PM pledges 'decency' over Farage's divisive 'decline'

Sir Keir Starmer will step up his attack on Nigel Farage by telling voters that Britain faces a historic choice between his “decency” and the Reform leader’s “division”.

- DAVID MADDOX POLITICAL EDITOR AT THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE

Just 48 hours after describing Mr Farage's immigration policies as "racist and immoral", Sir Keir will use his most important conference speech yet as a rallying call for Labour to fight back against Reform, which is seen by the prime minister as the government's primary threat.

Sir Keir, whose party is trailing around 10 points behind Reform in the polls, will tell the Liverpool crowd: “We can all see our country faces a choice, a defining choice. Britain stands at a fork in the road.

“We can choose decency. Or we can choose division. Renewal or decline. A country, proud of its values, in control of its future, or one that succumbs, against the grain of our history, to the politics of grievance.”

It comes after Rachel Reeves used her keynote conference address to warn that Mr Farage's agenda was the “single greatest threat” to Britain. Home secretary Shabana Mahmood also described Reform UK's immigration policy to scrap indefinite leave to remain as “worse than racist”.

Sir Keir's speech will be made at a challenging moment for the PM, who wants to prove he is the right man for the job amid speculation about a challenge from Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham. He is said to have been spurred on to tackle the toxic anti-immigration rhetoric after seeing the number of people who turned out to support far-right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom march in London earlier this month.

Significant moments during the second day of Labour's annual conference included:

Ms Reeves used her speech to say Labour was still on the side of the working class, but warned of "harsh global headwinds" as she hinted at further tax rises to come in the Budget