In a final appeal to Labour to unite and take on the Conservatives, Paul Flynn says:

"The heart of our democracy is rotten," says Paul Flynn as he attacks former PM David Cameron's resignation honours list.

Criticising government plans to reduce the size of the Commons from 650 to 600 MPs, he says: "Is this the time to be cut the number of MPs and further bloat the unelected House of Lords?".

The proposed boundary changes "should be confined to the dustbin", argues the shadow minister.

Shadow Commons leader Paul Flynn's is speaking. The 81-year-old says he last spoke on stage in 1981 but he's here today as a "grateful recipient" of Jeremy Corbyn's "job creation scheme for geriatrics".

"It's time now to give unity a chance," Mr Flynn urges the party, adding: "We're going forwards, comrades - to government."

Citing Unite leader Len McCluskey's comment yesterday that if some in the party don't have the stomach for the fight they should "depart the field", Mr Flynn says: "No, no, no."

He says the party must make it possible for those who resigned from shadow cabinet "to return with dignity and respect".

Diane Abbott finishes her speech with a pledge to "save the NHS". As she's clapped by Labour members in the hall, a rendition of Happy Birthday breaks out to mark the shadow health secretary's birthday.

Diane Abbott praises her predecessor as shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, who she says carried out important campaigning work on parity of esteem between mental and physical health. Luciana Berger also gets a shout out.

Ms Abbott tells the conference hall: "Labour will put the money behind our commitment to parity of esteem," saying "we want an end to the tacit acceptance that the mentally ill are somehow second class systems in our health system".

The party will also priorities childhood mental health services, she adds.

Labour will commit to halting and reversing "the tide of privatisation and marketisation" of the NHS, pledges Diane Abbott.

She says the system has been fragmented by the Health and Social Care Act which she argues has made it easier for the private sector to move in - as she vows to repeal the legislation to restore the NHS as a "publicly-funded" and "publicly-accountable" health service.

She also criticises the Private Finance Initiative deals, which were embraced by the previous Labour government for funding big building projects, saying they are costing the NHS "more than £1.8bn a year". A Labour government would not sign another PFI contract, she says.

Speaking about her family's own experience of the NHS, Diane Abbott says the health service gave her mother "dignity" and a "vocation" and "she gave the NHS her absolute commitment" throughout her working life.

"So the next time you hear commentators saying that immigrants are a drain on our public services, think of women like my mother," she adds, to applause.

The shadow health secretary says the health service depends on immigration, saying there are 50,000 EU workers in the NHS and 80,000 in social care.

"An end to freedom of movement could be a disaster for the NHS," she warns.

Andrew Neil
Presenter, The Daily Politics

Diane Abbott goes on to attack the government for withdrawing bursaries from student nurses, warning that it risks pricing people out of studying to become a nurse. She pledges that Labour would restore the bursary. 

Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott is addressing conference. She tells the hall that her mum was a nurse and in preparing for the debate she tried to think about "what she would want me to say" - and that is "how precious our NHS is and what back-breaking work being a worker in health and social care is."

On the junior doctors' strike, she says responsibility for the dispute "lies at the door of Jeremy Hunt himself", adding: "His arrogance, his mishandling and his insistence on treating dedicated junior doctors like the enemy within."

"Let there be no doubt, Labour stands with the junior doctors," she adds.

NHS is the topic of discussion in the conference hall now - and we're expecting a speech from the shadow health secretary Diane Abbott in a short while.

Eleanor Smith, from Unison, says State of NHS finances could "hardly be worse". And she claims Brexit campaigners have "abandoned" the claim that NHS would get £350m a week if the UK left the EU. "We always knew it was a lie, and so it has proved to be," she says.

Events have moved on in the Labour conference hall, which is now debating housing. David Hamblin, from the GMB, says the "vast majority"of people cannot afford to buy a house, as he warns of the "debilitating destruction" of a lack of affordable housing.

He says Labour is often accused of "idealism" for condemning the plight of homelessness and having "the temerity to advocate socialist policies which would address the malaise of a vindictive economic situation in which we find ourselves".

"Yet the Labour Party was founded on such idealism," he says, adding that Labour will build houses, create jobs and unionised jobs and fashion "a better society".

"After all conference, we are the builders," he says, before quoting Nye Bevan.

Image source, Getty Images

Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas says today's shipment of shale gas arriving in Scotland “should be the last”. She's calling on the government to ban all imports of fracked gas.

"Britain should be a frack-free nation - that means keeping the gas under our countryside in the ground and banning fracked gas imports. We cannot outsource our climate responsibilities or expect communities in the USA to take the risk of fracking on our behalf.".

Ms Lucas, whose party has had a longstanding campaign against fracking, said the government had been "woefully slow at embracing clean energy" and was "condemning us to a future limited by climate change by giving hand-outs for fracking when we should have been seriously investing in the renewable technologies of the future".

Radio 4 PM programme

Derek Hatton made the headlines in the 1980s as the face of Militant.

The former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council was expelled from the Labour party in 1986.

He is now back at this year's Labour conference and explains to Ross Hawkins how he might seek readmission to the party.

Andy Kerr, from Labour's National Executive Committee, goes to reply to this morning's debate - but he's interrupted as several members call for points of order.

A Labour member takes to the stage and apologises for disrupting Mr Kerr, but he claims the platform is attempting to "rig the discussion by not allowing those who oppose the (NEC) rule changes to come up here and make the arguments".

Geting pretty heated, he claims the plans will "gerrymander" the NEC as he lambasts "parliamentarians who are not accountable to this movement".

Mike Katz, from the Jewish Labour Movement, proposes a rule change to "root out anti-Semitism and racism from our party".

“I don’t want to be here because I wish there hadn’t been an upsurge in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, misogynistic and homophobic vile hate speech in our party,” he says, adding that there's been incidents of it at the conference's exhibitions and fringe, "I'm sad to report".

He says the Labour leadership and wider party has made it clear there's “no place” for it in the party. But he says support for Labour among British Jews is reported to be at its lowest ever, which "makes me weep".

Mike Katz says he's “dismayed” that the ruling NEC didn’t put forward a change in its own package of proposals, saying it's not acceptable to have to wait another year for it to be adopted.

He tells the conference hall the Jewish Labour Movement feels “let down” but adds “we’re going nowhere" and adds, to a standing ovation "Jews are welcome in the Labour Party”.

Gavin Stamp
BBC political reporter

Labour may not be in government but that does not mean there isn’t any corporate lobbying taking place here in Liverpool – both overt and discrete.

Gatwick Airport sponsored a fringe event yesterday entitled “delivering balanced growth” while Heathrow  are also making their presence felt. There is, of course, the question of a new runway in the south of England to be decided soon, which might possibly hinge on Labour votes when it comes to the Commons.

A favourite way for a company, charity or campaigning organisation to draw attention to themselves in the crowded exhibition hall is through an eye-catching display.

Camra has come up with a version of a hoopla funfair game to focus attention on the “challenges and opportunities” facing pubs across the country – backed up by a few samples, but only after midday apparently.

Many organisations here are regular conference attendees and will be at Birmingham next week for the Conservative jamboree. But there are some for whom Labour very much is the focus. Given Jeremy Corbyn’s history of supporting international human rights causes, it is perhaps no surprise to see the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Justice For Columbia and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign all out in force.