Starmer's now talking about the controversial nom-dom tax status, which he says allows the richest people to avoid paying for vital services.

By abolishing that, Starmer says Labour can and will invest all that money into the NHS.

This will equal "more appointments, more diagnostics and help to clear the backlog," he adds. There's big applause here.

Non-dom tax status was in the news after Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murthy was controversially found to pay £30,000 a year to maintain her non-dom status, her spokeswoman confirmed.

Having a protester on stage, fortunately armed only with glitter, is arguably not the best start to a leader's conference speech.

But as Starmer hit his key messages, there was approval from his front-bench team - including shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves...

And shadow health secretary Wes Streeting:

He references the NHS now, mentioning waiting lists that are more than seven million people long.

One example he uses is a footballer who had to crowdfund his surgery to continue living his dream career.

"Working people paying for their own healthcare in a cost-of-living crisis," he says.

The point of the NHS is to be a solution, but the Conservative Party has brought it "to its knees" Starmer says.

"We have got to get it back on its feet". The crowd stands, clapping and shouting.

Starmer says: "Change in the country is not like ticking a box... Long-term solutions are not oven-ready."

He references the need to rebuild the country as in 1945, 1964 and 1997 - and says that in 2024 Labour will have to repeat all three feats.

Starmer then says that "public finances are wrecked", and that despite the fact people are working "harder than ever" and yet need food banks. "But there's no magic wand here - it will take a decade of national renewal."

Labour will need to be "brave" enough to to reject the easy answers, Starmer says - as well as have ambition and determination.

"Let's get Britain building again, take back our streets, switch on great British energy, tear down the barriers to opportunity, get our NHS back on its feet," he says, to yet more thunderous applause and standing ovation from the audience.

A man disrupted the start of Sir Keir Starmer’s speech, approaching the Labour leader at the podium.

Starmer says voters are looking to Labour to do various things, including heal wounds, build a new Britain and modernise it at the same time.

He says Labour can do all of this - but adds that politics should tread lightly on people's lives. "Our job is to shoulder the load, not add to it," he says, with remnants of glitter still on his shirt from that protest we reported earlier.

Looking back at a holiday he took to the Lake District, he says people he met there described being in "survival mode" due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Starmer says Labour will "take care of the big decisions so working people have the time to enjoy what they love" - adding that people deserve and need "the ability to look forward, free from anxiety".

Mentioning the war in Ukraine, Starmer says "the world is becoming a more volatile place".

The race is on for the new jobs and industries across the world - what the leader calls an "age of insecurity".

"Climate change is a recipe for instability," he warns. Terrorism, gangs and movement of people are all things Labour will confront, but "democratic certainties are under attack".

However, he turns to hope now, arguing the four nations of Britain must stand together.

Starmer now tackles the events in Israel and says he "utterly condemns" the murder of men, women and children "killed in cold blood by the terrorists of Hamas".

He says Labour believes in the two-state solution and that "this action by Hamas does nothing for Palestinians and Israel must always have the right to defend her people". This is met by a long applause and nodding from the audience.

Starmer then says that events such as Israel and the war in Ukraine show "the tests of our era", and mentions climate change as another factor of instability. "These are all challenges we must confront," he says.

Starmer's speech so far has been big on praise for New Labourpublished at 14:22 British Summer Time 10 October 2023

14:22 BST 10 October 2023

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Within a few sentences of - eventually - beginning his speech, Sir Keir Starmer launched into passionate praise of the New Labour years.

He hailed the work of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown on the minimum wage, Sure Start, the NHS and Northern Ireland, contrasting the New Labour motto of “things can only get better” with his own description of the Conservatives’ 13 years in office: “Things have only got worse”.

It is worth noting that for almost the entire period it has been in opposition, Labour took a very different approach to the Blair-Brown record. Jeremy Corbyn, Starmer’s predecessor, was chosen by party members as a repudiation of what had come before.

But even Ed Miliband, who had worked for Blair’s government and served in Brown’s cabinet, consciously tried to distance Labour from their years in government. Under Starmer, things have changed a lot.

