We've been too squeamish on migration, Braverman tells Tories

1. Home Secretary Suella Braverman says the world is facing a "hurricane" of mass migration in a speech at the Conservative Party conference
2. Braverman tells fellow Tories the party has been "too squeamish" in tackling increasing migrant numbers
3. During her speech, she also announced a plan to ban sex offenders from changing their identities
4. Labour accused her of having "totally lost control" of border security, and being more interested in launching a leadership bid
5. Earlier PM Rishi Sunak denied being overshadowed at the conference by fellow Tories and speculation about the future of HS2
6. Separately, Sunak said he "won't be forced into a premature decision" on the Manchester leg of HS2

All eyes on Sunak as penultimate day of conference ends

Dulcie Lee

Live reporter

Reuters

Here he is, getting ready for tomorrow's big speech alongside his staff

The sun has barely set on the penultimate day of the Tory party conference, but attention is already turning to Rishi Sunak's first conference speech as party leader tomorrow.

Major changes to the high speed rail link HS2 are expected - many think he'll scrap the link between Birmingham and Manchester. More on that here.

We've already recapped the main headlines in our previous post, but other nuggets of news include:

• A Tory politician had his pass removed after heckling the home secretary - read the story here
• Nigel Farage leaves the door open to re-joining the Tories - get more here
• And the party's rather blunt deputy chairman leaves activists charmed - assess his quips for yourself here

Need more? Keep your eyes peeled for BBC Newscast's latest episode, which will drop later here.

In the meantime, we're off.

Today's editors were Jemma Crew, Nathan Williams and me. Kate Whannel and Brian Wheeler sent updates from the conference in Manchester, and Ali Abbas Ahmadi and Gabriela Pomeroy wrote from London.

Have a lovely evening.

Waaaait a minute - what happened?

EPA

These conference-goers were too busy on their phones - probably getting all the latest news from this very live page...

No answers on HS2, but there was plenty of action on the third day of the Conservative Party conference. Let's see who said what:

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak:

• He was pressed over concerns about the future of the HS2 project - in particular whether he'll scrap the leg between Birmingham and Manchester. He said he won't be "forced into a premature decision" - all eyes on his speech tomorrow
• He denied being overshadowed by others at conference - including Liz Truss - and said a general election was not what the country wants

Home Secretary Suella Braverman:

• Suella Braverman said ministers would bring forward legislation to prevent sex offenders from changing their names, which she said was aimed at stopping them evading inclusion on the sex offenders’ register
• She warned the world was facing a "hurricane" of migration and says the party had been "too squeamish" in tackling increasing migrant numbers - more here
• Later, Labour's Yvette Cooper accused her of having "totally lost control" and being "devoid of practical policies"

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk:

• Chalk announced plans to rent prison spaces from foreign countries in order to address increasing demands on the UK's prison system

Levelling Up and Housing Secretary Michael Gove:

• He said the government was on track to deliver on its target of one million homes during this Parliament, which will be energy efficient and carbon neutral - read more about this target and if it's being met here

Health Secretary Steve Barclay:

• He said transgender people may be banned from single-sex hospital wards. He said this would restore "common sense" in the NHS. The move would have to comply with the Equality Act. Get the full story on this here

BBC Verify

Is inflation a tax? And other Tory claims checked

Rishi Sunak and his government ministers have been busy giving interviews and making speeches at the annual Conservative party conference - we've looked at some of their claims.

Is inflation a tax?

Under pressure from some in his party to cut taxes, the prime minister said: "The best tax cut I can deliver for the British people is to halve inflation."

When challenged on this he repeated: "Inflation is a tax."

Inflation is not a tax, although high inflation can clearly make people worse off because it means higher prices.

Does HS2 cost 10 times more than similar projects in France?

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that "it costs 10 times more" to build high speed rail in the UK than France.

There are no recent comparisons between the cost in France and the UK.

But in 2015, a House of Lords report estimated the cost of building HS2 at "up to nine times higher than the cost of constructing high speed lines in France".

It said possible reasons included expensive tunnelling needed in the UK, the cost of a new station and renovation another, and the state of the UK railway construction industry.

Read more about claims made on climate action, fracking, and military aid to Ukraine in our full article here.

