conservatives. And what was striking was we talked to a lot of people who’d been lifelong Conservatives, who completely lost faith in the Conservative party. They felt the party moved away from respect for law and order, for freedom, for decency, for compassion, and they saw those values really strong in the Liberal Democrats.

So I think we’ve seen a shift to us on a values basis which is quite profound.

Starmer faces likely vote at Labour conference on call for all arms sales to Israel to be suspended

Patrick Wintour

The Labour leadership is facing a challenge at party conference to extend its current limited arms embargo to Israel to cover all arms export licences and to go faster in recognition of Palestine as a state.

Campaigners say they intend to advance an emergency motion similar to one passed unanimously at the TUC last week calling on the government not just to impose an embargo on 30 arms export licences, but all current licences. They are confident they will receive the votes at conference for the issue to be chosen for debate.

The UK government on 3 September after two months intense internal discussion suspended 30 of the 350 arms export licences to Israel, but the decision has left both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups disssatisfied.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husan Zumlot, has been working the union conference circuit hard this spring and summer building support, and the party is also aware that it remains under electoral challenge in some of its strongholds from the Green Party and independents in local elections.

Both the Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner and the Middle East minister Hamish Falconer are due to speak at a Palestinian reception on Monday evening alongside Zumlot.

In a 20-minute address to the TUC Zumlot said it would be unconscionable if the UK continued to sell arms to Israel.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said “the TUC vote was a clear rebuke to the decision of the foreign secretary David Lammy to suspend only 10% of arms export licences crucially excluding indirect exports of components for the F-35 combat aircraft known to have been used to massacre civilians in the Gaza”. The PSC argues that the licences must be suspended if the UK is to meet its obligations under the Geneva Convention and international law.

There is likely to be a dispute between pro-Palestinian groups about how to frame any resolution extending the arms embargo, including how harshly to criticise Hamas for the attack on 7 October and how explicitly to state Labour government would be complicit in war crimes if it does ot suspend all arms exports.

One veteran pro-Palestinian campaigner says: “This is the first conference since the general election and where the mood will be one of unity. We have to be careful to frame our demands in a balanced way.”

A resolution submitted by Birmingham Northfield, for instance, calls for equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the release of all hostages whilst calling for the UK arms export sales to be halted to any state or group where there are known risks of international humanitarian law being violated.

The Labour national executive committee has the power to ask the conference to reject or remit a resolution with which it finds problematic, but that call can be rejected by conference. Labour is likely to argue its decision making is bound by a legal process.

In its news release, No 10 also firms up a bit what was agreed between Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni in terms of cooperation in dealing with irregular migration. It says:

In a joint statement issued after his meeting with Prime Minister Meloni, he has also confirmed that the UK will contribute £4m to the Rome Process, the Italian government’s project to tackle the root causes of irregular migration.

The UK and Italy have also agreed to work more closely to tackle illicit financial flows linked to organised immigration crime and share intelligence to disrupt the maritime equipment supply chains used by vile people smuggling gangs.

The two leaders also agreed to deepen their defence co-operation by confirming that Italian army and navy will participate in UK carrier strike group operations in the Indo-Pacific next year.

At the press conference Keir Starmer said that he and Giorgia Meloni had discussed two Italian investments into the UK.

Downing Street has now issued a press release with more details. It says:

Today’s confirmed investments include:

-Leonardo, one of the world’s leading defence, aerospace and security companies, will invest £435m in 2024, to be spent at their Yeovil site, and in technology development and research programmes across the UK. It operates 8 major sites in the UK, supporting 8,000 employees.

-Marcegaglia, a steel manufacturer, will invest £50m in Sheffield to build a new clean steel electric arc furnace, creating 50 new jobs.

No 10 said the investments would support jobs and drive growth.

The press notice also includes this endorsement from Stefano Pontecorvo, chairman of Leonardo.

It is clear that the prime minister represents a pronounced change in approach for the UK and its relationship with the European Union. Leonardo’s presence in the UK is underpinned by transnational collaboration at a governmental level, which also supports cooperation at an industrial level.

I have beefed up some of the earlier posts with direct quotes from the press conference. You may need to refresh the page to get them to show up.

Q: [Also from Matt Dathan from the Times] Will you stop accepting gifts from Lord Alli?

Starmer says:

In relation to your question about gifts, look, the rules are absolutely clear in relation to gifts, in terms of the declarations that need to be made.

I said before the election, I say again after election, the rules really matter in terms of declarations.

That’s why my team reached out for advice on what to declare from the relevant authorities. They reached out again, more recently, got further advice and hence the declarations have gone in in accordance with the rules, so that it’s transparent and you can all see, according to the rules, exactly what declarations were made.

But it was because I insist on the rules that my team reached out to make sure that we were declaring in the right way under the rules, and then reached out against the appropriate authorities, basically asking for advice about what’s the appropriate way to deal with this.

He does not address the actual question, which was about whether he would continue to take gifts from Lord Alli.

Q: [From Matt Dathan from the Times] Unlike Rishi Sunak, you are not saying you can stop the boats. Was he unrealistic?

Starmer says the Rwanda plan was a gimmick. He repeats the point about being pragmatic. (See 2.04pm.)

UPDATE: Starmer said:

Rather than a gimmick, which, as you know, cost £700 million to persuade four volunteers to go to Rwanda, we have gone down the road of pragmatism.

Already we have returned over 3,000 people by flights. So, the flights actually did get off under this government, not to Rwanda, but back to countries of origin, carrying with them 3,000 people who shouldn’t be here, including the single biggest flight that has ever taken off, returning people to their country of origin.

That’s why we’re working so intently on the Border Security Command, which is intended to take down the gangs that are running the vile trade in the first place.

The next question is from an Italian journalist, who asks if the leaders favour Ukraine being allowed to use Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russian territory.

Meloni says she wants to see 360 degree support for Ukraine.

Starmer says Russia started the war. He says he wants to support Ukraine. He says they discussed equipment today, but he will not discuss the details.

UPDATE: Starmer said:

I think it’s very important as a matter of principle that we put Ukraine in the best possible position, and that’s what we’ve been discussing. We’ve had the opportunity today to touch on that.

I had the opportunity in recent days to touch on that. I’m not going to go into individual capabilities. You wouldn’t expect me to do that, but the principle framework, I think, is absolutely right, and we’ll continue to have our discussions in relation to it.