Sunday Crunch: Terror in Israel overshadows Labour conference

Good Sunday afternoon. This is Rosa Prince standing in for a poorly Annabelle Dickson, with Labour conference well under way.

SUNDAY NIGHT LISTENING: The second episode of POLITICO and Sky News’ new podcast, Politics at Jack and Sam’s, will be landing in podcast feeds at around 6:30 p.m. this evening. As tens of thousands of you already know, POLITICO’s U.K. Editor Jack Blanchard and Sky News’ Sam Coates are now providing us all with an essential Sunday night briefing on the week ahead in Westminster, talking you through what’s coming up and what to look out for in U.K. politics each week. 

Reminder: Last week’s debut show broke the news that Rishi Sunak was poised to bring forward the big announcement on HS2 with an emergency Cabinet meeting in Manchester; gave a point-by-point preview of the prime minister’s conference speech; and correctly called the Labour landslide in Rutherglen and Hamilton West on Thursday night. Let’s see if they can repeat the trick tonight. No pressure, lads.

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THINGS TO KNOW

WAR: The alarming events in Israel dominate the Sunday shows and front pages, as delegates gather for Labour conference in Liverpool. Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting and, for the government, Transport Secretary Mark Harper all used their appearances on the morning round to express solidarity with Israel and condemn the Hamas attacks. Rishi Sunak issued a statement on X Saturday on the assault. The U.N. Security Council meets at 8 p.m. U.K. time today to discuss the deteriorating situation.

Brits caught up: The first fatality of a British citizen has been been confirmed as 20 year old Nathanel Young, who serving in the Israeli forces and killed on the Gaza border. Another Brit, 26-year-old Jake Marlowe, is among those missing after an attack on a music festival where he was working as a security guard. He has not been heard from since Saturday morning.

Protecting the children: Israel’s ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely told Sky’s Trevor Phillips that Israel was now at war. “It’s a long and complicated war,” she said. “This is why we need your support to ensure every single civilian that has been taken is brought back to Israel where they belong. Israel doesn’t want war, but we have been forced into a war to protect our children.”

The hand of Iran: Hotovely said Iran was fueling the conflict “through its proxies in Hezbollah and Hamas” — the Hezbollah terror group was reported to have joined in the attacks today with mortar strikes fired from Lebanon. More from Al Jazeera. And she described the impact of the attacks on civilians.

The toll: Israeli media reports that the death toll has now passed 400. The Palestinian authorities say at least 313 people have been killed in retaliatory attacks, as Gaza braces for a full Israeli ground operation.

Support: Harper said: “We will do everything to protect British citizens in Israel,” adding that his department was working with airlines in the Middle East to ensure passengers are kept safe.

Read more: All the papers have extensive coverage of the attacks. The Times has an hour-by-hour guide to how the horror unfolded; the Mail on Sunday reports on a student snatched from a rave; Bethan McKernan in the Observer is among those who fear for civilians in Palestine. The Sunday Telegraph’s James Rothwell says Israel’s security forces made “colossal failures” in failing to anticipate the attacks.

Here in the U.K.: After Palestinian supporters were spotted celebrating in London, the Met Police have stepped up patrols. On GB News, Wes Streeting condemned the scenes. Harper told Sky: “Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation, which means anyone publicly advocating support for it is committing an offence. And I would expect this police to take robust action against anybody doing so.” Home Secretary Suella Braverman tweeted that the government would do whatever was necessary to protect the Jewish community.

Not condemning: A group called ManPalestine holds a rally in Manchester this afternoon, with more pro-Palestinian rallies due in London tomorrow. Dania Abul Haj of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians said of the attacks: “Decades of subjugation and oppression cannot keep being faced with impunity for those responsible for the most heinous of crimes against the Palestinian people. Accountability now is more important than ever, otherwise, the price paid on all sides will be very high.” 

Kearns says: On Sky, foreign affairs committee chair Alicia Kearns said British families including one with a 10-day-old baby had been forced to take shelter in safe rooms during the attacks. She called for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to be formally designated a terrorist organization and predicted further violence in the region, saying: “It’s very difficult to see how we don’t see more bloodshed in coming days.” 

What now? On the future for the peace process, Kearns said: “The international community needs to re-engage. For too long there has been a view that there wasn’t enough bandwidth to get involved in Israel-Palestine.” 

