Boris Johnson speech: Latest updates as PM accused of recycling 2019 teacher premium policy

Anti-poverty campaigners accused Boris Johnson of lacking the “guts” to tackle the cost-of-living crisis facing millions of British families, after he delivered his high-profile speech to his party’s annual conference without mentioning the £6bn welfare cut happening the same day.

The prime minister’s 45-minute address was branded “vacuous” and “the most out-of-touch display in decades” as he found time to launch a sustained attack on Labour rival Keir Starmer, praise the return of beavers to the wild and boast of his own “radical optimism”, but offered no solutions to the issues of soaring food and energy prices and petrol shortages.

And Mr Johnson’s address came as experts warned the cap on energy prices will have to rise, at an estimated annual cost of £400 for millions of families, after the price of natural gas spiked to a new record, sparking concerns of a 1970s-style cost-of-living crunch.

Business minister Paul Scully has suggested that people with spare cash could support local charities or volunteer to pay more tax to help people who are struggling.

Evan Davis, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, asked the minister whether he thought he should donate to food banks as the £20-per-week uplift to Universal Credit comes to an end.

Mr Scully said: “If you have spare cash Evan and you were talking about taxing as well, there are two things you can do: you can support charities that are doing amazing work in localised, targeted work in various areas, or you can actually donate some of that money to HMRC because you know, you can volunteer tax as well, so don’t feel the need for people to send your tax bill if you want to contribute.”

Boris Johnson is reportedly planning to increase the minimum wage in the UK in order to move the country towards a “high wage, high skill, high productivity economy” as the gradual recovery from the coronavirus pandemic continues.

Mr Johnson gave his address to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Wednesday, delivering a speech loaded with fruity turns of phrase, knowing historical allusions and jokes at the expense of his Cabinet colleagues but light on new policy, on the same day that his government’s cuts to Universal Credit came into effect.

That decision sees an estimated 6m unemployed and low-paid workers losing out on £20 a week in benefits after an “uplift” was introduced at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak last March to support families when lockdown sparked a wave of redundancies, furlough and lost income.

Friendly Fires have attacked the Conservatives for using their song “Blue Cassette” at their party conference in Manchester.

Earlier today (6 October), Prime Minister Boris Johnson used the song as he walked on stage to give his speech.

The band have since responded using Instagram Stories to slam the political party for using their music without permission. They said: “We do not endorse the Conservative party’s use of our track ‘Blue Cassette’.”

The statement continued: “Our permission was not sought and we have asked our management to make sure it isn’t used again.”

A follow-up story from the band said: “If we’d have intended them to use it, we’d have named the track ‘Blue Bunch of Corrupt W*****s’.”

The UK’s largest cancer support charity has urged Boris Johnson to reverse the £20-per-week Universal Credit cut which came into effect today.

Macmillan Cancer Support said in a statement that they are “deeply disappointed” that the prime minister has gone ahead with the cut.

“We urge the Prime Minister to reverse the Universal Credit cut to avoid tens of thousands of people living with cancer from facing a financial cliff edge,” they added.

The government has resisted calls from Labour and charities like Macmillan to drop the cut, saying that the uplift which was brought in during the pandemic was always intended to be temporary.

From claiming that wages are increasing to overstating the government’s role in shutting down the European Super League, here are eight falsehoods Boris Johnson pedalled in his address to Conservative party members at their conference in Manchester — and their reality:

Priti Patel has been accused of weaponising violence against women to justify new laws that will “curtail freedom and deepen inequality.”

The End Violence Against Women (EVAW) Coalition, which includes Rape Crisis, Refuge, Women’s Aid and other organisations supporting victims, called for laws championed by the home secretary in her Conservative Party conference speech to be scrapped, reports our home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden.

Ms Patel announced an inquiry into Sarah Everard’s murderer, saying that “such unconscionable crimes and acts of violence against women and girls have no place in our society”. She then went on to endorse the infamous Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which a huge number of women and girls denounced after police officers became violent towards them at a vigil held for Sarah back in March.

EVAW have actually called for the bill, which contains new restrictions on protest and laws that discriminate against Travellers, to be dropped.

Anneliese Dodds, the Labour party chair, has described Boris Johnson’s speech as vacuous and said it ignored crises affecting Britons such as cuts to Universal Credit.

“Boris Johnson’s vacuous speech summed up this whole Conservative conference. The PM talked more about beavers than he did about action to tackle the multiple crises facing working people up and down the country.

Far from getting a grip on the spiralling costs of energy, fuel and food, the Tories are actively making things worse – cutting incomes today for 6 million families by over £1,000 a year.

Britain deserves a fairer, greener and more secure future. Last week Labour set out how we can get there. This week it’s clear that after over a decade in power the Conservatives don’t have a clue.”

In a tweet, she added: “Cancel the cut.”