One of the fires took place at the house he lived in before becoming Prime Minister.

Buying a home should be one of the most exciting moments in a person’s life. It shouldn’t be a nightmare to navigate.

The PM said these moves would cut the time, cost and complexity of buying a home in the UK.

Keir Starmer, take note.

Readers debate the validity of concerns surrounding digital IDs, Farage’s migration policies and Trump’s so-called UN ‘sabotage’

Most normal people only find out the Labour Party Conference is going on when they see clips of the Prime Minister’s speech on the news.

But there’s an awful lot more to it than that.

The event consists of four days packed with panels, talks and shindigs, with the first coffee-fuelled sessions kicking off around 8am and the final booze-fuelled sessions lasting as late as 3am.

Even if you’re the right kind of strange person who’s willing to take a few days off work for a political gathering, it can all get a bit exhausting.

For those who weren’t willing to put themselves through it, here are some of the things you might not have caught on the telly.

Not-MAGA baseball caps

One of the more bewildering and unexpected sights at this year’s Labour conference was all the people milling around in Trump-style baseball caps.

From a distance, all you could see was that they were the exact same shade of red as the hats made famous by the US President and they had some writing on the front.

Once you were a little closer, you could see it didn’t say ‘Make America Great Again’ – it said ‘Build, Baby, Build’ in a comic book-style font.

This was the brainchild of new Housing Secretary Steve Reed, who wanted to inject a bit of fun into the conference after a bleak few weeks for the party. He even signed a bunch of them.

I have it on good authority that the similarity to the MAGA caps was intended to be ironic, rather than any kind of homage to the The Donald.

Belting it out

One thing you might not know about British politicians is how much they love karaoke.

Well, not all of them. But the ones that do really do.

The Liberal Democrats have their ‘communioke’ night, where the screen faces out to the crowd for the ultimate singalong experience.

In Liverpool, there was a choice of the LabourList karaoke – where you could see Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander giving her rendition of Disco 2000 by Pulp – or the more exclusive Mirror Party.

That was where Health Secretary Wes Streeting treated the crowd to Elton John’s classic Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me, and talented Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones performed a genuinely impressive You’ll Never Walk Alone for the Hillsborough families.

Good Luck, Milibabe

Ed Miliband has been popping up on TikTok feeds in recent weeks waxing lyrical about his unlikely love for US singer Chappell Roan.

So when Metro got the chance to chat with the Energy Secretary, we made sure to question him about it (just ahead of the more pressing and important questions, of course).

We asked which Chappell song he’d use to sum up his conference experience so far – but all he could think of was Pink Pony Club, a song which doesn’t really work as an answer but which he is ‘obsessed’ with.

Miliband also told us he still hadn’t quite managed to see her live, but it’s a strong ambition of his.

In the meantime, he’s gonna keep on dancing down in West Hollywood…

AI Attlee

You never really know what you’re going to get when you set off for a party conference, but some things still have the capacity to surprise.

One sure thing at Labour is plenty of chat about Clement Attlee’s transformative postwar government, which introduced the NHS and modern welfare state.

This year was the 80th anniversary of his 1945 victory, and there was some lovely retro merch on offer in the Labour store to mark it.

But eyebrows were raised at data company Datnexa’s introduction of an AI Clement Attlee to provide advice and information about the conference, accessible via the website AskClem.com.

The site claims robo-Clem is ‘customised with Labour Party-specific knowledge’ to ‘revolutionise how attendees engage with conference content’.

Row over ‘racism’

If you saw anything from the Labour conference, it might have involved this.

Sir Keir Starmer grabbed headlines on Sunday by telling the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he believed Reform’s policy of deporting people currently living legally in the UK with indefinite leave to remain is ‘racist’.

What you might not have seen is just how much this remark set tongues wagging across the conference centre.

The PM had to make clear in further interviews that he doesn’t consider Reform voters or Nigel Farage themselves racist.

Some cabinet ministers, like Justice Secretary David Lammy, leapt with enthusiasm into using the ‘r’ word when talking about Farage, while other figures like Sadiq Khan explained why they hesitated over it.

If the intention was to wind up Farage, it certainly worked – he put a whole video up on social media about it. The question is how his millions of fans will respond.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he doesn’t believe Nigel Farage is a racist, despite using the word to condemn one of Reform UK’s flagship immigration policies.

At Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool, the Prime Minister has trained his focus firmly on the right-wing party as his likely main adversary in the next election.

His main target has been the plan, announced by Reform leader Farage last Monday, to deport hundreds of thousands of people currently living legally in the UK with indefinite leave to remain.

In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Sir Keir said that idea was both ‘racist’ and ‘immoral’.

He continued the attack in his keynote conference speech yesterday, vowing to ‘fight […] with everything we have’ against those who want to deport ‘people who have lived here for generations’.

Other members of the PM’s cabinet have also picked up the fight, with David Lammy making the eye-catching claim that Farage had ‘flirted with the Hitler Youth’ when he was young.

The Justice Secretary later rowed back on that remark, which was described by Reform as ‘beneath contempt’.

In an interview with Sky News today, Sir Keir made a distinction between the Reform leader and his policies when asked if he thought Farage was a racist.

He said: ‘No, nor do I think Reform voters are racist.

‘They’re concerned about things like our borders, they’re frustrated about the pace of change, so I’m not for a moment suggesting they are racist.’

The PM later described Farage as a ‘formidable politician’ but suggested he had ushered in a ‘dangerous moment for the country’.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Farage said he had believed Sir Keir was a ‘reasonable human being’ until his remarks this weekend.