CONFERENCE KICKS OFF: Labour delegates arrived in Liverpool in a buoyant mood, fresh off that stonking by-election win in Rutherglen and Hamilton and on the back of what was a pretty chaotic Conservative conference in Manchester overshadowed by the government’s hokey cokey over HS2. 

Putting them to work: Keir Starmer’s big announcement today is a plan to cut NHS waiting lists by encouraging doctors to work overtime — on a voluntary basis and paid for their time. He told Derbyshire the scheme would reduce waits by two million appointments a year, and denied he was seeking to add to overburdened staff’s workload. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Starmer set out his plans in detail.

Starmer gets personal klaxon: Admitting staff could earn more in the private sector, Starmer told the BBC: “We will pay proper rates for out of hours.” Insisting he had a handle on what NHS workers’ response to his plan was likely to be, he said: “They’re up for this because they know that bringing down the waiting lists would reduce the pressure in the long run.  My wife works in the NHS. I get a daily insight into morale.”

Word Cloud: The Sunday word cloud which floored Rishi Sunak was a little kinder to Keir Starmer, although the big central “Nothing” on the chart was a leeetle problematic. “I’ve had worse thrown at me,” he said, before managing a credible pivot to say it showed how important this week’s conference was to him when it came to making his case to voters.

Keir hearts Rishi: Asked for something he admired about Sunak, Starmer said the PM phoned him on the day he entered No. 10 and pledged to drop the party political knockabout when it came to issues of national security. “I admire that,” Starmer said. “There are some things of such national importance that we will work together and stand together.” 

Less impressed: Commenting on Starmer’s interview, Tory chair Greg Hands said: “Sir Keir Starmer represents the same old short-term politics because he has no principles — he will change what he says according to what people want to hear because he’s afraid of losing votes.”

RAYNER ROCKS UP: Deputy leader Angela Rayner is the main event on the conference stage today. She told a packed-out main hall: “You didn’t elect me to be deputy leader of the opposition, you elected me to be deputy prime minister of a Labour government,” saying she hopes this is the last time she addresses conference from the opposition. Earlier, conference suffered its first disruption when a heckler leapt on stage and began shouting about the NHS.

The speech: Rayner said Labour would introduce its new deal for working people within the first 100 days of being in office, with a ban on zero-hour contracts, the end to fire and rehire, work to close the gender pay gap, make work more family-friendly, tackle sexual harassment, boost wages, and bolster the powers of unions. On housing, a Labour government would make the Affordable Homes Programme “more flexible,” ban “no fault” evictions, give first-time buyers “first dibs” on new developments, introduce a mortgage guarantee scheme, and end the leasehold system.

THE OMNIPRESENT WES STREETING: In an extensive morning round, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Sky that Labour’s NHS plans involved “rewiring” the service through reform. On LBC, Streeting said he’s been honest with junior doctors and told them the public finances couldn’t bear their 35 percent pay demand. And he told Talk Radio’s Kate McCann Labour would aim to restore the two-day pledge for patients to receive a GP appointment and would pay for more equipment such as scanners by abolishing non dom tax status.

But but but: Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham told Sky‘s Trevor Phillips and the Observer that Labour’s plans lacked ambition and needed to be bolder.

What the polls say: There was good news for Labour from the pollsters, with a mega Survation poll for the Observer showing the party up three points to 42 percent, and the Tories failing to see a conference bounce unchanged on 29 percent. Datapoll in the Mail on Sunday has the Labour lead narrowing to 15 percentage points, and finds voters unconvinced by both Starmer and Sunak.

The state of Scotland: Meanwhile, analysis of a Panelbase poll for the Sunday Times predicts Labour’s Scottish leader Anas Sarwar is on course to replace the SNP’s Humza Yousef as first minister in the next Holyrood elections due in 2026. In Westminster voting intentions, Labour is on 32 percent with the SNP on 35 percent — that would deliver Keir Starmer 22 MPs north of the border and, potentially, the keys to No. 10. 

But but but: In the Independent, polling legend John Curtice is less sanguine over Labour’s poll lead, suggesting that Starmer has personally failed to cut through with the public, which he says should give hope to the Conservatives. “Should Mr. Sunak prove able to turn his government around, Labour might suddenly find that their seemingly impregnable large lead is in fact rather fragile,” he writes. 