WATCH: Tory politician heckler removed from conference

London Assembly member Andrew Boff, who heckled Home Secretary Suella Braverman during her speech, was escorted out of the Conservative Party conference earlier.

Take a look at what happened - and what Boff had to say afterwards - in the clip below.

Watch: Tory politician heckler removed from conference

Are human rights criminal rights?

Dominic Casciani

Home and legal correspondent

Earlier, the home secretary said she was surprised the Human Rights Act wasn't called the Criminal Rights Act.

There is no end of human rights cases that offenders have lost - and you rarely hear of them because they don't make the news.

Two which spring to mind featured in this government's review of the Human Rights Act in 2021. They were highlighted as examples of how our courts throw out human rights arguments in criminal cases:

• In one from 2020, a convicted terrorist was sent packing by the Court of Appeal after complaining that police mistakes had led to an unfair trial
• In a 2009 case, the Supreme Court ruled that trials could hear potentially speculative evidence, despite claims that would be an infringement

Some human rights cases have a wider impact in protecting the public: In 2012, a major human rights ruling allowed the UK to send terrorist plotters to trial in the US.

And then in 2015, the European Court of Human Rights agreed with British judges that some criminals should be locked up forever.

'Never say never': Farage leaves door open to re-joining Tories

Getty Images

Nigel Farage quit the Tory party in the 90s over Europe, and in his Ukip days was barred from attending the party's conference. But with his new GB News presenter role, he's back (as we mentioned earlier).

His friend Jacob Rees-Mogg said Farage has always been a Tory at heart, adding the party should "roll out the red carpet" if he ever wanted to rejoin.

But when asked if the former Ukip leader could ever be allowed back, Rishi Sunak dodged the issue, telling GB News: "Look, the Tory Party is a broad church. I welcome lots of people who want to subscribe to our ideals, to our values."

Farage told the channel he could not join a party that had "put the tax rate up to the highest in over 70 years" and allowed net migration "to run at over half a million a year".

But speaking later to the BBC, he said while he would not join the Conservative Party "as it currently is", he added: "Never say never.

"If after the next election they reset and realign then I might."

Braverman has totally lost control - Labour

PA Media

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper says Suella Braverman's speech was "devoid of practical policies and divorced from the reality of Tory failure over the last 13 years".

Cooper accuses Braverman of having "totally lost control of border security", and says they've "simply failed to get a grip" on the cost to the taxpayer of accommodating asylum seekers in hotels.

The Tories are out of touch, out of ideas and out of common sense. Only Labour has a plan to put more police back on beat, halve serious violence, take back control of border security, end hotel use and fix the Tory chaos in the asylum system.

The country deserves a home secretary who cares more about tackling the problems facing the country than launching a Tory leadership bid."

WATCH: Why I'm proudly wearing a 'Tory scum' badge

We spotted a Conservative Party activist wearing a badge with the words "Tory scum" on it a little earlier.

We asked her why she was wearing it. Watch her answer in 36 seconds below.

Watch: The Conservative weaponising 'Tory scum' term

'Multiculturalism has failed' comments were mischaracterised - Braverman

While we're talking about Suella Braverman, let's recap an interview she gave earlier, in which she said her comments on multiculturalism had been mischaracterised.

Last week, she said multiculturalism in the UK had "failed" and allowed people to "live parallel lives".

Senior Conservatives, including her predecessor Priti Patel, criticised the comments and the PM repeatedly refused to say if he agreed with them.

But earlier she said her comments had been "somewhat mischaracterised", adding: "We have a great multi-ethnic society".

Watch what she said in under a minute below.

Braverman: My multiculturalism comments were mischaracterised

A quick recap of what Braverman said

EPA

Suella Braverman has just finished speaking at the conference. Here's what she said:

• Ministers would bring forward legislation to prevent sex offenders from changing their names
• She branded the Human Rights Act - a law sets minimum standards for everyone in the UK, whether a citizen or an asylum seeker, on things like a right to a fair trial and protection against discrimination - as the "Criminal Rights Act"
• She warned the world was facing a "hurricane" of migration and said past governments had failed to recognise the scale of the problem
• The home secretary asserted the Conservatives would remain strong on policing, and thanked armed police officers for the "vital work that you do"

Tory heckler accuses Braverman of talking 'trash'

A heckler who was escorted out of Suella Braverman's speech has accused her of making the Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic.

