Labour conference LIVE: Fears Andy Burnham will use speech to axe pension triple lock.TA

Rayner says she has ‘unfinished business’ at Labour conference

Angela Rayner said she had “unfinished business”, as she pledged to place a cap on administration fees for leaseholders.

The Housing Secretary told the Labour Party conference: “I have a bit of unfinished business – confronting the scandal faced by millions of leaseholders who have found their dream of home ownership turned into a nightmare.”

Ms Rayner said the Government is “ending the injustice of fleeceholds”, adding: “Abolishing the sickening threats of people’s homes being snatched away by their landlord for the slightest breach, and we’re finally dealing with ground rents.”

She added: “Ground rents are not the only rip-off.

“I’ve heard of leaseholders being charged £250 for permission to own a pet, £400 for permission to change their own front door, and then a further £60 fee to put a doorbell on that door – just for the basic right to do what you want in your own home.

“Yet another example of how people feel powerless. Powerless against the vested interests that only take while giving nothing back in return, which is why we will also cap outrageous administration and permission fees for leaseholders.

“I’m taking every action to empower people in their own homes.”

Angela Rayner (Image: Getty)

The latest YouGov poll puts Reform UK in first place on 25%, which is a four point increase.

Behind them are Labour on 24% (+1), the Conservatives on 19% (-2), the Lib Dems on 12% (=), the Greens on 11% (-3), Restore Britain on 3% (-1), the SNP on 2% (=) and Plaid Cymru on 1% (=).

Angela Rayner has announced she will end “the injustice of fleecehold” – a remark regarding her plans to abolish the leasehold.

“Despite owning their own home, some leaseholders are forking out thousands,” she claimed, having just announced a policy to sieze empty and privatlly owned homes herself.

Ms Rayner, who owns several houses, also said she would abolish ground rent as well.

Angela Rayner has accused Nigel Farage of falling at the feet of “sugar-daddies”. In her speech at the Labour Conference she took aim at the Reform UK leader saying: “Nigel Farage and Reform have fought us every step of the way.

“But they have been exposed haven’t they, Farage isn’t standing up to the vested interests, he’s falling at their feet. Does anyone really think that Farage’s crypto-billionaire sugar daddies are handing millions because he’s standing up for the working people of Britain.

“Give me a break. If we will sing you a happy birthday song for £70 just imagine what he’ll do for seventy-million.”

Angela Rayner welcomes the employment rights bill, calling it the “biggest upgrade of workers rights in a generation”.

She is now speaking about the Renters Rights Act, which she also brought in – despite watering it down to remove long held plans to abolish leasehold.

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Angela Rayner has said that Andy Burnham is “absolutely right to start the conversation” about the future of the triple lock, describing the move as “brave”.

The Housing Secretary told Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast: “The high principle on this is that people have paid in all their lives. They are willing, I think, to look at that.

“I think he’s absolutely right to start the conversation. It’s brave.

“We’ve got a prime minister who said, I’m I am okay with burning through all my political capital to the point where it might finish me off, on the basis of my legacy will be something better and different.”

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is back in the lead in the latest YouGov poll.

Reform is on 25%, up four from the week before, while Labour is down one on 24%. The Tories are down 2 points on 19%.

The former Tory Cabinet minister tells the Express that abolishing the triple lock does not produce any large early cuts in public spending. If undertaken now the Government Actuary puts it at £2billion by 2030-31.

He says these are the four key questions those wanting to end the triple lock need to answer

1. Would they just remove the 2.5% uprating option, leaving a double lock, or would they only link pensions to prices, or to earnings? Leaving pensions linked to earnings will not yield much saving. No-one is suggesting an end to annual upratings. What is their realistic estimate of five year savings from their proposed change?

2. Would they change the law to allow them to remove the £100 bn surplus from the National Insurance Fund which currently pays the pensions, or would they abolish the Fund?

3. Would they end the Contributory principle for the pension which awards pension to people who have contributed sufficient in National Insurance, or have earned NI credits?

4. Are they aware that the current NI Fund is super solvent and is forecast to generate a surplus in each of the next five years by the Government Actuary?

Sharon Graham, the boss of Unite told the BBC’s Today programme: “Debate’s good because actually debate gets you to an answer. But I do think it’s really not about what I think, it’s about what the public will think.

“And so therefore, a bit like winter fuel, if the first thing that is coming out is that we are going to say to pensioners you are going to get less money in the future…

“And remember this is just going to get worse, because some of the pensioners now may have had final salary pension schemes. So actually poverty in older people isn’t going to get any better.”

Tuesday’s main hall timings at the annual Labour Party conference:

10.15am Sir Chris Bryant, Northern Ireland Secretary10.25am Claire Ward, East Midlands Mayor11.40am Angela Rayner, Housing Secretary2pm Andy Burnham, Prime Minister

Removing the triple lock on the state pension would be “morally wrong”, the leader of a powerful trade union has said.

Sharon Graham, boss of the Unite union, was asked about her previous comments describing scrapping the lock as “electoral suicide”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: “Instead of going and trying to pick the pocket of pensioners, we need to move over to the other side of the equation and look at things like wealth taxes, way before we try to stop something like the triple lock.

“It’s wrong, and to be fair to Andy, he hasn’t said that.”

The Unite general secretary added: “When we met with Andy this week, it certainly wasn’t mentioned.”

(Image: DX)

Labour’s deputy leader has refused to say whether the triple lock could be dropped by the party

Lucy Powell told Sky News: “We are committed to the triple lock. It’s in our manifesto. The triple lock has really delivered for pensioners, in this country, over the course of this Parliament.

“I think we’re going to see (the) state pension rising by about £2,000-a-year significantly, and that’s really important, so pensioners watching your show today can know that their income is secure and will continue to rise over the course of this Parliament.

“I don’t know what Andy’s going to say about that today, but I know that what he’s talking about is this big conversation about solving these big problems, but being really honest with people that they come at a cost.

“They do come at a cost. You can’t just solve the social care crisis without having the big conversations about how you’re going to do this.”

(Image: SKY NEWS)

Unite boss Sharon Graham has warned Andy Burnham against scrapping the triple lock to pay for his social care reforms.

Speaking to the Express at Labour’s conference, she said: “We cannot have a situation where we’re going to older people to say to them to pay for all of this.

“We have got the lowest amount that we spend on pensioners in terms of GDP in the G7, we’re the joint-lowest. I find it abhorrent that we’re the joint lowest. And for me, you don’t have to keep robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Labour Party members and MPs gathered in Liverpool for their annual conference have already made a series of major announcements.

Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, has announced a reopening of asylum resettlement routes for refugees from the Middle East.

John Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has declared new investments into the shipbuilding industry and pledged that a “new age of industrialisation” will help drive growth.

And Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, has hailed the US-UK alliance in his major speech to conference attendees.

Andy Burnham is reportedly set to announce he will reconsider the Labour Party’s position on the triple lock.

He will use his main speech at the Labour Party Conference to outline a direction for his new social care plans, which are said to come with changes to pensioner income protection.

Mr Burnham will inform attendees that the triple lock does not work in its current form before suggesting it should be reviewed in the next manifesto.