In his conference speech Ed Davey suggested that a Nigel Farage government would relax gun controls, exposing Britain to the risk of US-style mass shootings. (See 3.03pm.)

Christopher Hope from GB News says that, while Farage has argued in the past that gun laws in the UK are too strict, the party says it is not planning to do anything about that.

Here is what Nigel Farage said about gun controls in the UK in January 2014:

Nigel Farage said: “I think proper gun licensing is something we’ve done in this country responsibly and well for a long time, and I think the kneejerk legislation that Blair brought in that meant that the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to even practise was just crackers.

“If you criminalise handguns then only the criminals carry the guns. It’s really interesting that since Blair brought that piece of law in, gun crime doubled in the next five years in this country.”

“I think that we need a proper gun licensing system, which to a large extent I think we already have, and I think the ban on handguns is ludicrous.”

A Reform source now says: “Reform has no intention of changing the gun laws.”

The Home Office has lost its appeal against a high court ruling granting an Eritrean asylum seeker a temporary block on being deported to France under the new “one in, one out” scheme, Diane Taylor reports.

Here are more comments from Labour MPs condemning President Trump for his false claim about Sadiq Khan in London adopting sharia law. One of them said the American ambassador should be summoned to the Foreign Office and reprimanded for Trump’s Islamophobia.

From Rosena Allin-Khan

The US Ambassador should be summoned and challenged over Trump’s rampant Islamophobia. Trump continually spreads lies. In London, we celebrate our diversity and reject racists and bigots. London is the greatest city in the world in huge part due to @sadiqkhanlondon.bsky.social‘s leadership.

From Rupa Huq

Blatant barefaced lies as any fact-check or reality check will attest

From Dawn Butler

Trump has just told an incredible lie to the UN about our great country and our great @MayorofLondon. Now is the time to stick up for your country. Don’t let Trump lie about us in this way.

Like Streeting (see 4.13pm), Allin-Khan, Huq and Butler are all London MPs.

Sadiq Khan’s office said it would not “dignify” Donald Trump’s “appalling and bigoted comments” by responding to them.

A spokesperson for the London mayor said:

We are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response.

London is the greatest city in the world, safer than major US cities, and we’re delighted to welcome the record number of US citizens moving here.

That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose. Thanks for following my coverage of Ed Davey’s leader speech at the Lib Dem conference.

Andrew Sparrow will be back shortly to continue bringing you all the latest UK politics news.

Sadiq Khan is not “trying to impose sharia law on London”, Wes Streeting has said.

Responding to false claims made by Donald Trump at the UN, the health secretary said in a post on X:

Sadiq Khan is not trying to impose sharia law on London.

This is a mayor who marches with Pride, who stands up for difference of background and opinion, who’s focused on improving our transport, our air, our streets, our safety, our choices and chances. Proud he’s our mayor.

It comes as the US president falsely claimed London wants to “go to sharia law”.

In an address to the United Nations general assembly, Trump said:

I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed.

Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and says the UK must “do all it can” to stop Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Davey says:

We must call it by its name, and we must condemn it unequivocally.

What is unfolding in Gaza is a genocide. And the United Kingdom must do all it can to make Netanyahu stop.

He adds:

I am proud that the United Kingdom has finally recognised the independent state of Palestine. Something we have rightly led the charge on for almost a decade.

Davey is now talking about the conflict in the Middle East and says while he shares the condemnation of Hamas, nothing can justify Israel’s “clear breaches of international law” in Gaza.

He says:

Friends, I travelled to Israel and Palestine last year. I saw the devastation in a kibbutz raided by Hamas on October 7. I joined mourners at the site of the Nova music festival, grieving the loved ones brutally slain by terrorists.

I spoke with the families of hostages who are still held captive, almost two years later. I completely share their condemnation of genocidal Hamas. I completely share their determination – their desperation – to get the hostages home.

And I condemn – I utterly condemn – antisemitism in all its forms. Including here on our streets in the United Kingdom.

And let us also be clear: nothing – nothing – can justify what the Netanyahu government is doing to innocent men, women and children in Gaza.

He adds:

We have all seen it; the baby boy – starving and skeletal – held tight in his mother’s arms. The crowds of desperate people, rushing to get food. The bodies of children, killed as they queued for water. Children. A famine unfolding before our eyes.

Conference, the actions of the Netanyahu government go well beyond self-defence. They are clear breaches of international law.

Davey is now attacking Nigel Farage’s record on immigration and highlights how his support for Brexit “ripped up 27 return agreements” with EU states.

He says Farage caused the small boats crisis, alongside the Tories and Boris Johnson, and that he ought to apologise.