The man is London Assembly member Andrew Boff, and he told reporters the home secretary was talking "trash" about "gender ideology".

"Our party has a proud record of standing up for LGBT+ rights and she is destroying it."

He said he had been a member of the party for over 50 years and was a "proud member".

'Migration hurricane' line likely to draw criticism

Helen Catt

Political correspondent

The home secretary's speech was big on room-rousing rhetoric but considerably lighter on new policy.

She drew cheers for announcing the government would soon start closing asylum hotels.

For most of her speech though, she appeared to relish her self-proclaimed role as someone who tells it as she sees it.

At times, her language seemed deliberately designed to provoke those she referred to as her "politically correct critics" who hold "luxury beliefs".

Her description of potential migration as a coming "hurricane" is likely to draw particular criticism.

Braverman will have known that when she said it. It's a fight she is clearly happy to pick.

Hurricane of migration coming - Braverman

Braverman admits that she "can't pretend" politicians - including Conservatives - have done well to curb migration over the past 30 years.

"We were too slow to recognise the scale of the problem," she says, and "far too squeamish about being smeared as racist to properly bring order to the chaos".

"The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming," she says, in reference to mass migration today.

She adds that Rishi Sunak's government is changing the rules to make it harder to immigrants to come to the UK.

I'm surprised Human Rights Act isn't called Criminal Rights Act - Braverman

During her speech, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was surprised the Human Rights Act - which sets minimum standards of how everyone should be treated by public bodies - was not called the "Criminal Rights Act".

The Human Rights Act was passed by a Labour government back in 1998, and it includes basic rights to a fair trial, life and freedom from ill treatment - and protections against discrimination or unfair interference in private and family life, among others.

Talking about it in the context of "unprecedented mass migration", Braverman says the Human Rights Act has "turbocharged" their impact on the country.

How often do sex offenders change their names?

Suella Braverman's new legislation to stop registered sex offenders from changing their names is aimed at preventing them from escaping the country's sex offender register. But how widespread is this problem?

At the moment, sex offenders are required to tell the authorities of any changes in their personal details.

While the figures on name and gender changes are unclear, Labour MP Sarah Champion said in February more than 16,000 registered sex offenders had breached their notification requirements between 2015 and 2020.

In March, Freedom of Information requests by BBC News revealed that 729 sex offenders had gone missing or were wanted for arrest from 2019-2021.

Champion at the time called this a scandal, and said the key reason so many offenders went missing was because they had changed their names.

Time to 'worry less' about the rights of sexual predators - Braverman

Reuters

The home secretary says she doesn't care if the new laws are against the rights of those on the sex offender's register.

"Its time to worry less about the rights of sexual predators and more about the rights of victims," says Braverman.

BreakingSex offenders will be banned from changing name - Braverman

Home Secretary Suella Braverman says sex offenders will be barred from changing their name to prevent them from evading inclusion on the sex offenders’ register.

"We will bring forward legislation to prevent registered sex offenders from changing their identities," Braverman says.

"We will work to strengthen background checks so that they can catch undisclosed changes of identity."

Braverman is up

Home Secretary Suella Braverman is now speaking at the Conservative Party conference.

Follow along with our coverage, or you can watch live by pressing Play at the top of the page.

Killer parents to have parental rights taken away - Chalk

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has been addressing conference, and says he will introduce "Jade's Law".

This is designed to take away the parental rights from a parent found guilty of murdering another parent.

"If the father murders the mother of his children he should expect to lose his parental rights," Chalk says.

The law is named after Jade Ward, who was stabbed and strangled by her partner Russell Marsh in her home in 2021.

Despite serving at least 25 years for her murder, Marsh still held parental rights - leading to a campaign by Ward's parents for a change in the law.

A general election is not what the country wants - Sunak

Getty Images

A general election is "not what the country wants", Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Sky News a little earlier.

When it was put to him that he was "a man without a mandate" - in reference to Sunak taking the reins of the country after a Conservative Party vote and not in a general election - Sunak said he was "just getting on" with the job.

And he said he's confident he would be prime minister following the next election.

The next general election must be held before 28 January 2025. At the moment, the Labour Party is far ahead in the polls.