We can pull this round, Starmer says ahead of Labour conference
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Oswestry fire-damaged school arranges alternative site for pupils
Fire broke out at St Martin’s School in Moors Bank, near Oswestry, last Sunday. Roof, dining hall and art centre damaged, as well as utilities. School has now said the part of the building for secondary students will be closed next week. But provision for Year 11 students has been made at another site for three days a week. The cause of the fire is not yet known but the fire service said it was not deliberate. The school is hoping to introduce temporary buildings, depending on insurer’s quotes, it said. It thanked families for their support and said her top priority was the safety of pupils.
Image source, Carl Edwards Image caption, The fire started at the school last Sunday and has damaged its roof, dining hall and art centre , as well as utilities
Author, Susie Rack Role, BBC News, West Midlands
3 hours ago
A village school closed by a fire has said its secondary pupil site will remain shut for another week.
The fire broke out at St Martin’s School in Moors Bank, near Oswestry, last Sunday afternoon, and engulfed the back of the building. Utilities were damaged as well as the art centre and dining room.
The school has now said the part of the building for secondary students will be closed next week but provision for Year 11 students has been made at another site for three days a week.
Fire crews were visiting the primary part of the school on Monday and a decision about its reopening would be made after that. The cause of the fire is not yet known but the fire service said it was not deliberate.
Head teacher Alison Pope thanked families for their support and said her top priority was the safety of pupils.
“Regrettably, we are unable to open the secondary phase as we do not have utilities on site including toilets, water, a working fire alarm and electricity (to parts of the building),” she wrote.
She added contractors were on-site, and the school was hoping to introduce temporary buildings, depending on insurer’s quotes.
Image source, Google Image caption, The school has been shut since the fire last Sunday
Arrangements have been made for Year 11 students to attend North Shropshire College’s Oswestry campus for three days a week from 1 October, with classes taught by St Martin’s staff.
Timetables and transport arrangements would be provided by email, Mrs Pope confirmed.
Alternative provision for other Year 11 students at Thomas Adams School would restart on Monday and Tuesday, she added, with all others in the year required to log in for online learning.
Volunteers have been opening the village hall to provide a place for students and school staff to meet, and pick up work.
Mrs Pope said this would continue next week between 10:00 and 14:00 BST, with staff on hand to provide guidance to students.
Image caption, Alison Pope thanked families at St Martins for their patience
“We are working very hard to ensure that everything is in place to ensure school reopens as soon as possible,” she said. “I do not underestimate how frustrating and challenging the school’s closure continues to be for our families.”
She also praised the community who had offered their help and also the pupils who had been distance learning.
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Reform YouGov poll: Labour can pull this round says Starmer as party conference starts
Sir Keir Starmer says Labour faces ‘fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together’ But he adds: ‘I think we can pull this round. We don’t have time for navel-gazing’ Fresh polling shows Sir Keir is the least popular prime minister on record, performing worse than Rishi Sunak or John Major. Polls suggest Nigel Farage’s party is on course to win the next election. Rachel Reeves is least popular chancellor since records began, with a net satisfaction rating of -56.7%. Only 13 per cent said they were satisfied with the way SirKeir is doing his job, while 79 per cent were dissatisfied. Labour conference comes amid speculation that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham could mount a leadership challenge. Labour chairwoman Anna Turley acknowledged it had been a “quite challenging couple of weeks’’ for the party with supporters talking up his prospects as a potential prime minister. Mr Burnham offered up his biggest challenge last week, saying Britain needs change.
Sir Keir Starmer has said he believes Labour can “pull this round” as the party goes into its annual conference, amid growing questions over his leadership and devastating approval ratings.
The prime minister said his party, currently riven with division amid polls which suggests Nigel Farage’s party is on course to win the next election, faces the “fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together”.
But he added: “I think we can pull this round.”
It came as fresh polling showed Sir Keir is the least popular prime minister on record, performing worse than Rishi Sunak or John Major.
open image in gallery Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on the train to Liverpool (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
In an interview with The Times published after he arrived in Liverpool for Labour’s party conference, the PM said: “It is the fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together. We don’t have time for introspection, we don’t have time for navel-gazing.
“You’ll always get a bit of that at a Labour Party conference, but that is not going to solve the problems that face this country.”
He warned that the fight is “bigger than the Labour Party” because of the “sense of the division that Reform would bring to our country and the shattering of what we are as a patriotic country”.
Sir Keir also argued that the UK is facing a “fork in the road” at the next election, between Labour and Reform – while the Tories are “dead”, he claimed.
Earlier, the PM claimed Mr Farage’s party wants to “tear our country apart”, pointing to Reform’s plans to remove indefinite leave to remain for legal migrants as “one of the most shocking things” he had heard them come out with.
