![\"Haroon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Haroon_Siddique_V2.png\")
Haroon Siddique<\/p>\nCampaigners claim Miliband saying Palestine Action ban not meant to criminalise ‘grannies’ will help legal challengeHaroon Siddique<\/p>\n
Haroon Siddique is the Guardian\u2019s legal affairs correspondent.<\/p>\n
Ed Miliband has said it was never anyone\u2019s intent to criminalise \u201celderly people, vicars and grannies\u201d who have been arrested for supporting Palestine Action<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since Palestine Action became the first direct action group to be banned<\/a> under the Terrorism Act in July last year, more than 3,700 people are believed to have been arrested for alleged support of the proscribed organisation. They include 82 arrested at a demonstration outside the Labour party conference<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n Later on Sunday, Miliband was challenged by two activists over the arrests while he was having a meal in Pizza Express in the city centre.<\/p>\n In an interview on LBC radio, Andrew Marr asked him about that encounter:<\/p>\n double quotation markI can\u2019t believe in your heart of hearts that you really think proscribing Palestine Action with all those elderly people and vicars and grannies and so on as a terrorist organisation was a sensible political \u2026<\/p>\n Miliband interjected:<\/p>\n double quotation markI don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s intent was to have those people criminalised. But obviously the supreme court has got to look at this issue and obviously it\u2019s something we keep looking at as government.<\/p>\n On 4 and 5 November, the supreme court is due to hear a legal challenge to the ban on Palestine Action<\/a>, arguing that it represents a disproportionate interference with the right to freedom of speech and freedom of protest.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, which organised the civil disobedience campaign against the ban, said:<\/p>\n double quotation markWe welcome the foreign secretary\u2019s honesty on this matter. He has finally admitted that it wasn\u2019t the government\u2019s intention to criminalise people for peacefully protesting against the genocide and the proscription, let alone to treat them as terrorists.<\/p>\n Basically he\u2019s acknowledged that the government didn\u2019t properly think the proscription through and that it\u2019s had a disproportionate impact on the right to free speech. You\u2019d think that leaves the government in an impossible position for defending the proscription before the supreme court.<\/p>\n We gladly accept the offer Ed Miliband made in Pizza Express to have a conversation with us.<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.44 EDT<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n I\u2019m glad to say comments are open below the line. They will be open until 4pm.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Former Irish PM Bertie Ahern says failing to resolve Drumcree crisis would be ‘disaster’ for Northern Ireland Lisa O\u2019Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent.<\/p>\n Bertie Ahern, the co-architect of the 1998 peace deal, has urged parties in Northern Ireland not to return to the \u201ctribal past\u201d.<\/p>\n His words chime with a call by Chris Bryant at Labour conference this morning. (See 10.27am<\/a>.) Bryant said:<\/p>\n double quotation markThe situation in Drumcree is tense.<\/p>\n Nobody, nobody, nobody wants Northern Ireland to return to the 1990s. That\u2019s not going be easy. As the last few days have shown, it\u2019s really easy to stir up a grievance, much harder to calm it down.<\/p>\n Bryant will fly back to Belfast shortly, missing Andy Burnham\u2019s speech, to attend urgent talks with parties in Northern Ireland over Drumcree, where a number of Orange Order members remain intent on a parade down nationalist Garvaghy Road.<\/p>\n Efforts are also underway to find an international mediator, Ireland\u2019s foreign minister, Helen McEntee, said today.<\/p>\n The initial priority will be to break the deadlock but the medium term aim is to ensure Stormont, which is in danger of collapse, survives the crisis.<\/p>\n McEntee this morning said it was most likely an international mediator would be needed to break the Drumcree deadlock.<\/p>\n Ahern, a former taoiseach (Irish PM) told RTE it was \u201cregrettable\u201d if parties saw electoral capital in stirring sectarianism ahead of next May\u2019s Stormont elections. He said:<\/p>\n double quotation markIf the parties believe, for an election in six or eight months time, there\u2019s some short-term gain of winning a few votes based on going back to the tribal past, I would really caution against that.<\/p>\n They will regret that by the end of next year.<\/p>\n Ahern said if the Drumcree criss wasn\u2019t solved quickly it would be \u201ca disaster\u201d for Northern Ireland and bringing Stormont down would serve no one.