Giddy aunt: And perhaps that’s why Starmer himself is keen to inject a note of caution, warning his delegates in the Observer not to get ahead of themselves. He says that conference: “is not going to be giddy, it is not going to be ‘job done’ … you won’t get razzmatazz. You won’t see mistakes that have been made in the past by opposition parties.”

Those five missions: Starmer’s main focus for conference will be selling his five missions. Party grandee Peter Mandelson thinks he needs to do that — and more. He told the Beeb’s Newscast Saturday: ” I think he’s got to set his policy stall out a little bit more than he has, not put everything in the shop window because he’s got a year to go. I think he’s got to show that the team around him are well qualified and united behind the direction he’s taking the party and I think he’s got to show a little more about himself and the journey he’s been on since he’s been Labour leader.”

SWEETIE PIE: Rachel Reeves has a big sit-down in the Sunday Times in which she sets out her plans to offer “sweetners” to local residents in return for the siting of major infrastructure projects, to fuel a building boom and see of the NIMBYs. The paper takes for its news line Reeves’s suggestion that Labour could allow building on the green belt.

Serious times: Reeves also sought to draw a contrast between Labour and what she described as “the chaos and instability” of Conservative conference. “I think it’s important we maintain a seriousness because I think the job of governing is a serious job,” she told ST Pol Ed Caroline Wheeler. 

No Victoria conference intro: Starmer’s wife Victoria won’t be doing an Akshata Murthy, he told the Sunday Mirror.

Queasy feeling: Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Sun the party must not be “queasy” about tackling illegal immigration.

KINNOCK CATCH-UP: Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has been urging delegates to back a motion committing the party to restoring closer ties with the EU.

DOMESTIC SERVICE: Fascinating scoop from the Indy’s Kate Devlin — Marina Wheeler (y’know, Boris Johnson’s ex) has been drafted in by Keir Starmer as a “whistleblowing tsar” to advise on Labour plans to give protections to women who are bullied or sexually harrassed in the workplace.

HASTY REWRITING: What do events in Israel and Palestine mean for Labour conference? As David Maddox points out in the Sunday Express, some planned events now seem a little jarring in the context of recent events.

OH, DIANE ABBOTT: The left wing Momentum group holds a rally calling for Diane Abbott to have the whip restored. It follows straight on from an equalities protest which will accuse Keir Starmer of downgrading the focus on BAME, youth, disabled and LGBT+ roles in local parties and embracing transphobia. It takes place at 1 p.m. just outside the conference venue at the Leonardo Hotel. Starmer gave short shrift to the idea of returning the ship to Abbott in his Observer interview.

Building momentum: Momentum is battling the National Executive Committee (NEC) over a decision by the conference arrangement committee on the merging of health structures and NHS. 

And more: Momentum also is kicking off about Labour’s approach to the public services, free school meals, the benefit cap, and concerns about the “moves to restrict democratic policymaking” in the party.

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QUICK-FIRE CATCH-UP

GRANTED: Labour is considering bringing back maintenance grants for poorer students, Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.

RWANDA CALLING: The Supreme Court meets tomorrow on the Rwanda immigration scheme. The Sunday Times has a good analysis of the implications of its findings. The decision is expected next month. On the Beeb’s Sunday show, Keir Starmer said he would not continue with the scheme even if it was cleared by the courts and was seen to be successful in reducing immigration.

EUSTON CALLING: Mark Harper told Times Radio a meeting of the Euston Partnership would be held tomorrow to discuss “a more ambitious plan for development at Euston,” following last week’s cancellation of the northern section of HS2.

SACK ‘EM: Former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg called on officials who blundered by informing schools they had £370 million more to spend than was actually allocated to budgets to be fired.

SICK NOTE BRITAIN: Ministers will launch a “radical overhaul” of the system for managing those on long-term sickness benefits, with a new triage system replacing GP fit notes, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

SHOPLIFTERS FOR THE CHOP: Serial shoplifters could lose the right to a jury trial, the Sun on Sunday reports.

NO SPRING ELECTION: No. 10 has gone cold on the idea of a spring election, and wants to give the economy time to recover before going to the polls, the Sun on Sunday’s Kate Ferguson reports. One “senior government source” tells her: “Time is our friend.”

WHO ARE YOU? In an interview with the Independent, The Who’s Pete Townshend described how then-Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer confronted him over child-pornography allegations.

MODEL BEHAVIOR: The Sunday Times investigation team has the extraordinary story of how modelling agencies are recruiting undernourished youngsters from African refugee camps to fill the brief of what the fashion industries considers beautiful.