As he arrived in Liverpool for the conference, Sir Keir said it would be an opportunity to show Labour’s alternative to the “toxic divide and decline” offered by Reform.
A new poll from Ipsos showed that net satisfaction with the PM is at -66, the lowest satisfaction rating recorded by Ipsos for any prime minister going back to 1977.
Only 13 per cent said they were satisfied with the way Sir Keir is doing his job, while 79 per cent were dissatisfied.
The score is worse than previous lows recorded by Rishi Sunak just months before the general election (-59, April 2024), and John Major (-59, August 1994).
The polling also indicated that Rachel Reeves is the least popular chancellor since records began, with a net satisfaction rating of -56.
Her satisfaction scores are comparable to Kwasi Kwarteng in October 2022, just after his disastrous mini-budget, with a score of -53.
The poll surveyed 1,157 British adults between 11 and 17 September 2025
Meanwhile, other surveys have put Mr Farage on course to be the next prime minister, with Reform currently on track to win the most parliamentary seats if an election were held, according to both YouGov and More in Common.
In a message aimed at rallying a divided Labour against Reform, Sir Keir told The Guardian: “History will not forgive us if we do not use every ounce of our energy to fight Reform. There is an enemy. There is a project which is detrimental to our country.
“It actually goes against the grain of our history. It’s right there in plain sight in front of us. We have to win this battle.”
open image in gallery Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (right) speaking at the Global Progress Action Summit at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Labour had to “unite and fight”, he said amid speculation that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham could mount a leadership challenge.
The former cabinet minister approaches this weekend’s crucial Labour conference with supporters talking up his prospects as a leader and potential prime minister for the party.
Mr Burnham last week offered up his biggest challenge yet to Sir Keir, saying Britain needs “wholesale change” and warning the prime minister that he risks handing Mr Farage the keys to No 10 without a major change of course.
Labour chairwoman Anna Turley acknowledged it had been “quite a challenging couple of weeks” for the party.
But she told the PA news agency that many more MPs are “frustrated” that their colleagues are already trying to topple Sir Keir.
Ahead of the Labour conference, backbench MPs and unions renewed calls to end the two-child benefit cap – setting the issue up to become a key battleground at the four day congress.
Several MPs from Liverpool, the host city, were among those who wrote to the prime minister ahead of the gathering, insisting the cap “is one of the most significant drivers of child poverty in Britain today”.
Debate over the future of the cap is among a number of areas of benefits policy where ministers could be challenged by Labour members in Liverpool.
Among those who have previously called for it to go is Lucy Powell, the former Commons leader who is the frontrunner in the race to become the next Labour deputy leader.
open image in gallery Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Darren Jones in Downing Street, London (James Manning/PA)
Meanwhile, Mr Burnham this week also called on Sir Keir to scrap the cap, becoming the latest high-profile Labour figure to call on the prime minister to change the policy, amid growing pressure from Labour MPs.
Sir Keir’s plans for a new digital ID system, unveiled in London on Friday, will also likely face scrutiny at the conference.
Senior Labour figures are meanwhile expected to set out the details of a fresh tranche of “New Towns” at the event.
Labour Conference: Keir Starmer confident Labour can fight off Reform’s surge despite new poll finding him least popular PM on record
Just 13 per cent of Britons are satisfied with the way Sir Keir Starmer is doing his job as Prime Minister, a backslide of six percentage points since June this year. Nearly four in five people are dissatisfied at 79 per cent – handing him a net rating of -66, or the lowest satisfaction rating for any PM since 1977. Housing Secretary Steve Reed has said his job depends on fulfilling Labour’s manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million homes by the end of this Parliament. He told GB News: “Put me back here at the end. When we’ve gone through this Parliament, you can call me. back here and I will be held to account. But what I have committed to do is 1. 5 million homes” Steve Reed blames Boris Johnson for ‘shattering trust in politics’ Housing Secretary has hit out at Boris Johnson, accusing the former Prime Minister of breaking trust between the public and politicians. The Labour MP for Croydon North said: “When we know that trust in politicians is broken, we had austerity promise of Boris Johnson and his friends because of Truss’s budget”
It follows a damning new poll which revealed Sir Keir is the least popular Prime Minister since records began.
Fresh data from pollsters at Ipsos has handed the PM a net negative 66 satisfaction rating – just as his party conference begins.
That figure places him below every person to have taken the job since Margaret Thatcher – with every PM since David Cameron receiving incrementally worse ratings at their lowest.
Just 13 per cent of Britons are satisfied with the way Mr Starmer is doing his job as Prime Minister, a backslide of six percentage points since June this year.
Nearly four in five people are dissatisfied at 79 per cent – handing him a net rating of -66, or the lowest satisfaction rating for any PM since 1977.