Starmer is now beginning to set out what his government will do, if elected.

He promises a Britain with its "future back" - the slogan of Labour's conference - and says it will require a whole new approach to politics.

Starmer reminds the audience of Labour's five missions:

• Economic growth
• Clean energy
• The NHS
• Safer streets
• Breaking down barriers to opportunity

"Together we will fix tomorrow's challenges today," Starmer says to huge applause, adding that his changed Labour Party is one of "service" - not infighting.

"That's why we stand with Nato, backed Ukraine [and] ripped out antisemitism," he adds.

One of the press photographers at the Labour conference, from the PA Media news agency, caught a different view of the protest just before Starmer's speech.

Image source, PA Media

While Getty Images' snapper caught Starmer's immediate reaction.

Image source, Getty Images

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

A dramatic start to Keir Starmer's speech as a protester rushes the stage.

That’s quite a serious security failure. Theresa May saw similar in 2017 when she spoke to Conservative conference and was handed a mock P45 form.

Starmer seemed to manage to move on quite quickly. But he is now delivering his speech with glitter on his shirt.

Starmer is now speaking about "real Britain" - the people of the UK.

They are the businesses, the teachers, the workers, "still serving their community" despite the "chaos" caused by the Conservative government, he says.

He wants to give the ordinary workers "the government that they decide... with a decade of national renewal".

Labour will stand with the people, he adds.

Just as Sir Keir Starmer was about to speak a man rushed on stage and threw glitter at the Labour leader.

Starmer took off his suit jacket to make a start on his speech joking: "Protest not power, that is why we changed our party conference."

All this as his wife Victoria looked on from the front row of the conference hall.

Image source, Reutersd

Starmer moves on to address the Tory conference, which took place in Manchester last week.

He asks what kind of prime minister "goes to Manchester to cancel the Manchester leg" of a rail project - in this case, HS2.

Who would have thought that the Conservative Party would have been better off under Liz Truss, he quips, before adding he now understands why Truss won the 2022 Tory leadership race in the first place.

Starmer goes on, saying it's been 13 years since the Tories came into power and asks delegates what the party has done in that time. So much for getting better, he says. "Things are actually much worse."

Starmer continues with thanking the audience, but more emotionally, he thanks Marie Tidball, the MP who introduced him and spoke about Starmer's mum, an ex-NHS nurse.

"My mum would have loved you being here and saying those words," he says of Tidball's introduction to his speech.

He continues to thank the audience, and makes it clear he is happy to be in Liverpool.

He also jokingly paid sympathy to Manchester, after they hosted what he called a "circus" last week, the Tory conference. There's big applause for the joke.

Starmer dusts off the glitter from his shoulders and, buoyed by cheers from the audience, says: "If he [the protester] thinks that bothers me, he doesn't know me."

"Protest or power, that's why we've changed," says Starmer.

Then he jokes: "It's just as well it was me [getting covered in glitter], because my wife's dress is really beautiful."

A protester just burst on the stage and appears to have thrown glitter on Sir Keir Starmer as the Labour leader was about to start his speech.

The protester is quickly dragged away by security, before Starmer takes off his jacket.

The Labour leader tells the crowd: "If he think that bothers me, he doesn't know me."

"It's a good job it was me as my wife's dress is rather nice," he adds.

Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party has begun his highly anticipated speech.

Stay with us, we'll be bringing you the key lines.

James Vincent
Political editor, BBC Yorkshire

Image source, Marie Tidball

It's an interesting choice by Labour to use the Penistone and Stocksbridge parliamentary candidate.

The patch which straddles Sheffield and Barnsley was taken by the Conservatives in 2019 and will be a big target for them next year.

People there are just digesting the news that the Don Valley line into Sheffield may get reopened as part of Rishi Sunak’s Network North.

But talking to Tidball at conference, she told me she’s unsure that the promise by the Conservatives will ever be delivered given that plan has been talked about for at least three years.

People in Penistone and Stocksbridge will believe it when they see it, she said when we spoke.