Labour - Monday Today at Conference

The 2014 party conference season has begun and we're here in Manchester

for the first of our Today at the Labour Party Conference. Here's what

happened: Ed Balls sought to claw back Labour's reputation for sound

economic management, to emphasise his fiscal responsibility, he said

the cap on child benefit would be extended if Labour wins the next

election. After the bruising referendum battle, Labour offered an

olive branch to Yes voters. Now the Scottish question has been answered,

what's the answer to the English question? We find out what delegates

here think. The Labour Party is mightily

relieved that Scotland voted no last Thursday, after all it had most to

lose from Scottish independence. But the result of that referendum

overhangs this conference, as Labour now struggles to deal with the idea

of English devolution and to answer the question - why not only English

votes for English laws? It fell to the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, to

shift the attention to the economy. He promised a decent rise in the

minimum wage and to increase the top rate of income tax. This is our

task, not to flinch from the tough decisions we have to make, but to

show the country there is a better way forward. Labour's plan for

Britain's future, our common endeavour to build an economy that

works for the many, not the few. For all working people in every part of

our United Kingdom. We'll build on our record. We'll

learn the mistakes from the last Government. We'll put right the

mistakes of the Tory Government. We will change Britain and change

Labour Party changing Britain. We will face great challenges. Working

people are already paying more taxes, our public services are under

great pressure. We know there would have had to have been tough

decisions on tax, spending and pay restraint in this Parliament whoever

was in Government, but three years of loss growth at the start of this

Parliament mean we will have to deal with a deficit of ?75 billion, not

the balanced budget George Osborne promised by 2015. That will make our

task of governing hugely difficult. This goes to the heart of the

political challenge we'll face. People know we are the party of jobs

and living standards and working people. But they also need to know

that we will balance the books and make the sums add up and that we

won't duck the difficult decisions we will face if they return us to

Government. Working people have had to balance their own books and they

are clear - Government needs to balance its own books too. We will

have to make other decisions, which I know will not be popular with

everyone. At a time when the public services that pensioners rely on are

under such pressure, we will stop paying the winter fuel allowance for

the richest 5% of pensioners. Over the long-term, as life expectancy

rises, we will need to continue to raise the retirement age to keep our

pension system affordable. We will cap structural Social Security

spending and keep the benefits cap, but we will make sure it properly

reflects local housing cuts. I want to see child benefit rising in line

with inflation in the next Parliament, but we won't spend money

we can't afford. For the first two years of the Parliament, we will cap

the rise in child benefit at 1%. It will save ?400 million in the next

Parliament, all the savings will go towards cutting the deficit. Unlike

the Tories, we will ask those who have the most to make the biggest

contribution. That is why with the deficit still high and working

people already paying more, we oppose David Cameron cutting the 50

p top rate of tax. Now cannot be the time to give the richest 1% of

people in the country a 3 billion tax cut, so as we get the deficit

down in the next Parliament, the Labour Government will reverse this

Tory tax cut for millionaires. Conference, we will also scrap the

shares for rights scheme. We will reverse the tax cuts for hedge

funds. We will crack down hard on tax avoidance and loopholes. We will

levy a tax on the highest value properties, a mansion tax on houses

worth over ?2 million. We'll do it in a fair, sensible and

proportionate way, raising the limit each year in line with average rises

in house prices, putting in place protection for those who are asset

rich and cash poor and ensuring those with properties worth tens of

million of pounds make a significantly bigger contribution

than those in houses just above the limit, because how can it be right

that a billionaire overseas buyer this year of ?140 million penthouse

in Westminster will pay just ?26 a week in property tax, the same as

the average value property in that area. Conference, we will make

different choices for fairer deficit reduction and to safeguard our vital

public services. That is Labour's plan to balance the books in a

fairer way. We can only succeed and create the

number of good jobs we need to a race to the top. Labour's economic

plan will transform vocational education. We will work with

employers to interdouse a gold standard technical qualification and

expand apprenticeships. We will get young people back to work. Rachel

Reeves will interdouse a compulsory jobs guarantee. People will have to

take that up or lose benefits. It will be paid for by repeating the

tax on bank bonuses. We will end the scourge of long-term unemployment

once and for all. APPLAUSE

And because a modern economy depends not just on traditional

infrastructure, but on the most important, modern infrastructure of

all - child care - we will increase the bank levy to expand free child

care for working parents for 25 hours a week to help mums and dads

balance work and family life. APPLAUSE

We will give tax breaks to firms that pay the living wage. We will

end the exploitive use of zero hours contracts and by the end of the next

Parliament, Labour will increase the national minimum wage to ?8 an hour.