In stark contrast, Nigel Farage’s Party has seen a major surge since the 2024 General Election, claiming “Britain needs Reform.”
A recent YouGov poll, based on a 13,000 sample taken over the last three weeks, revealed that Reform would be 15 seats short of the formal winning line of 326 if a General Election were held today.
As Mr Farage’s party currently holds only five seats, the predicted gains of 306 additional MPs would be the largest increase in any election in British history.
Confident that Labour can shift the public view away from Reform and back to the left, Mr Starmer said: “It is the fight of our times and we’ve all got to be in it together. We don’t have time for introspection, we don’t have time for navel-gazing.
“You’ll always get a bit of that at a Labour Party conference, but that is not going to solve the problems that face this country.
“Once you appreciate the change — in the sense of the division that Reform would bring to our country and the shattering of what we are as a patriotic country — then you realise this is a fight which in the end is bigger than the Labour Party.”
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‘My job depends on it!’ Steve Reed invites GB News viewers to hold him to account if Labour fail to build 1.5 million homes Steve Reed has said his job depends on fulfilling Labour’s manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million homes | Steve Reed, the Housing Secretary, has said his job depends on fulfilling Labour’s manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million homes by the end of this Parliament. He told GB News: “My job depends on it. “Put me back here at the end. When we’ve gone through this Parliament, you can call me back here and I will be held to account. But what I have committed to do is 1.5 million homes.”
Sir Keir Starmer will lead Labour in next General Election amid leadership challenge, says Steve Reed Housing Secretary Steve Reed has voiced confidence that Sir Keir Starmer will lead Labour into the next general election. Asked directly, Mr Reed told GB News: “I recognise that trust in politics is broken, but we are delivering the change people want to see. I know it takes time for that to feed through, but what you don’t do is stop, start. Have the revolving door we saw under the Tories.” “We’re going to stay the course with this Prime Minister and we’re going to keep doing what we need to do to put money in people’s pockets.” It comes as the Prime Minister faces challenges from Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester in northern England. Mr Burnham said that Sir Keir had no clear plans to turn the country around, and lawmakers in Britain’s parliament urged him this summer to stand against the Prime Minister.
Steve Reed blames Boris Johnson for ‘shattering trust in politics’ Housing Secretary Steve Reed has hit out at Boris Johnson, accusing the former Prime Minister of breaking trust between the public and politicians. The Labour MP for Streatham and Croydon North said: “When we know that trust in politics and politicians is so broken because of the broken promise of Boris Johnson and his friends, we had austerity. We had Brexit, we had Truss’s budget. “They’ve shattered trust in politics, and people are not going to give their trust back until they see change that they can feel in their lives. So what we’ve started to do as a Government is start to turn around the issues people voted for change on. “With ten months with this, government wages have gone up faster than in ten years under the previous government. Now, one of the things that people are really worried about is the cost of living. “So the fact they’re now seeing wages rise faster than prices for the first time is a real benefit, but it takes time for that to feed through.”
Camilla Tominey grills Steve Reed at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE
Labour MSP suspended over ‘inappropriate conduct’ as party urged to ‘come clean’ A Scottish Labour MSP has been suspended from the party over an allegation of inappropriate conduct. Foysol Choudhury, who has served as an MSP for Lothian since 2021, will now sit as an independent while under investigation by his party. A Labour spokesperson said the party “takes all complaints seriously”. They added: “They are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate action is taken.” READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Home Secretary finally admits asylum hotels are ‘total disaster’ but claims Britain ‘needs migration’ The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has finally admitted that asylum hotels are a “total disaster” but insists that the UK still “needs migration”. She told The Sun: “The pace of that migration has been very, very fast. I totally understand why people have concerns about it. “We need legal migration; it is a good thing. We are a country that has always welcomed people who want to come and work here. “But I think in addition to living and working here, there is a bigger thing to do as well, which is to make sure that people are making a contribution to their wider community and wider society.” READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Keir Starmer’s migrant deal EXPOSED as GB News reveals ‘7,000-in, seven-out’ surge in Channel crossings Small boats have steadily increased between 2018 and 2025 | GB NEWS More than 7,000 asylum seekers have entered the UK and just seven have been returned to France since Sir Keir Starmer’s “one-in, one-out” deal has been in force, GB News can reveal. The proposal, signed into law on August 3, ensures illegal migrants face deportation to France, provided the UK takes an eligible asylum seeker who has a link to Britain. Migrants were first detained under the Anglo-French accord on August 