Davey says:

And look at this hypocrite’s big announcement on deportation last month. Look at what his plan really means.

Sending men, women and children who have fled the Taliban back to Afghanistan to be murdered by them and even paying the Taliban to do it.

That isn’t patriotic. That isn’t British. That isn’t who we are. And that’s why it’s so frustrating – so infuriating – that Farage gets such an easy ride from the media.

As he lies and divides, the BBC and others give Farage so much time and attention. But they never hold him to account for all the damage he has already done.

The damage of Brexit. Farage was Brexit’s champion. The damage of Donald Trump. Farage campaigned for him. All the damage of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Farage backed them both.

So much that is broken in our country today is broken thanks to Nigel Farage. And now he wants to break it even more. Unless we stop him.

Ed Davey says that neither Labour nor the Conservatives can win back the public’s trust or win the battle of ideas for the future of the country.

He says “it comes down to us or Nigel Farage” and says Lib Dem values represent the change that people “crave”.

He tells the conference:

Just imagine – if you can bear it… imagine living in the Trump-inspired country Farage wants us to become.

Where there’s no NHS, so patients are hit with crippling insurance bills. Or denied healthcare altogether.

That is Trump’s America. Don’t let it become Farage’s Britain. Where we pay Putin for expensive fossil fuels and destroy our beautiful countryside with fracking – while climate change rages on.

That is Trump’s America. Don’t let it become Farage’s Britain. Where gun laws are rolled back, so schools have to teach our children what to do in case of a mass shooting. Trump’s America. Don’t let it become Farage’s Britain.

Where social media barons are free to poison young minds with impunity. Trump’s America. Don’t let it become Farage’s Britain.

He adds that a Reform government would “trample on basic rights and freedoms” and hold up figures like Andrew Tate as an example to young men.

Davey is now speaking about the “threat that Reform UK poses” to the country and says only the Lib Dems are representing Britain’s “decent, silent majority”.

He says his party’s “secret first target” for the next election is to win more seats than the Conservatives.

He says:

Our first target is to win more seats than the Conservatives, for the first time since Herbert Henry Asquith in 1910.

Now we have even more ambitious targets than that – but let’s start with the Tories.

For when it comes to the Conservative party – you might have thought the scale of their defeat would have forced a bit of… introspection? Maybe they’d… apologise? Show a hint of contrition. Self-awareness? But no.

Tory ministers who cheered Liz Truss’s budget now complain about the state of the economy they left.

Tory ministers who stopped processing asylum claims and caused the enormous backlog – now make videos complaining about it and protesting outside the asylum hotels they opened.

The Conservative party today is like a herd of bulls; going back into the china shop with a camera crew, pointing at all the broken china everywhere. And decrying the state of china shops in “woke, liberal” Britain.

The Conservative party: no shame. No remorse. No wonder the country is saying “no thanks.”

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has walked on to the stage at his party conference to applause from members that have gathered over the past three days in Bournemouth.

He begins by recognising the “lively debates” that have been had at the event and immediately mocks Reform UK for inviting controversial doctor Aseem Malhotra to speak at their conference earlier this month.

He says:

Lots of lively debates on so many important topics.

And somehow we’ve managed to get through it all without bringing someone up onto the stage to argue that it was Covid vaccines that caused cancer in the Royal Family.

See, Nigel? It can be done.

He praises the party’s 72 MPs and is now reeling off Lib Dem achievements in this parliament so far.

Davey says:

But look at the job our new team is doing in parliament too. Look at the big changes we have won in the last year alone.

Stronger protections for survivors of domestic abuse. Better support for family carers. A Sunshine Bill to put solar panels on every new home.

Making sure every child living in poverty gets a healthy lunch at school for free. So much progress and none of it happens without Liberal Democrats in parliament.

An amazing record of achievement already and we’re planning much more.

He reels off local election successes in Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire and Shropshire before declaring “the best is yet to come.”

Good afternoon. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the top news lines to emerge from Ed Davey’s leader speech at the Liberal Democrat conference this afternoon.

We are expecting him to get underway in approximately five to 10 minutes, so do stay with us for that.

Davey has been vocal about the need to push back against the rise of far-right politics and has offered stark opposition in recent weeks to figures such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and US president Donald Trump.

We can expect him to touch upon that in this keynote speech, as well as covering typical Lib Dem talking points such as social care, the cost of living and Britain’s relationship with Europe.

Stay tuned.