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.32 EDT<\/p>\n Burnham warned that new GB Grid may need more funding for electricity grid upgrade<\/p>\n Greenpeace UK has given a qualified welcome to news that Andy Burnham will use his speech this afternoon to announce GB Grid, a government-backed body to invest in the electricity grid.<\/a><\/p>\n Doug Parr, Greenpeace\u2019s policy director, said:<\/p>\n double quotation markThis is a welcome step to grapple with a problem that has plagued the green energy sector for years. Renewable energy providers urgently need an improved grid to get cheap, homegrown power flowing around the country. Greater public control to drive the transition to clean energy looks essential.<\/p>\n While public investment in the grid is good news, \u00a34bn is not a game-changer when Ofgem estimates that upgrades will cost \u00a370bn over the next five years.<\/p>\n Given the money will come from GB Energy\u2019s existing budget, there\u2019s also a risk it detracts from support for emerging technologies such as floating offshore wind and long term storage.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Burnham expected to say he will push ahead with electoral reform plans<\/p>\n Andy Burnham is expected to announce that he will push ahead with plans for electoral reform in his first conference speech as Labour leader, in the latest sign that he intends to radically transform the UK\u2019s political system. Pippa Crerar has the story.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Here is the latest edition of the Guardian\u2019s Politics Weekly UK podcast, featuring Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey interiewing Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, at the Labour conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his speech, Chris Bryant also joked about some of the coverage of his appointment as Northern Ireland secretary. He said one article had been headlined: \u201cWill colourful Sir Chris Bryant shake up Stormont?\u201d<\/p>\n Bryant went on:<\/p>\n double quotation markI don\u2019t know what they meant by colourful. Oh you can work it out can you? Just for the avoidance of doubt, I am ever so slightly homosexual.<\/p>\n Bryant seemed to be referring to this article in the Belfast Telegraph.<\/a><\/p>\n Northern Ireland has not always been one of the most enlightened parts of the UK when it comes to gay rights. The late Ian Paisley, the DUP leader who ended up first minister, once led a campaign to Save Ulster from Sodomy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Bryant accuses Tories and Reform UK of putting Good Friday agreement at risk with ECHR withdrawal policies<\/p>\n In his speech Chris Bryant included a long passage thanking people who contributed to keeping the peace in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, including the leaders from all parties who worked to end the violence. This sort of leadership was needed in every generation, he said.<\/p>\n He went on:<\/p>\n double quotation markIt\u2019s why I have this warning for Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch. They say they\u2019ll bin the European convention on human rights. They\u2019ve clearly never read the Good Friday agreement. Or maybe they don\u2019t even care about it.<\/p>\n Conference, I promise you this. We will not dump the European convention on human rights. We will stand by it.<\/p>\n The Good Friday agreement is based on the assumption that the UK remains party to the ECHR. Reform UK and the Tories would not be able to go ahead with their plans to leave it without some sort of GFA renegotiation \u2013 which potentially might be very problematic.<\/p>\n Chris Byrant addressing the Labour conference. Photograph: Temilade Adelaja\/ReutersShare<\/a>Chris Byrant urges both sides in Drumcree dispute to ‘double down on compromise’<\/p>\n Chris Bryant, the Northern Ireland secretary, has addressed the Labour conference<\/a>. He started by saying:<\/p>\n double quotation markI had wanted to stand up here and boast about the news that Northern Ireland has the fastest economic growth of anywhere in the UK, and the lowest unemployment.<\/p>\n I wanted to shout out that Northern Ireland is being transformed. A thousand new jobs at Bank of America, we\u2019re building drones for Ukraine, wings for Airbus and 30% of the world\u2019s commercial aircraft seats.<\/p>\n We excel at cyber, AI, life sciences, music and film and high-end television.<\/p>\n We produce a fifth of the UK\u2019s eggs and a 10th of all our food, and we\u2019re open to business like nowhere else on earth, with unique dual access to two enormous markets, the UK and the European Union.<\/p>\n Our potential is enormous. We just need to harness it.<\/p>\n But instead he had to talk about the crisis at Drumcree<\/a>, he said.<\/p>\n He said that the government would \u201calways go the extra mile for peace\u201d and that he would be in Northern Ireland this afternoon doing that. He urged both sides in the dispute to \u201cdouble down on compromise\u201d.<\/p>\n Chris Bryant giving his speech. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The GuardianShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.32 EDT<\/p>\n Delegates at the Labour conference this morning. Photograph: Adam Vaughan\/EPAShare<\/a>Rayner says Burnham right to start ‘conversation’ about funding care reform with triple lock savings<\/p>\n Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, has apparently confirmed that Andy Burnham<\/a> will float the prospect of getting rid of the pensions triple lock to help fund the creation of an NHS-style care service.<\/p>\n Asked about the prospect on Sky\u2019s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Rayner said that Burnham was \u201cabsolutely right to start the conversation\u201d and that he was being \u201cbrave\u201d.<\/p>\n Rayner also said she thought people would be open to being persuaded by Burnham that this proposal was a good one. She said:<\/p>\n double quotation markThe high principle on this is that people have paid in all their lives. They are willing, I think, to look at that.<\/p>\n What they don\u2019t want is what they consider to be, quite frankly, incompetent politicians that are going to take something from us to fill a black hole.<\/p>\n If they can see that this is going to improve and move it into a way that delivers, so you\u2019ve got a retail offer of \u2018that\u2019s no longer fit for purpose, but we can either do something for the younger generation because of the intergenerational disparities, or something on social care or whatever\u2019, I think they would be willing to have a conversation.<\/p>\n Angela Rayner (left) recording Sky\u2019s Electoral Dysfunction podcast with Jess Phillips. Photograph: Peter Byrne\/PAShare<\/a>Unite’s Sharon Graham says getting poorer pensioners to fund social care reform ‘morally wrong’<\/p>\n Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, restated her opposition to getting rid of the pensions triple lock (see 8.40am<\/a>) in an interview on the Today programme this morning.<\/p>\n She said:<\/p>\n double quotation markWhen we met with Andy [Burnham] this week, it certainly wasn\u2019t mentioned.<\/p>\n But I do think that it\u2019s important that Labour make sure that working-class people know that they\u2019re on their side, and this would be a direction of travel that would say the opposite to that.<\/p>\n Asked whether the lock should be reformed to fund social care, Graham said:<\/p>\n double quotation markWhat I understood the national care service to be was a universal benefit: everybody paid in and everybody gets out, and that is what actually the principle of that is.<\/p>\n Going to a group of people who are getting around \u00a312,500 a year in order to pay for it to take away their security is wrong.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s morally wrong.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.08 EDT<\/p>\n Campaigners claim Miliband saying Palestine Action ban not meant to criminalise ‘grannies’ will help legal challenge Haroon Siddique is the Guardian\u2019s legal affairs correspondent.<\/p>\n Ed Miliband has said it was never anyone\u2019s intent to criminalise \u201celderly people, vicars and grannies\u201d who have been arrested for supporting Palestine Action<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since Palestine Action became the first direct action group to be banned<\/a> under the Terrorism Act in July last year, more than 3,700 people are believed to have been arrested for alleged support of the proscribed organisation. They include 82 arrested at a demonstration outside the Labour party conference<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n Later on Sunday, Miliband was challenged by two activists over the arrests while he was having a meal in Pizza Express in the city centre.<\/p>\n In an interview on LBC radio, Andrew Marr asked him about that encounter:<\/p>\n double quotation markI can\u2019t believe in your heart of hearts that you really think proscribing Palestine Action with all those elderly people and vicars and grannies and so on as a terrorist organisation was a sensible political \u2026<\/p>\n Miliband interjected:<\/p>\n double quotation markI don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s intent was to have those people criminalised. But obviously the supreme court has got to look at this issue and obviously it\u2019s something we keep looking at as government.<\/p>\n On 4 and 5 November, the supreme court is due to hear a legal challenge to the ban on Palestine Action<\/a>, arguing that it represents a disproportionate interference with the right to freedom of speech and freedom of protest.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, which organised the civil disobedience campaign against the ban, said:<\/p>\n double quotation markWe welcome the foreign secretary\u2019s honesty on this matter. He has finally admitted that it wasn\u2019t the government\u2019s intention to criminalise people for peacefully protesting against the genocide and the proscription, let alone to treat them as terrorists.