6, with an Indian national becoming the first migrant sent back across the Channel on September 18. More than 3,500 migrants completed Channel crossings via small boats in August, with all new arrivals coming after the deal was signed into law. READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Is Andy Burnham REALLY that great? GB News takes a look at the Manchester legacy of Labour’s man of the moment Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is being touted as a potential Prime Minister-in-waiting | PA As Sir Keir Starmer prepares for his conference showdown in Liverpool, the Greater Manchester Mayor is quickly being touted as the Prime Minister’s successor-in-waiting. While the 180-mile distance between Manchester and the Houses of Parliament poses a stumbling block for Mr Burnham to become the next Labour leader, the ex-Health Secretary’s stint in Tootal Buildings gives him one trump card many politicians never acquire: a legacy. After being trounced in the 2015 Labour leadership race, Mr Burnham upped sticks to contest the newly formed Greater Manchester Combined Authority, an almost guaranteed tap-in for the boyhood Everton fan dressed in red. Securing 63.4 per cent of the vote, Mr Burnham hoovered up the votes in all 10 Manchester boroughs. READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Keir Starmer is ‘least popular Prime Minister since records began’ Ordered by time, the net satisfaction rankings read: Keir Starmer: -66 per cent;
Rishi Sunak: -59 per cent;
Liz Truss: -51 per cent;
Boris Johnson: -46 per cent;
Theresa May: -44 per cent;
David Cameron: -38 per cent;
Gordon Brown: -51 per cent;
Tony Blair: -44 per cent;
John Major: -59 per cent;
Margaret Thatcher: -56 per cent. READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Girl, 10, wins award for painting inspired by LS Lowry
Girl, 10, wins award for Lowry-inspired painting Bustling Street. She was selected from hundreds of primary school-aged children. The annual art competition is run by the Salford-based Lowry theatre. LS Lowry is famous for his depictions of industrial Britain during the mid-20th century. His works have been sold for millions and the Lowry theatre was opened in his honour at the turn of the millennium. The painting will be on display at the theatre for a year with the work expected to be viewed by up to 100,000 visitors.
Image source, Lowry Image caption, Sophia’s painting Bustling Street was selected from hundreds of entries
Author, Dan Wareing Role, North West
3 hours ago
A 10-year-old girl has won an award for her painting inspired by the work of artist LS Lowry.
Sophia was selected from hundreds of primary school-aged children as the winner of the 2025 Copley Prize, an annual art competition run by the Salford-based Lowry theatre.
She described her painting, titled Bustling Street, as a “more modern and colourful” version of Lowry’s depictions of working class life around north-west England.
Sophia added: “His art inspires me to see beauty in everyday life.”
Laurence Stephen Lowry was born in Stretford in 1887 and spent more than 40 years illustrating areas of industrial Britain during the mid-20th century.
He become best known for painting urban landscapes filled with human figures, often referred to as matchstick men.
Since his death in 1976, Lowry’s works have been sold for millions and the Lowry theatre was opened in his honour at the turn of the millennium.
“Sophia is a very worthy winner of this year’s Copley Prize,” said Alison Copley, who co-founded the competition in 2012.
Image source, PA Media Image caption, LS Lowry is famous for his depictions of industrial Britain during the mid-20th century
Mrs Copley added: “We found her bold colours and intricate detail so engaging and admired her approach of painting life as she saw it around her, just as LS Lowry did.
“We hope she continues to pursue and develop her wonderful artistic talents. We would like to thank and commend all of the entrants of this year’s Copley Prize, and encourage them all to keep producing fantastic artwork.”
Claire Stewart, curator of the LS Lowry collection, said: “LS Lowry spent a lot of time on the streets of Manchester and just painted what he saw.
“What is marvellous about Sophia’s picture is that she has done the same.
“She has painted just what she might see on a walk through town and filled it with colour and vitality. It’s a very worthy winner.”
The painting will be on display at the Lowry theatre for a year with the Woking-born artist’s work expected to be viewed by up to 100,000 visitors.
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Vehicles and e-bikes seized in Peterborough insurance crackdown
Vehicles and e-bikes seized in insurance crackdown in Peterborough. Cambridgeshire Police said it took 16 vehicles off the road last week. Of those stopped, three did not have a licence, while another was disqualified. One person was arrested on suspicion of drug driving.
Image source, Cambridgeshire Police Image caption, Police said 16 vehicles and two illegal e-bikes were seized last week
4 hours ago
A police force has seized numerous vehicles and illegal e-bikes during a clampdown on uninsured drivers in Peterborough.
Cambridgeshire Police said it took 16 vehicles and two e-bikes off the road in an operation in the city last week.
Out of the drivers that were stopped, three did not have a licence, while another was disqualified and one person was arrested on suspicion of drug driving.
The force said the operation was “part of efforts to help make the roads safer for everyone”, and urged people to insure their vehicles.
Image source, Cambridgeshire Police Image caption, Cambridgeshire Police partnered up with an insurance body as part of the operation
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