APPLAUSE What's the Tory plan for the next

Parliament? They want to spend ?3 billion on a tax break for a

minority of married couples. People who are separated, widowed or

divorced, they won't get it. Women who fled and divorced an abusive

partner, they won't get it. Read the small print, two thirds of married

couples won't get it. Five out of six families with children won't get

it either. And the Tories call that a flagship policy for families. In

our first budget, we will scrap this unfair policy and instead use the

money to interdouse a new 10 p -- introduce a new 10 p starting rate

of income tax, a tax cut for people on middle and lower incomes, more

Willoughby benefit, more married couples will benefit, more families

with children will benefit, that is a fairer way to help working people

in tough times. Our economic plan will devolve power and resources not

only to Scotland and Wales, but to the city and county regions in every

part of the England. Our new, independent, national infrastructure

commission will end delay on big infrastructure decisions we need for

the future. Whatever the outcome of the Howard Davis review into airport

capacity, we must resolve to finally make a decision on airport capacity

in London and the south-east, expanding capacity while taking into

account environmental impact. No more kicking it into the long grass,

but taking the right decisions for Britain's long-term future.

Conference, in the housing market, demands outstrip supply. The Housing

Benefit bill is rising. Follow the report we will publish in a few

weeks and by making housing a priority within the existing capital

settlement for the next Parliament, Labour's economic plan will get at

least 200,000 new homes built by 2020. That creates jobs, helping

first-time buyers and building the homes Britain needs for the future.

Conference, this is what our first Labour budget will do. A British

investment bank set up. Business rates cut. Tax avoidance tackled.

The deficit down fairly. Infrastructure decision made not

delayed. The minimum wage raised. Energy Bills frozen. A jobs

guarantee for young people. Tax cuts for millions, not millionaires. Bank

bonuses taxed. The bedroom tax scrapped. Our NHS saved. That's what

Labour's first budget will do, fixing the economy for everyone. A

plan for the many not the few. People are relying on us to deliver.

Conference, we will not let them down. Thank you.

APPLAUSE As if to prove his austere credentials he's promised to extend

the 1% cap on increases in child benefit for an extra year. Now in

truth, it doesn't make much difference to a multibillion pound

deficit. So when I spoke to Rachel Reeves, the Shadow works and

Pensions Secretary, I asked her exactly how big would the saving be.

Around ?300 million during the course of this Parliament. Because

it's the saving in year one. That's already factored into the plans.

Then the savings in - For one extra year you're going to do it. Around

?300 million. You've assumed a higher rate of inflation. On the

Treasury's calculations you've only actually saved 120 million. The Bank

of England forecasts for inflation are what we use to make the

forecasts. That is having inflation going up to around 2%. Right. But so

far - The important point... First of all, 400 million... ?400 million

is a big contribution towards the deficit No it's not reduction. .

You're inheriting a deficit of 75 billion. Child benefit is not the

only thing that we've announced. The tax on properties worth more than ?2

million, repeating the bank bonus tax, increasing the top rate of tax

up to 50 p. The winter fuel allowance not going to richest

pensioners. You add all those up and it is important part of it. That's

several billion pounds. Several billion, but you promised - The key

point, the key way to get the deficit down is to have an economic

recovery that leaves no-one behind. Our announcement on the national

minimum wage is really important for deficit reduction. In just the last

12 months, we've spent an additional ?270 million on tax credits and

benefit payments because the minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation.

So increasing the minimum wage up to ?8 is an important component of

deficit reduction as well. If people aren't paid a wage they can live on,

they draw on benefits to make ends meet. That's important. It follows

that if they're not getting the extra benefits, if the benefits are

being withdrawn from them as the minimum wage goes up, they don't get

the whole benefit of the minimum wage. They face a rate of tax of 50%

or 60%. Every pound that lifts you above the minimum wage saves

taxpayers about 49 p in the I'm taking about pound. The people that

are supposed to benefit. They're not getting ought the money. If you have

a pay rise, that's around ?3,000 better off compared to the minimum

wage today. That's a massive difference. You say that you're

going to balance the current budget, run a surplus on current spending

and pay down the national debt. As soon as possible in the next

Parliament. That's what we're going to do. At the same time borrowing

more for investment. This is an important announcement, there will

be no spending commitments in the manifesto that aren't paid for.

