Reeves shrugs off questions about the PM’s leadership
Rachel Reeves shrugged off questions about the prime minister’s leadership of the party being in jeopardy, amid speculation over the past week that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was exploring a rival bid.
“I don’t think there’s any serious contention here,” the chancellor told Sky News immediately after Sir Keir Starmer’s keynote speech on Tuesday. “Keir’s doing a great job, he secured a massive mandate last year.”
Asked if she felt that the party was on the back foot and had been forced into campaign mode by the rise of Reform UK, Reeves said: “I enjoy fighting for what I believe in, Keir knows what he believes in, that’s why we went into this business in the first place.”
Business and policy groups welcome new skills target
A new target for two thirds of young people to participate in higher-level learning is a welcome aspiration, if it helps to boost investment in further education and apprenticeships, business groups and policy analysts said on Tuesday.
The reframing of an historic target for 50 per cent of school leavers to go to university - which was met in 2019 - means the government will now place an equal emphasis on academic qualifications, technical education and apprenticeships.
There will be a sub-target for at least 10 per cent of young people to pursue higher technical education or apprenticeships by the age of 25 - near double the current level - by 2040.
“The aspiration is great,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. But he said the government would need to “radically change the supply of apprenticeships” to meet the target, as employers were still too apt to restrict degree level apprenticeships to existing employees, with few openings available for school leavers.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said the new target was a “step change”, because the previous focus on universities had made it difficult to make the case for investment in further education.
But to boost the number of people studying in FE colleges towards apprenticeships, “we now need to see the investment to match the ambition” he said.
Make UK, the manufacturers group, also welcomed the announcement, as did the British Chambers of Commerce.
But Robbie Cruickshanks, senior researcher at the Education Policy Institute, said it was not yet clear how an additional ￡800mn intended to support 16-19 year olds in FE would be spent, or whether it would be earmarked for the most disadvantaged students.
Farage warns over Starmer ‘racist’ slight against Reform voters
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that by calling his party’s policies racist and immoral, Starmer was “by implication” saying that all “Reform supporters, Reform voters, Reform sympathisers are racist too”.
“If you think we should control our border then you are?.?.?.?all racists,” he said, during a live broadcast straight after Starmer’s conference speech.
“This language will incite and encourage the radical left,” he said, adding that in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk in the US “this is an absolute disgrace”.
Starmer had, in fact, said “controlling migration is a reasonable goal”, while condemning violent “thuggery”.
Farage added that the Labour party conference was “extraordinary” because his name dominated it so much, describing it as “obsessive”, and added that the Labour party were “incapable of beating us on our arguments”.