By The Guardian (World News) | Created at 2024-09-24 07:30:16 | Updated at 2024-09-30 11:41:56
6 days ago
Good morning. Keir Starmer is giving his speech to the Labour confernece this afternoon and, as the Guardian reports, his overall message will be one of qualified, long-term optimism. Another leader might have dressed this message up in poetic rhetoric, but Starmer will be using a straightforward cliche, telling the audience “there’s light at the end of the tunnel”. He will say:
The truth is that if we take tough long-term decisions now, if we stick to the driving purpose behind everything we do: higher economic growth - so living standards rise in every community; our NHS facing the future - waiting lists at your hospital down; safer streets in your community; stronger borders; more opportunities for your children; clean British energy powering your home; making our country more secure ... then that light at the end of this tunnel, that Britain that belongs to you, we get there much more quickly.
Our preview story is here.
But the Times has been told the speech will also include plans for a crackdown on benefit fraud. It says Starmer will announce that the government will introduce a fraud, error and debt bill – not something that was mentioned in the king’s speech that happened only two months ago. It says:
The legislation will allow fraud investigators to compel banks to hand over information about people’s finances if there is a suspicion they are claiming benefits they are not entitled to.
It will also give them powers of “search and seizure” of people’s property in cases involving organised criminal gangs that are exploiting the benefits system.
The crackdown is designed to save the taxpayer £1.6 billion over the next five years by tackling fraud and reducing overpayments. Starmer will say that he wants to ensure that “every penny” of taxpayers’ money is spent on Labour’s pledge to “rebuild public services” ….
Banks will be required to tell the benefit system if people have savings of more than £16,000, the cut-off point for claiming benefits, or have been abroad for more than the four weeks allowed for universal credit claimants. Inspectors will then investigate and seek to recover overpayments.
The news that a right-leaning paper has been briefed about a crackdown on benefit cheats will worry the left and, in an interview on the Today programme this morning, John McDonnell, shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, said this reminded him of George Osborne.
I don’t say this lightly. If you close your eyes, and you listen to the language being used, it’s almost like George Osborne speaking again in 2010.
And when you hear politicians talk about “tough choices” or “painful decisions”, and then you hear some of the rhetoric around fraud and social security, literally that’s a replica of a speech made by George Osborne in 2010.
McDonnell may have been thinking of Osborne comparing benefit cheats to muggers when he was chancellor in 2010, although Osborne also associated with the “strivers versus shirkers” language used to demonise people on benefits by the Tories later during the coalition years.
But, to be fair to Starmer, this does not seem to be the language he is using. The Times story includes a quote from the Starmer speech this afternoon not included in the overnight preview sent to all newspapers. It says Starmer will tell the conference:
We will get the welfare bill down because we will tackle long-term sickness and get people back to work. We will make every penny work for you because we will root out waste and go after tax avoiders. There will be no stone left unturned.
The paper also says the welfare fraud initiative is a response to growing concern that the benefit system is increasingly being targeted by organised crime. Earlier this year the Department for Work and Pensions highlighted the conviction of a gang behind a £54m fraud.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.45am: Conference opens.
10am: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, opens a debate on “Safe Streets, Stronger Policing”. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is also speaking at 11.35am.
11am: Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, takes part in an ‘in conversation’ event at a fringe meeting.
2pm: Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech.
4pm: Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, opens a “Fixing the Foundations” debate.
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