There will be no extra borrowing in our manifesto. Everything we set

out, whether it be capital spending or current spending, will be paid

for. Many here have come direct from that gruelling Scottish referendum

campaign. They're exhausted. Though also relieved. Ed Miliband today

thanks those in the party who played their part in that successful

campaign. Except Gordon Brown. And many people think he was the man

that saved the union. He invited everyone involved onto

the stage for a celebratory photo. The Shadow Scottish Secretary

Margaret Kern and the chair of the Better Together campaign, Alistair

Darling. My fellow Scots have spoken. We have said no to

separation, no to division, no the end of solidarity and no to a false

border being erected between the working people of our four great

nations. APPLAUSE I tell you something else,

conference, we said yes too. Not yes to independence, but yes to

recognising our interdependence. Yes to cooperation and yes to a strong

Scotland inside a changed United Kingdom. As we meet here in

Manchester, with the referendum behind us now, the call for change

that we heard on Thursday still rings out. And let me tell you this,

Scotland, you have been heard. That's why I will not rest until you

get all that you have been promised. Not just more powers for the

Scottish Parliament, but the full use of the whole range of powers to

build the kind of Scotland we all want to see.

But when we, as a movement based on partnership, community and

cooperation look at Scotland today and see a country divided, we cannot

be satisfied. When the decision of the Scottish people is absolutely

clear, I understand that many of my fellow citizens are hurting and they

believe that progress on their hopes for Scotland has stalled. Our most

important task now is to persuade them that they should not be afraid.

I know many good, decent people, driven by values similar to ours who

voted yes. We may have disagreed on the means, but we share a very

similar vision about the kind of Scotland we want to build.

That vision can still be realised. One of the great features of the

referendum last week was that so many people came to vote. The lowest

turnout was 75%. How many of us would have killed to get 75% in our

constituencies? In some parts of the turnout was in the high 90s, in one

polling station it was 100%. That is something we should acknowledge as a

strength for the future because as we move on from the constitutional

debate, and move on and we need to, we have got to harness that

enthusiasm, not just in Scotland but in the whole of the UK. I'm

confident we will do that, so let's do it next May, let's win for our

party and for our country and make the change our country wants to see.

The promised to's decision to link more devolution for Scotland with

more English devolution has caught Labour on the hop. The party is

struggling to come up with a convincing answer the question that

if only Scots can vote on Scots law is, why can't only English MPs vote

on English laws? Is clear that the party faithful do not like that

idea. Everyone is talking about the idea of English votes for English

laws, so we're asking Labour delegates, should Scottish MPs be

bound from voting on English issues? I don't think so, I think most

legislation needs to be sorted out across boundaries, we need

decentralisation of power from Whitehall to local authorities. The

user with the West Lothian question is? -- do you know? No. Do you think

Scottish MPs should be allowed to vote on English matters? The House

of Lords can and I am not even elected. I say ban. So you are on

the David Cameron side of the argument? You never are! Retract

what you said, please! Then we will have the Dorset question, the Tory

shires will deter Weimann policy, the NHS, we have to make sure that

people from the left are presented, the people in our poorest

communities get represented equally. Now holidays in Dorset for you for a

while! We need to be able to vote on English matters, so we didn't know

what share of the budget we are getting. I am from the north-east of

England, people are definitely talking about it because we feel

that an English parliament is what we need like a hole in the head.

Should Scottish MPs be banned on voting on English issues? Is there

anyone Scottish peer? I am struggling to find anyone Scottish.

They will be here later, struggling to find anyone Scottish.

am aware they have been given the morning off as of the referring

them. You are a Scottish English MP. I am a British MP, there are a lot

of changes are as a result of Devo-Max. But it's not something you

can do on the back of a fag packet to suit the Tory party. I think it

is consistent happening which parliament if you have a Scottish

and Welsh Parliament, the separate federal parliament. Where would it

be? London, I suppose. Yorkshire! Wakefield or somewhere. To attempt

you back to front line politics? First Minister of England? It's a

wonderful offer... What about President Milburn of the federal UK?

I'm beginning to warm your theme. Watch out! Scary prospect! People

here do not want to ban Scottish MPs voting on English only matters. The

only irony is, we didn't get a single bite from his Kurdish MP.