<\/p>\n Basically he\u2019s acknowledged that the government didn\u2019t properly think the proscription through and that it\u2019s had a disproportionate impact on the right to free speech. You\u2019d think that leaves the government in an impossible position for defending the proscription before the supreme court.<\/p>\n We gladly accept the offer Ed Miliband made in Pizza Express to have a conversation with us.<\/p>\n Ed Miliband making his speech to the conference yesterday. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The GuardianShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.44 EDT<\/p>\n Will Burnham float rejoining EU? Speculation persists – though Jonathan Reynolds warns this would cause ‘uncertainty’<\/p>\n The pensions triple lock may not be the only policy area where Andy Burnham triggers a \u201chope comes from honesty\u201d policy row this afternoon. Recently he refused to rule out proposing rejoining the EU in Labour\u2019s manifesto <\/a>and, in a story for the Independent<\/a>, David Maddox and Athena Stavrou report:<\/p>\n double quotation markMinisters have told The Independent that the prime minister is building the case to put rejoin in the manifesto at the next election. They have said it is now a question of \u201chow it is expressed in the manifesto, rather than if\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n One senior minister told The Independent that \u201cthe mood has completely changed on this subject.\u201d<\/p>\n They added: \u201cThere is a lot of momentum around rejoining again. The economic data is there and we are feeling more relaxed about talking about Brexit as being a failure.\u201d<\/p>\n While many in the Labour party would be delighted by this proposal, it would not be universally popular. At a Politico fringe event<\/a> on Sunday, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, was very negative about the prospect. He said:<\/p>\n double quotation markI think we can frankly get more from what we need for our people, for our businesses here, by pragmatically looking at this through a trade lens. How can we improve that trade relationship, rather than these constitutional questions, which, frankly, you know, they cause a lot of uncertainty for business.<\/p>\n Reynolds was even sceptical about joining a customs union with the EU, saying:<\/p>\n double quotation markLook at the arrangements we\u2019ve already got. You don\u2019t add a lot more to it through a customs union … and you\u2019d be having to, you know, frankly, accept a whole range of alignment on regulatory issues.<\/p>\n Asked if he wanted the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime, Reynolds said:<\/p>\n double quotation markWhat will Europe be in the future? I mean, there are clearly very challenging politics in Germany. It\u2019s very clear that the French presidential election could be different. I honestly don\u2019t know if you will evolve in one direction or the other. So I can\u2019t really give you an answer to that.<\/p>\n Sharon Graham, the Unite leader, is another senior Labour figure opposed to rejoining<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jonathan Reynolds. Photograph: Peter Byrne\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Andy Burnham has posted this on social media<\/a> this morning. It is slightly condensed version of the overnight briefing given to the media. (See 8.40am<\/a>.)<\/p>\n double quotation markWe can\u2019t carry on as we are.<\/p>\n Politics as usual has taken Britain backwards, and more of the same won\u2019t get us where we need to be.<\/p>\n Today, I\u2019ll set out a different path for our country.<\/p>\n That means having an honest conversation about the things we\u2019ve ignored for too long, from fixing social care and tackling youth unemployment to giving people more control over energy, water and housing.<\/p>\n Hope comes from honesty.<\/p>\n It comes from saying the things politicians usually avoid, being straight about the challenges we face, and having the courage to fix them.<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly what I will do.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, arriving at Albert Dock in Liverpool this morning where she was due to join a group going for a cold water swim in the docks. Photograph: Adam Vaughan\/EPAShare<\/a>Lucy Powell says Labour committed to triple lock for this parliament – but won’t say if it could go after election<\/p>\n Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader, has been doing a media round this morning. In interviews, she stressed that Labour is committed to keeping the pensions triple lock for the duration of this parliament. But she did not deny reports that Andy Burnham might use his speech to suggest that it should go in the next parliament. (See 8.40am<\/a>.)