OFFSKI: David Cameron’s former spokesperson Jean-Christophe Gray has quit his latest role as Prince William’s private secretary, the Sunday Times reports.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: LBC, which launched 50 years ago today as the “London Broadcasting Company” as the U.K’s first commercial radio station.

MEDIA ROUND

Ayesha Hazarika on Times Radio (4 p.m.): Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner … Labour grandee Peter Mandelson … TUC boss Paul Nowak … Labour West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin … former Labour MP Luciana Berger … Public accounts committee chair Meg Hillier … Labour MP Angela Eagle.

Westminster Hour (Radio 4, 10 p.m.): Labour Party Chair Anneliese Dodds … Conservative MP Chris Loder … Mirror Pol Ed John Stevens … Liverpool Uni Professor Jon Tonge.

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WEEK AHEAD

THIS AFTERNOON

CONFERENCE MAIN STAGE: Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, 11:25 a.m. … Labour General Secretary David Evans, 11:43 a.m. … Labour chair Anneliese Dodds, 12:15 p.m. … Shadow Chief Treasury Secretary Pat McFadden, 2 p.m.

PICK OF THE FRINGE: Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper talks crime and communities, 12:30 p.m. …  Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking at Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament event, 1 p.m. … Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner debates democratic reform at the IPPR, 3 p.m. … Polling guru John Curtice is at a Demos event about the next election, 5 p.m. … Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry talks justice, 6 p.m. … Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is speaking at a climate debate, 6:45 p.m. … and London Mayor Sadiq Khan attends business reception, 7 p.m.

BEST OF THE BOOZING: Labour to Win reception, 6 p.m. … Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at Scots Night 7 p.m. … and Dawn Butler hosts her now legendary Jamaica party, 10 p.m.

MONDAY

CONFERENCE MAIN STAGE: Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, 12 p.m. … Shadow DSIT Secretary Peter Kyle 2 p.m.

PICK OF THE FRINGE: Shadow Housing Minister Matt Pennycook discusses the housing crisis, 9 a.m. … Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham at Onward event, 10:45 a.m. … Shadow Middle East Minister Wayne David at Labour Friends of Palestine event, 11 a.m. … Shadow Employment Minister Justin Madders and RMT union boss Mick Lynch speak at LabourList event, 12:30 p.m. … Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn talks future U.K.-EU relations, 2 p.m. … Peter Mandelson chats business and productivity with Onward, 2:30 p.m. … Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting at Policy Exchange, 3 p.m.

BEST OF THE BOOZING: POLITCO’s invite-only Happy Hour, 6 p.m. … YouTube drinks reception, 6:30 p.m. … LabourList karaoke, 8 p.m. … and the Global Counsel Reception, 9 p.m.

PM ON MANEUVERS: Rishi Sunak holds a PM connect event in Nottinghamshire.

More Sunak: The PM is on Radio 2 with Jeremy Vine at 12.45.

COURT: Supreme Court hearings begin on the government’s Rwanda scheme.

TUESDAY

CONFERENCE MAIN STAGE: Labour leader Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech, 2 p.m.

PICK OF THE FRINGE: Shadow Economic Secretary Tulip Siddiq sets out the party’s growth plans at Policy Exchange, 9:30 a.m. … Rachel Reeves at the Tony Blair Institute, 10 a.m. … Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting at IPPR, 12 p.m. … Former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy at Policy Exchange, 12:15 p.m. … Shadow Treasury Secretary Pat McFadden chats growth industries at the IPPR, 3 p.m. … and Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy is in conversation with Chatham House, 6 p.m.

BEST OF THE BOOZING: ‘Get to know’ drinks reception with Rachel Reeves, 5 p.m. … LBC Drinks Reception, 6:30 p.m. … and The Mirror Party, 10 p.m.

WEDNESDAY

CONFERENCE SPEECH: Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting delivers a speech on future on the NHS, 10 a.m.

ALL OVER: Labour conference officially ends, 12 p.m.

G20: G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting.

THURSDAY

GDP: ONS publishes latest monthly GDP stats.

FRIDAY

DUP: DUP annual conference begins.

SATURDAY

CONFERENCE: SNP autumn conference begins in Aberdeen.

MORE CONFERENCE: The Fawcett Society host their annual conference in London.

Thanks: To Jones Hayden for giving Crunch some Sunday sparkle.

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More from … Rosa Prince