Sometimes ploughing a lonely Pharoah in the Scottish towns and cities,

incurring the wrath of the yes campaign. Who better to discuss the

new question now demanding attention, English votes for English

laws. There are a lot of things to discuss, and one of the

disappointments of the post-referendum period is that the

Labour, Tory and Lib Dem parties work together and then Mr Cameron

came up with a quarter baked idea. The results were over. The ink was

hardly dry on the announcement and he was out there making his own

proposals. Scotland has taken two decades to get to this point. Mr

Cameron seems to have done it in a few short moments, and its naked

party politics, not where we were during the referendum and shouldn't

be where we are worried comes to discussing the suggestion. It also

jails people 's idea of fairness. Scottish MPs vote with Scottish

laws, why shouldn't English politicians vote on English laws?

What about Northern Ireland MPs or the Welsh MPs? The proposal is that

any law that only affect England, only English MPs about. When we have

devolution in Northern Ireland and no one is talking about the MPs from

there, and Wales... Heated English votes for English laws. -- he said.

The devolution in London, with the Mayor, then they vote on things that

don't affect their constituents of transport, so we are way beyond a

sound bite that Mr Cameron comes up with, we have an unwritten

constitution, we should have a convention, if we are looking at the

lessons from Scotland, I would like to see votes at Dean and 17 across

the UK, that was a success, but we should also look at the

constitutional convention to look at these issues rather than one single

issue, as to whether Scottish MPs get about... Why do you need a

convention to tell you that it is unfair that Scottish MPs interfere

in English matters when English MPs don't interfere in Scottish matters?

There are London MPs here, it doesn't affect... Should they not be

allowed to vote on transport issues which are devolved to the London

assembly? All this throws up that while we have an unwritten

constitution that has evolved over the centuries, shouldn't we have

time to reflect, at a slower pace of Mr Cameron would wish, through a

convention involving all the parties, civic society... You just

want to kick it into touch. Because the answer is politically desperate

for you. Without the 40 MPs in Scotland, you can't force your will

in England. It is politically desperate of him to come up with

this quarter baked plan early on Friday morning. Today he was able to

return to his day job as shadow Oregon secretary. He began by

thanking the Labour activists who had fought in the campaign that then

turned his focus to Britain's place in the world. I know that many

people 's confidence has been shaken in Britain both at home and abroad,

as the problems we face become more complex and challenging, people 's

faith in the capacity of politics to solve the problems is declining. But

what I saw in Scotland this summer, in town halls, village halls, school

halls, church halls, from the Highlands to the Hebrides, taught me

that we can win back that confidence. We can uphold the idea

of solidarity, we can work together across borders. We can defeat

isolationist ideas and together, we can defeat narrow nationalism. Just

as we strive to uphold those progressive politics here at home,

so we must strive to embody them in our foreign policy. Conflict in Iraq

and Syria, the destabilisation of Eastern Europe, turmoil in the

Middle East, have dominated the headlines in recent months. In the

face of such events, the next Labour government's foreign policy will

reject two fallacies. The hubris that somehow we in the UK can

reorder the world, all autumns ago that we should settle, simply for

strategic shrinkage or decline. For Britain to simply retreat from the

world would be as foolish as would be futile. The next Labour

government's foreign policy will be proudly multilateral, defending our

shared interests. Turning our back on the instability of the Middle

East and the threat posed by ISIL is simply not an option, not for

Labour, not for Britain. But in combating this thread we must seek

to be as effective as we are resolute. That means learned the

lessons of the past, broad partnership across the region,

together with genuinely multilateral alliances. And multilateral efforts

will also be needed to address the conflict between the Palestinians

and the Israelis. The blockade must end, the occupation must end, the

rockets must cease and meaningful negotiations must begin. Ed Balls is

well-known as being a political bruiser but he got physical on the

football pitch too. Yesterday you was playing in what was supposed to

be a friendly charity match against a team of journalists. But he left

one elbow with four stitches. I am convinced it was an accident, the

ref didn't even give a free kick. Look at that picture! But I have

been sent off in this fixture before, I'm the last to complain

about robust challenges. His response was that your tackle was a

bit tough. He pointed out I was trying to lick the ball off him, he

was putting his arms out to protect himself and caught me on a soft

spot. That's it for today on the day that Ed Balls tried to convince the

electorate that the nation's finances really would be safe in his

hands. Tomorrow morning we will hear from Maria Eagle...

Labour is ahead in the polls but its leaders's personal ratings are

pretty dire. Tomorrow he needs to convince the country really is a

Prime Minister in waiting. We are back at noon and again at 2pm to

bring you the whole of Ed Miliband's speech to the Conference

and we will be back just after Newsnight.

The guns fell silent on November 11th 1918, but the shadow

stretched long into the 20th century.

Historian David Reynolds examines its devastating impact.

I want to explore how this deadlocked war unleashed huge dynamic