Here is a fuller version of the quote from Sir John Curtice, the leading elections expert, on the strategic dilemma facing the Liberal Democrats. (See 12.53pm.) The World at One played this clip. Curtice said:

The truth is that the immediate opportunities for the Liberal Democrats to gain further seats, either during the course of this parliament, or indeed in 2029, do look rather limited.

Now it’s true Ed Davey’s strategy of focusing on the blue wall – that is Conservative-held seats from 2019 – was very successful in the general election in 2024.

However, virtually all of the possible gains that could be acquired from that strategy have been made. There are only 20 seats left where the Liberal Democrats are now second to the Conservatives.

The other problem they have is that they are there only six seats where they are second to Labour, and one in Wales where they are second to Plaid Cymru.

So the problem the Liberal Democrats have to have is, yes they’ve now got all of these bastions very focused in the south of England, but I think the fundamental question they now face is where do they go from here?

And it’s not clear that the answer to that is to do more of the same.

They now, it seems to me, need to broaden their geographical base beyond what they achieved in 2024 if indeed they are ever going to return to being a party that is actually gaining votes widely across the country, as opposed to a party that at the moment looks very heavily focused on one particular region of England.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a statement saying there is “no evidence” to support President Trump’s claim that taking paracetamol during pregnancy can cause autism in children.

Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the MHRA, said:

Patient safety is our top priority. There is no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children.

Paracetamol remains the recommended pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed. Pregnant women should continue to follow existing NHS guidance and speak to their healthcare professional if they have questions about any medication during pregnancy. Untreated pain and fever can pose risks to the unborn baby, so it is important to manage these symptoms with the recommended treatment.

Our advice on medicines in pregnancy is based on rigorous assessment of the best available scientific evidence. Any new evidence that could affect our recommendations would be carefully evaluated by our independent scientific experts.

Sorcha Eastwood, the Alliance MP from Northern Ireland, says President Trump’s comments were not just completely wrong; they were offensive to women, and to people with autism.

The statement from President Trump about Paracetemol and autism is completely unfounded.

Not just that, but it is wrapped in blame towards women and shaming women. I’m sure Trump has never been pregnant or tried to prepare his body for pregnancy and it’s already a highly stressful time when you query every single thing you put in your body.

To hear from the most powerful Office in the world that you should definitely not take paracetamol during pregnancy is alarming and will frighten women. To hear that if you take paracetamol during pregnancy that you will give your child autism is completely unfounded and untrue.

Further, the language and attitude displayed by Trump and RFK his Health Secretary is showing their blatant prejudice towards autism.

People with autism do not need cured, and folic acid is not the “cure”.

It was bad enough when Trump encouraged people to drink bleach and take horse wormer to fight covid, but this is on a different level.

Absolute nonsense and designed to create fear and shame in women and to send a signal that autism is a “disease “ to be “cured”. Utterly, utterly shameful.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, criticised Donald Trump for “the cruelty and stupidity” of his approach to medical research in comments distributed yesterday before Trump made bogus claims about autism in the Oval Office. (See 8.41am.) Now Davey has described the president’s latest comments as “dangerous nonsense”.

First Trump slashed funding for vaccines research now he’s peddling dangerous nonsense about paracetamol.

The UK should take on Trump’s anti-science agenda and open our doors to US researchers.

And this is from Danny Chambers, the Lib Dem mental health spokesperson.

The US government is ignoring science and deliberately spreading misinformation. It will get people killed. And we have a Reform party that seems quite keen to import their health advice from these people.

According to a story by Patrick Maguire in the Times, a key Labour thinktank is also floating the idea – backed by the Liberal Democrats (see 11.24am) – that asylum seekers should be allowed to work while their claims are being processed.

Maguire says a paper from Labour Together (the Morgan McSweeney outfit – see 9.45am) is circulating a paper in government called The Case of Contribution. Keir Starmer has always had difficulty setting out a personal, political philosophy, and many of his critics argue that this is a problem because, they say, his non-ideological managerialism has not been very inspiring.

Maguire says the notion of contribution – re-establishing the link between what people get out of the state, and what they put in – could provide an answer.

The Labour Together paper makes its case by giving individual examples and this is what it says about asylum seekers. Maguire reports:

Boldest of the lot are the proposals on migration, which, if taken up even in part, would represent the biggest paradigm shift of all. Reform UK has set the agenda with proposals to deny benefits to even legal migrants. By the standards of the centre-left, Labour Together’s suggestion is just as radical.

Rather than leave Isak, an Eritrean with post-traumatic stress disorder, languishing in an asylum hotel, their paper proposes he be granted time-limited refugee status for six months. He signs a contract that obliges him to learn English, find work and private accommodation; his access to any income support via universal credit is strictly conditional on him fulfilling its terms. Of all the changes suggested, this one – given that asylum seekers cannot currently work legally – would have the most profound consequences for British politics and the economy.