<\/p>\n She told Sky News:<\/p>\n double quotation markWe are committed to the triple lock. It\u2019s in our manifesto. The triple lock has really delivered for pensioners, in this country, over the course of this parliament \u2026<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what Andy\u2019s going to say about that today, but I know that what he\u2019s talking about is this big conversation about solving these big problems, but being really honest with people that they come at a cost.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t just solve the social care crisis without having the big conversations about how you\u2019re going to do this.<\/p>\n Lucy Powell being interviewed on Sky News at the Labour conference this morning. Photograph: Adam Vaughan\/EPAShare<\/a>Angela Rayner arriving at the Labour conference this morning. Photograph: Adam Vaughan\/EPAShare<\/a>Burnham is told axing pension triple lock would be \u2018electoral suicide\u2019 as he prepares to address Labour conference<\/p>\n Good morning. The day after Donald Trump won his first US presidential election in 2016, Ed Miliband (at that point just an ex Labour leader) went on the World at One and gave an astute assessment of the lessons<\/a> to be learnt from Trump by progressives. Trump was offering \u201cbig solutions\u201d, he said \u2013 a theory he later fleshed out in a book called \u201cGo Big\u201d<\/a>. Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader at the time, and he certainly offered voters a \u201cGo Big\u201d vision \u2013 but for various reasons he could not persuade the electorate. But today a more mainstream Labour leader is also going to embrace \u201cGo Big\u201d.<\/p>\n According to the Labour party\u2019s overnight briefing, Andy Burnham is going to use his first conference speech as leader to set out what he will describe as \u201ca more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation\u201d.<\/p>\n Burnham will say:<\/p>\n double quotation markWe can\u2019t carry on as we are. Politics-as-usual has taken Britain backwards. More of the same isn\u2019t good enough and isn\u2019t going to get us where we need to be.<\/p>\n According to the Labour<\/a> briefing, Burnham will say this will require \u201chonest conversation\u201d with the public and taking on the difficult issues that have been ignored for too long by Westminster, including social care, youth unemployment, and the need for greater public control of energy, water and housing. He will say:<\/p>\n double quotation markHope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid.<\/p>\n As Kiran Stacey, Jessica Elgot and Pippa Crerar report in the Guardian splash, Burnham will take his first major step towards putting Britain\u2019s utility companies into public control when he announces a new government-backed body to invest in the electricity grid.<\/p>\n Guardian splash Photograph: Guardian<\/p>\n But, for most of the media, it looks as if the story of the day will be another \u201cGo Big\u201d gamble by Burnham. On Sunday he revealed for the first time that he wants to fight the election on a colossal promise \u2013 a pledge to set up an NHS-style care service, with care free at the point of delivery. He did not say how this would be funded, but over the past 24 hours Downing Street has done nothing to quash speculation that part of the proposal will involve getting rid of the pension triple lock. This is one of the sacred cows of British politics, conventionally viewed as untouchable (even though in private many politicians from all parties agree with the view of almost all reputable economists, which is that in the long run its costs are unsustainable.)<\/p>\n Times splash Photograph: The Times\/TimesTelegraph splash Photograph: Daily Telegraph\/Telegraphi splash Photograph: The iExpress splash Photograph: Daily Express<\/p>\n Burnham does not seem likely to say he will definitely fight the next election on a proposal to get rid of the triple lock. (Labour promised in its manifesto to keep it for this parliament, and Burnham is sticking to that.) \u201cGovernment sources have suggested Burnham would signal his willingness to review the policy, but stop short of a pledge to scrap it altogether,\u201d we report today in our splash. So it looks as if Burnham will launch a pre-election debate, in the hope that he can persuade the public that axing an expensive and badly-targeted perk for pensioners is a price worth paying for transformative reform to adult social care. In his LBC phone-in yesterday, Burnham accepted there was a chance voters might just say no.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ed](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/8388.jpg\")
Ed Miliband making his speech to the conference yesterday. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The GuardianShare<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790678654_507_Lisa-OCarroll-byline-004.jpg\")
Lisa O\u2019Carroll<\/p>\n![\"Can](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790678654_515_1920.jpg\")
Can Labour bring down our energy bills? | Politics WeeklyShare<\/a>Bryant confirms he’s ‘ever so slighty homosexual’, in jibe at report calling him ‘colourful’<\/p>\nHaroon Siddique<\/p>\n