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Labour Party delegates will today decide whether the party should back Remain in a potential second Brexit referendum.
The party’s draft plan, put forward by Jeremy Corbyn, says that Labour would hold a second referendum if it won power.
Corbyn’s plan would see the party remain neutral while negotiating a new Brexit deal, then hold a special conference to decide which position to back in the referendum.
But grassroots Labour supporters have argued for a clear Remain stance, says the BBC.
Party members attending the annual conference are expected to vote on two motions settling the party’s stance later today.
Labour MP Hilary Benn – chair of the Commons Brexit committee – told the BBC that holding a second referendum was “sensible” and the “the only way out of the deadlock we are facing”.
Labour has already used the party conference to announce a number of new policies covering schools, health and employment rules.
The Week looks at what the party is planning:
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Ofsted
Labour has raised some eyebrows this week by announcing that it would scrap education watchdog Ofsted if elected.
“In too many cases, Ofsted’s judgements and grades reflect the affluence of a school’s intake and the social class of its pupils – not the performance of the school,” said shadow education secretary Angela Rayner.
“School performance is far too important and complex to be boiled down to an over-simplified single grade, reducing all schools to one of four categories,” she added.
But opponents of the plan say that the move will reduce schools’ accountability and standards will drop.
Former Ofsted chief, Sir Michael Wilshaw, described the plan as “bonkers”.
Private schools
Labour members have voted to nationalise private schools if elected, integrating them into the state sector.
Conference delegates passed a motion calling for funds and properties owned by private schools to be “redistributed democratically and fairly” to other schools.
Rayner said Labour would make “the whole education system fairer through the integration of private schools,” she said.
Labour will also campaign to end the charitable status that private schools enjoy, along with withdrawing all other public subsidies and tax privileges, including business rate exemptions, says Sky News.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said of sending her son to a fee-paying school: “That was many years ago, what we have to look at is what will Labour’s position be going forward.”
Prescription charges
The Labour Party is set to announce that it will abolish charges for prescriptions in England.
Prescriptions are already free in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but in England the NHS charges £9 per item.
The charges earned the government around £575m in 2017/18.
More than 80% of prescriptions are already free due to exemptions including those on low-income, people with certain long-term illnesses, pregnant women, children, and the over-60s, says the BBC.
And 87% of professionals at the Royal College of Nursing said they had patients who had skipped their medication because of concerns about the cost, reports The Independent.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “We have always been supportive of any safe and sensible measures to reduce medication costs for patients and ensure access to necessary medication is equitable.
“It’s encouraging to have a renewed debate around a review of prescription charges,” she added.
Defence
Shadow defence secretary, Nia Griffith, has pledged pay rises and improved housing for service personnel, and better value for money on military outsourcing.
Griffith, writing in Politics Home, said: “Labour will make sure that our personnel receive a fair pay rise every year” and will “ensure decent, properly maintained housing that meets the specific needs of personnel and their families”.
She added that the party would introduced a presumption of the public sector delivering public contracts, and would call for an immediate end to large contracts currently under consideration for outsourcing.
“The next Labour government will put the needs of the Armed Forces community at the very heart of what we do,” she said.
Working hours
Labour says that, if elected, they would force large employers to provide flexible working hours to women going through menopause.
Shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler announced the policy at the party conference, adding that companies with over 250 employees would also be required to train managers on the menopause so they can better meet the needs of their employees.
She said: “Together we must end the stigma and ensure that no woman is put at a disadvantage, from menstruation to menopause.”
And Labour is set to debate backing a national move to a four-day week, says Yahoo! News. The policy would see a transition to a 32-hour week with no loss in pay.
Environment
Labour will announce a £3.6bn plan for a national network of charging points for electric vehicles, enough for more than 21m new electric cars in the next decade, says The Guardian.
If elected, the party would offer interest-free loans for electric cars in an effort to drastically reduce air pollution and greenhouse gasses.
“The climate crisis is right at the forefront of British politics at the moment, helped by the climate strikes, Extinction Rebellion and the mass movement that we’ve seen on our streets,” shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey told the Guardian.
Labour hopes the new policy would boost the struggling car industry, which has been hit by poor sales.
“It’s not Brexit that’s impacting the automotive sector and moving them to the edge of a cliff – there’s a whole raft of headwinds they’re facing that’s stopping them being able to engage in the electric vehicle revolution,” said Long-Bailey. “They won’t do it themselves without support from government.”
Labour is also set to debate a series of further climate motions – such as changes to planning rules for wind farms – on Tuesday.
Transport
Labour’s shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald MP says the party will introduce an “affordable, accessible and sustainable transport system”.
Writing for Politics Home, McDonald said Labour’s key objectives included lower emissions and backing a national shift toward public transport and active travel, closer links between transport and planning, and “rebalancing” the economy and reducing inequality through better better transport.
He promised to “tackle the Conservative neglect of buses” through extra funding and legislative reform putting the interests of bus users ahead of “maximising the profits of private bus operators”.
McDonald also promised that Labour would “align the priorities of the Department for Transport with our commitment to tackle climate change”.
“I will want each of the sectors – rail, road, aviation and maritime – to have carbon-reduction targets in line with that departmental budget,” he said.
He reiterated Labour’s commitment to nationalising the railways, creating “one unified public rail company at arm’s length from government, which controls and operates both track and trains”.
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