In an interview on the Today programme this morning Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, said that allowing asylum seekers to work in the UK would increase the pull factor, encouraging migrants to cross the channel in small boats.

But experts dispute this. Here is an extract from an Economist article this week saying the case for allowing asylum seekers to work is “compelling”. It says:

Why an asylum-seeker is drawn to Britain over, say, France is not obvious. A 2016 report from Warwick University, based on findings from 29 separate studies into asylum-seeker motives, concluded that social networks and shared languages were crucial. The report could not find a single study showing a significant correlation between work rights and destination choice. If asylum-seekers in Calais were motivated by working rights those who had yet to apply would stay in France, where they could work sooner.

At the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth this morning members have passed two emergency motions.

On digital rights, the Lib Dems are calling for an urgent parliamentary review on “whether the Online Safety Act is meeting its stated aims of keeping children and other vulnerable groups safe online, whether it is fit for purpose, and what further legislation may be required to ensure that the aims of keeping children and other vulnerable groups safe online”.

And, on the asylum system, members voted for a motion with five proposals. They say the government should:

End the use of asylum hotels by speeding up application processing so thousands aren’t stuck in limbo and those with valid claims can work, integrate and contribute, while those without a right to remain can be returned swiftly.

Lift the ban on employment for asylum seekers who’ve waited over three months for a decision.

Immediately restore family reunification pathways for refugees.

Increase cross-border cooperation, including through a leadership role for the UK in Europol, to tackle criminal gangs and stop dangerous Channel crossings at their source.

Publicly and unequivocally reaffirm the UK’s commitment to the ECHR - and reject any attempt to undermine the legal protections it provides.

The UK is set to suffer the highest inflation among G7 nations this year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned. Heather Stewart has the story.

Rachel Reeves has been urged to take 2p off the rate of employee national insurance and add it to income tax in her autumn budget, to raise billions of pounds while protecting workers’ pay packets, Richard Partington reports.

The proposal is in a report from the Resolution Foundation thinktank that suggests tax changes that could raise more than £30bn in the budget. The list is here.

The Resolution Foundation is sometimes described as the most powerful thinktank in the UK because many of its alumni now have key roles in government. The Economist’s Bagehot summed this up in a recent column.

Torsten Bell, the boyish pensions minister, now has the unenviable task of helping pull together a painful budget. Before entering Parliament, Mr Bell spent nine years as the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation (RF), a centre-left think-tank. Minouche Shafik, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, is now Downing Street’s economic adviser. She was the co-chair of rf’s The Economy 2030 Inquiry. Dan Tomlinson, an even more boyish mp and a former economist at RF, is now a Treasury minister. Overseeing this reshuffle? Vidhya Alakeson, the deputy chief of staff in Downing Street and formerly rf’s deputy chief executive.

If the fate of Labour’s spending plans is now in the hands of RF veterans, its supply-side agenda always was. Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister and another former RF researcher, oversees the party’s planning reforms—the keystone of its growth strategy.

But it would be a mistake to assume that the Resolution Foundation and the government agree on everything. Ruth Curtice, who replaced Bell as its chief executive, was on the Today programme this morning and she was asked if she was floating the ideas in today’s report on behalf of Bell. Not at all, she said. “These ideas are mine, I’m now in charge of the Resolution Foundation, and we’re not particularly close.”

And Pennycook himself was doing interviews this morning. Asked if the government would adopt the RF plan to cut national insurance by 2p, and add 2p to income tax instead, he replied:

We’re going to honour our commitments not to increase the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT on the pay packets of working people.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has urged pregnant women to ignore Donald Trump’s bogus claims about a link between taking paracetamol and autism.

Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine, Streeting said:

I trust doctors over President Trump, frankly, on this.

Streeting explained:

I’ve just got to be really clear about this: there is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children. None.

In fact, a major study was done back in 2024 in Sweden, involving 2.4 million children, and it did not uphold those claims.

So I would just say to people watching, don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine. In fact, don’t even take my word for it, as a politician – listen to British doctors, British scientists, the NHS.

It’s really important that a time when you know there is scepticism – and I don’t think scepticism itself, asking questions is in itself a bad thing, by all means, ask questions – but we’ve got to follow medical science.

The Conservatives have written to the parliamentary commissioner for standards calling for an investigation into allegations that Keir Starmer may have failed to declare “potentially thousands of pounds’ worth” of support from campaign group Labour Together when he ran for the Labour leadership in 2020.

