Starmer now talks about the need to give opportunities to children - and references his love of playing the flute as a child (alongside his love of football).

He says his first ever trip abroad was to Malta with the Croydon Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.

He says that even now he turns to classical music in the moments when the "reviews aren't that good".

"I've got some Shostakovich lined up for tomorrow," he jokes.

Starmer strikes a more personal tone with the audience, as he tells an anecdote of when he took his family to a cottage he stayed in as a child in the Lake District last year.

As his family got chatting with a couple who live there now, the woman stopped to tell him "someone's nicking your car".

"I said no, that's the police moving the car," he tells the crowd.

"That really confused her."

Her husband then explained to her that Starmer was, at the time, leader of the opposition.

She then laughed and said that if she had known he was a politician she would have "pushed you down the stairs when I had the chance".

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

The inevitable heckler. It would have been a surprise, given the disruption to Rachel Reeves’s speech yesterday, if Starmer had got to the end of his speech without any protest.

As in previous years, the prime minister had a line prepared, quipping that the protester clearly had a “pass from the 2019 conference”.

A good line for the audience in the hall, who loved it, and love the changes that Starmer has made to the Labour Party.

It also underscored, again, the transformation of a politician who was at the heart of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet in 2019.

Starmer has just been interrupted by a protester - yelling can be heard from the crowd.

"This guy's obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference," Starmer jokes, which draws some laughter from the crowd.

"While he's been protesting, we've been changing the party, that's why we've got a Labour government."

Starmer references riots that took place in across England and in Northern Ireland over the summer, following the fatal stabbing of three young girls at a dance class in Southport.

He says people who are concerned about immigration "were not doing that" because they understand this country is a democracy and we "debate our differences".

"We do not settle them with violent thuggery," he adds.

"Racism is vile," he tells the conference, as the audience stands and applauds.

It's worth noting that some of the biggest applause for Yvette Cooper's speech this morning, too, was when she condemned the rioters of this summer.

Starmer tells the conference that the government is committed to reducing both net migration and "our economic dependency upon it".

"I have never thought we should be relaxed about some sectors importing labour, when there are millions of young people, ambitious and highly talented, who are desperate to work and contribute to their community," he says.

He says his government will get tough and get the balance of the skills system right.

He says businesses need more flexibility to adapt to real training needs and also "unlock the pride, the ambition" of young people to build a new future - including new foundation apprenticeships.

Starmer says he wants to reassure those who are "nervous" about the "difficult road ahead".

He promises to rebuild public services and protect working people.

"And if you can't take that on faith, perhaps because you're concerned about the winter fuel allowance, then I get that," he acknowledges.

"As I say, if this path were popular or easy we would have walked it already. But the risk of showing to the world as the Tories did that this country does not fund its policies properly that is a risk we can never take again."

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Image source, EPA

Like Rachel Reeves yesterday, Starmer is trying to be more optimistic than he has been: not just talking about the tough choices to come, but about the benefits he believes will come from having made them.

But that is an extension of the argument the prime minister has been making, not a reversal of it.

He is still saying that things are going to be tough, and tough for a while - he essentially advertised that there will be more controversial decisions like the means-testing of the winter fuel allowance to come.

Yes, the prime minister is saying there’s light at the end of the tunnel. But he’s still saying there’s a tunnel.

Image source, Reuters

Starmer says he understands many decisions his government will take will be unpopular, but says the cost will be shared fairly.

"I will always treat you with the respect of candour, not the distraction of bluster. "

He says growth will bring higher standards of living, commits to getting the welfare bill down and says his government will fill the "black hole" in the public finances.

Starmer references the £22bn "black hole" in the public finances due to "unfunded spending commitments" he says his government inherited - a claim which the Conservatives dispute.

He repeats his vision of "national renewal" - a term he's used repeatedly since the general election campaign - and goes on to list several of the problems he sees as the previous government leaving him.

He calls it the politics of "easy answers", and a "deliberate refusal to countenance tough decisions".

Starmer has just confirmed that Great British Energy - a new UK government-backed energy company which Labour pledged to create during its election campaign - will be based in Aberdeen.

Confirming the news, he calls his government "decisive" and "mission-led".

Starmer also talks of providing homes for others, including young care leavers and victims of domestic abuse.

"They will have the security they deserve, they will have a roof over their head, because Britain belongs to them," he says.

Starmer announces a new policy for veterans who are homelessness, as he discusses repaying those who "put their lives on the line to protect us all",

"Homes will be there for heroes," he says, saying the government will house veterans who are in need.

He calls it is a "hidden injustice".

"People who were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for our nation - who put their lives on the line to protect us all, but who will not have a safe place to sleep tonight.

"We cannot stand by and let this happen anymore.

"And so today, I can announce that this government will respect that service. We will repay those who served us, and house all veterans in housing need. "

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

That was a strikingly brief section from Keir Starmer on foreign policy.

A brief and fairly boilerplate paragraph, with a quick recapitulation of the government’s positions on the Middle East and Ukraine.

Clearly the prime minister wants to speak to the country today about his domestic vision.

That’s notable because, to the frustration of some of his colleagues, he has spent a significant portion of his stint in office so far doing foreign policy.

And he’s leaving the conference within hours of this speech to fly to New York for the UN General Assembly — where he will feel he has more of an opportunity to speak about global issues.

The divisions within Labour over some foreign policy issues may have contributed to the decision to only give a brief portion of the speech to foreign policy too.

Starmer discusses his party's inheritance from the Conservatives, saying he wants to "restore" confidence in the government and show people what politics can do for them.

He says after 14 years of "chaos", he wants to restore stability, moderation and common sense.

"Politics sees public service as a privilege. Not privilege as an entitlement to public service," he says.

Starmer turns now to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, calling for restraint and de-escalation at the Israel-Lebanon border.

He reiterates his government's call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for a hostage return deal, as well as a two-state solution: "A recognised Palestine state alongside a safe and secure Israel".

He tells the conference that he will bring this message to the UN Assembly, which he is traveling to later today.

Returning to the idea of "national renewal", Starmer talks now of the Britain "we are building".

"Change must mean nothing less than national renewal," he says, adding that's neither a return to "old ways" nor an entirely new path.

Instead, he says, it's a "rediscovery" of "who we are".

Starmer lists what he describes as his government's achievements in the first few months, which receives huge, long-lasting applause from the audience.

He says this includes an end to pay disputes, introducing changes to planning laws and bringing railways back into public ownership.

"Change has begun," he says.

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

“Permanent. Irreversible.”

That’s quite some description from the prime minister of the change he made to the Labour Party’s direction.

Starmer listed his support for Nato, Ukraine, combatting antisemitism within his party, reducing immigration and backing business as examples of how he has changed the Labour Party’s values.

Permanent, though? It’s certainly true that many of those who most strongly disagree with Starmer have left the Labour Party.

But when New Labour left office in 2010 few would have predicted the rise of Jeremy Corbyn five years later.

Starmer shifts now to his vision for the future, talking of the "politics of national renewal".

He explains that the party won't get everything right, or that everyone will always agree, but that it does mean Labour understands "every decision we take, we take together".

He calls "bad faith advice" water off a duck's back, or "mere glitter on a shirt cuff" - alluding to a protest at last year's conference where he was showered with glitter on stage.

"It's never distracted me before, and it won't distract me now," he says.

Image source, PA Media