He added: ‘Now I’m shocked at his behaviour.

‘I hope that when he wakes up this morning, he feels ashamed of what he has done to British politics over the past few days.’

A YouGov poll released this morning found that almost half of Brits – 47% – believe Reform UK is ‘generally racist’, with 36% saying the party is not racist.

More than four in ten also said they believed the party’s policies and voters specifically are also generally racist.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

‘You promised you would stabilise the economy.’

Ed Miliband revealed what the government should be focusing on.

Readers debate faith in Starmer, the public’s motivations to vote out the Tory government and Farage’s ironic defence of swan welfare

Readers debate faith in Starmer, the public’s motivations to vote out the Tory government and Farage’s ironic defence of swan welfare

Readers debate faith in Starmer, the public’s motivations to vote out the Tory government and Farage’s ironic defence of swan welfare

Keir Starmer delivered his keynote speech on the last full day of Labour’s party conference.

Readers debate digital ID cards, stating concerns over data, migration, cost to the taxpayer and if there should be a referendum to make a decision on the controversial policy

The Mayor of London has given a withering assessment of the government’s first 14 months in power.

He also revealed how he feels about the digital ID plan.

He said the plans ‘will rip this country apart’.

List of countries with digital IDs after UK announces mandatory ‘Brit Card.’

What kind of attacks are cybercriminals plotting?

It has been called ‘dystopian,’ while others say most of our lives are already online.

After two failed leadership bids is it third time lucky for Andy Burnham?

It’s hoped to tackle illegal immigration.

Burnham will be the unexpected conference headliner because Labour members are sick of the advertised one.

The Prime Minister Keir Starmer has thrown his weight behind Gatwick Airport’s controversial second runway despite opposition from environmental campaigners.

Sir Keir spoke to Metro at Downing Street just hours after Gatwick’s plan to open its emergency runway for routine use was given a green light by the Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander.

Gatwick says the plan will create 14,000 jobs and inject up to £1 billion into the economy, but campaigners and residents have not been swayed.

The PM defended the decision after accusations that airport expansion projects at Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton could hit the government’s net zero targets.

Sir Keir insisted that it is possible to ‘do both’ – support growth and meet Britain’s climate targets.

When asked whether he is a climate doomer, the PM told Metro: ‘I strongly believe that we can get this right, which means we can have the expansion of the growth that we need at the same time as meeting our climate obligations, and we can do both.

‘In other words, you don’t have to choose one or the other.

‘You don’t have to sort of say to people nobody can travel in the way they want anymore.

‘I think that would be completely the wrong thing to do.

‘But at the same time we are developing our sustainable fuels and other action that will mitigate in relation to the climate.

‘So this is one of those situations where, because of the way we’ve approached it, you can actually do both – yes, allow people to travel for work, for pleasure, to go on holiday.

‘Everybody wants to do that, but at the same time, make that consistent with our climate obligations.’

He told Metro that the increased demand at Gatwick and bringing the second runway into regular use is ‘really good.’

He said that Gatwick is already ‘a huge magnet for really good, well paid jobs,’ with the second runway adding 14,000 new jobs.

Sir Keir said: ‘Obviously, as part of the package, you would expect, there are noise conditions, to make sure that it doesn’t add significantly to noise for local people.

‘And a condition that public transport must be used for over half the people going to Gatwick.

‘But look, for the people, local people for jobs, it’s really good.

‘It’s obviously great for businesses, travel, and those people who want to go on holiday because the increased size of the airport means more passengers getting through up to 80 million.’

The UK’s second busiest airport wants to add around 100,000 more flights every year, which is set to boost passenger numbers to 80 million annually.

The £2,200,000,000 project – funded privately – will see the emergency runway moved 39 feet further north so that it can be used at the same time as the main airstrip.

Meanwhile, a government source argued that giving the plan the go-ahead is ‘a no-brainer for growth’ due to ‘capacity constraints holding back business, trade and tourism.’

But campaigners are up in arms about the decision after concerns over noise, and the impact on local roads and the environment.

Green Party’s new leader Zack Polanski described the decision as a ‘disaster.’

He said: ‘It ignores basic climate science and risks undermining efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

‘Labour keeps wheeling out the same nonsense about growth, but at what cost? What this really means is more pollution, more noise for local communities, and no real economic benefit.’

Greenpeace UK’s policy director Doug Parr said it ‘smacks of desperation, completely ignoring the solid evidence that increasing air travel won’t drive economic growth.’

CAGNE, the umbrella organisation representing residents and environmental groups in the wider area, said the decision was ‘misguided.’ It said the group is standing by to launch a legal challenge.

Flights could be taking off from the second runway by 2029, Metro understands.

Stewart Wingate, the managing director for Vinci Airports, said: ‘After a lengthy and rigorous planning process, we welcome the Government’s approval of plans to bring our Northern Runway into routine use, ahead of the expected deadline. 

‘This is another important gateway in the planning process for this £2.2bn investment, which is fully funded by our shareholders and will unlock significant growth, tourism and trade benefits for London Gatwick and the UK and create thousands of jobs. 

‘As we’ve said previously, it is essential that any planning conditions enable us to realise the full benefits of the project and do not impose unnecessary constraints that make it uneconomic to invest in.  

‘We now need to carefully examine the details of the planning consent. Once we have done that, we will be able to comment further.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

For Palestinians, Britain has never been a bystander; it has been an architect of our dispossession.