This is the third investigation that the Tories have demanded within 48 hours in relation to a controversy about Labour Together, a group originally run by Morgan McSweeney, who is now Starmer’s chief of staff. Labour Together was set up to fight Corbynism in the party when Jeremy Corbyn was in charge and it eventually played a crucial, though largely behind-the-scenes, role in helping Starmer to become leader in 2020.

The group failed to declare donations worth £730,000 to the Electoral Commission and was investigated in 2021 and fined. These facts have been known for years. But interest in the story has been revived by publication of a new book, The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy, by Paul Holden.

On Sunday the Tories demanded a police investgation into claims that McSweeney deliberately did not disclose the donations. McSweeney has said the non-disclosure was inadvertent, the result of an administrative error.

Last night Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, wrote to the Electoral Commission demanding an inquiry.

And this morning Hollinrake has released the text of a letter to Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In the letter he says:

Between January and April 2020, Labour held a leadership contest. Evidence from that period suggests that the prime minister accepted potentially thousands of pounds’ worth of advice and polling via the members’ association Labour Together. A review of his register of members’ interests for that time reveals no record of these donations. The parliamentary rules are clear that “support in kind” from Labour Together should have been declared, but it was not.

In 2021, the Electoral Commission fined Labour Together for failing to report donations covering the period 2017 to 2020. New evidence has since come to light which raises questions as to whether this failure was deliberate, in an attempt to mislead the Electoral Commission. At the time, the prime minister’s now Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, was a director at Labour Together and responsible for legal compliance.

This new information prompts a re-evaluation of Labour Together’s activities between 2017 and 2020. Labour Together itself has claimed that it “helped to rally the party membership behind Keir Starmer” and that it “united the party behind Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign”.

Reports indicate that Labour Together, under Morgan McSweeney, spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on polling, which was then used in Starmer’s leadership campaign. This support was not declared.

Labour Together also provided written materials and strategic support. The organisation was involved in preparing Sir Keir’s first speech as Labour leader, yet this assistance does not appear in the Register. Notably, at this time the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, did register donations for the “provision of research and writing services”, yet the prime minister did not.

Hollinrake suggests Starmer broke the rules saying MPs must declare support worth more than £1,500, including “support in kind”.

In response, a Labour source said:

Neither Keir, nor his leadership campaign accepted monetary or in kind donations from Labour Together during the leadership election.

Commenting on the Tory approach to the Electoral Commission, a commission spokesperson said the issue had been “thoroughly investigated” in 2021 and had been “satisfied that the evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that failures by the association occurred without reasonable excuse”. She added: “Offences were determined and they were sanctioned accordingly.”

Peter Kyle, the business secretary, will visit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to meet companies in the supply chain as the carmaker extended its shutdown into October after a cyber-attack, PA Media reports.

Good morning. Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, will deliver his keynote speech to his party’s conference today and he is going to use it to attack “the cruelty and stupidity” of the Trump administration in the US. He will be referring in particular to its attitude to medical research, according to extracts from the speech briefed in advance. Davey is expected to say:

The United States is by far the world’s biggest funder of cancer research – mostly through its National Cancer Institute. But since Donald Trump returned to the White House, he has cancelled hundreds of grants for cancer research projects.

He’s slashing billions of dollars from the National Cancer Institute’s budget. He’s even ordered a review of all grants for research involving supposedly ‘woke’ keywords – including the word ‘women’.

And last month, Trump’s health secretary – Robert Kennedy Jr – cancelled half a billion dollars’ worth of research into mRNA vaccines. He did it based on totally false conspiracy theories about these life-saving vaccines. The same type of vaccines that protected us from Covid just a few years ago …

It is hard to express the cruelty and stupidity of cutting off research into medicine that has the power to save so many lives. A decision – by the way – that was enthusiastically applauded by Farage’s party at their conference. I don’t think we should let the Trump Administration hold back progress on tackling cancer like this.

Davey’s embargoed comments were briefed to the media before Trump used a White House press conference to make bogus claims about the causes of autism, and so the Davey speech could not be more topical. A day after Nigel Farage outlined plans to deport hundreds of thousands of foreigners, Davey will be speaking up for immigration. Specifically, he will say the government should set up a dedicated fellowship scheme to lure US cancer researchers, who are appalled by the Trump policies, to the UK.

Peter Walker has a full preview here.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Liberal Democrats start the final day of their conference with emergency debates on digital rights and the asylum system.

10am: The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development publishes its latest interim economic outlook, with its latest forecasts for the UK economy.

2.20pm: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, closes his party conference with his keynote speech.

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