Tories promise young people a £5,000 ‘first job bonus’ and defend overseas aid spending cuts: Politics live

Political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports…

James Cleverly has backed NIMBYs (not in my backyard) who oppose development and have been blamed for Britain’s housing shortage and creaking transport infrastructure.

The shadow housing secretary said it is not an unreasonable or illogical position to hold and that people are simply “protecting what they have bought”.

He said: “NIMBY is not an illogical position, and it’s not even it’s not an unreasonable position.

“If you’ve worked hard… and you’ve bought something, perhaps you’ve bought a view. Perhaps you’ve bought you into living somewhere in green space. Perhaps that’s what you you saved up, you worked through your life, and you’ve moved into your forever home, which was, which was the home you chose because of all these things. And then suddenly someone comes along and fundamentally changes what it is you have bought and paid for, and your perception is you’re getting nothing in recompense.

“Saying not in my backyard is an entirely logical position.”

Labour have hit back at the Conservative Party’s pledge to abolish business rates for shops and pubs.

A Labour spokesperson said the promise made by the shadow chancellor on Monday did not specify how the Tories would fund it.

“Mel Stride’s supposed savings plan has already fallen apart hours after being announced,” Labour said.

“The Conservatives claimed they would state how they’d pay for their policies, yet made a multibillion-pound pledge to abolish business rates without saying how they’d fund it.

“It’s the same old Tories with the same old policies.

“They didn’t work then and you can’t trust them now.”

The shadow chancellor has pledged to offer young people a £5,000 “first job bonus”.

Those starting their first full-time position would receive a £5,000 national insurance rebate to put towards buying a home, Sir Mel Stride announced.

“So we will introduce something called the first job bonus,” he said.

“When someone takes their first job, the first £5,000 pounds they pay in national insurance won’t go to the taxman.

“It will go towards a deposit on their first home, or it will go towards savings for their later life.

“For a working couple, that means £10,000 pounds, helping them buy a home, build a family, save for the future.

“That is the Conservative dream, a dream that built my life.”

The shadow energy secretary has vowed to scrap a number of green pledges if the Conservatives win power.

Claire Coutinho said a future Tory government would scrap Great British Energy if it wins the next election.

Ms Coutinho told members it was a “vanity project that won’t cut bills” from Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

She also said the party would scrap the ban on new oil and gas licences, reverse the energy profits levy and start drilling in the North Sea again.

The Independent’s political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports from Manchester:

It is almost impossible to work in politics without being familiar with the antics of Steve Bray, the die-hard anti-Brexit protester who blasts politically-themed remixes of popular hits outside parliament every Wednesday.

He is not shy to travel either, and is a staple of the Conservative and Labour conferences each year.

But he is nowhere to be seen at the Tory gathering in Manchester, in a sign of just how irrelevant the party has become.

Mr Bray was hard at work singing about Brexit, Sir Keir Starmer and the Conservatives as Labour gathered in Liverpool last week.

It is not just Mr Bray, there are usually scores of different protesters hanging out outside the Tory conference, but none to be seen this year.

A shadow minister lamented to The Independent that “something is missing” this year, adding that even the protesters have not bothered to show up.

In between speeches and fringe events, those at the Tory conference may be looking to do some shopping.

Among the merchandise on offer includes some vintage-style Conservative prints, tea towels and “future prime minister” teddy bears and baby grows.

The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke reports from Manchester:

The Conservative Party has promised to abolish business rates for high street shops and pubs if they win the next election, with the shadow chancellor promising to fund the pledge by “getting public spending under control”.

Speaking on the main stage of the party conference in Manchester, Sir Mel Stride said: “Under Labour, many have seen their business rates double. We need to get business rates down. In fact, we need to go further – much, much further.

“So, today I can announce that as a direct result of getting public spending under control, a future Conservative government will completely abolish business rates for shops and pubs on our high streets.”

“End of. End of, finished, gone”, he added.

The shadow chancellor has accused Reform UK of “marching to the left” as he sought to position the Tories as the party of “fiscal responsibility.

“Reform want to get back to the days of nationalisation and state control. They are marching to the left,” Sir Mel Stride said.

“Be in no doubt they are the party of more spending and more debt.

And when it comes to Reform be assured of this: That when the glitter, the shimmy of the sequin dress, the razzmatazz, the spinning plates, the fireworks have faded you will be left with emptiness. The hollowed out promises that never were.

“But Reform are being found out – and it is this Conservative Party that is holding them to account.”

The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke reports from Manchester:

The Conservative Party will bring taxes down but “we will only do so when it is affordable”, Mel Stride has said, promising to never make the mistakes Liz Truss made in her mini budget.

“We will bring taxes down. We must. But we will only do so when it is affordable – just as Nigel Lawson did – because we know where the alternative path leads.

“We saw that with a mini budget in 2022. So let me be clear, the Conservative Party will never ever make fiscal commitments without spelling out exactly how they will be paid for.

“We are and will always be the party of fiscal responsibility. Labour have trashed the finances and it will only be the Conservative Party, our Conservative Party, that can be trusted to fix them.”

The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke reports from Manchester:

Mel Stride is working hard to persuade the party that the Tories can once again be a trustworthy political force – but unfortunately for the shadow chancellor, there is barely anyone there to hear him.

Speaking to a room full of empty seats – with only the front few rows full – he promised a “radical plan to rebuild our economy”.

But with so few people in the room, applause is thin, and far from convincing.