Let's head back inside the conference hall now, where Marie Tidball has taken to the stage - she's been tasked with introducing Sir Keir Starmer.

Tidball, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Penistone and Stocksbridge in Yorkshire, begins by telling a story about an NHS nurse - Josephine Baker - who happens to be Starmer's mother.

She talks about the Labour leader being the first in his family to go to university and eventually going on to become the director of public prosecutions for England and Wales.

"We need Labour to be in government once again," she says, to lots of applause.

The pain he had growing up gives you the fire to gets things right and gets things done," she says, introducing him and then we go to a video.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of Keir Starmer's speech, one attendee said that what is being presented at this conference is "basically an election manifesto" and praised the "sensible economic policies" that Rachel Reeves announced during her speech. "We're on the cusp of power and we're here to witness it," she said.

Another said: "It's time for a Labour government. We need to end austerity, we've got working families who are attending foodbanks and that has to stop."

And a third attendee said: "We're really excited... You can feel the atmosphere, the buzz, it's really electric because... everybody believes [Starmer] is the next leader, and it's going to happen this year. Watch this space."

In the next few minutes, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will address his party's annual conference in Liverpool - where he is expected to set out his key messages ahead of an expected general election next year.

We'll bring you the speech, including the key announcements here on the live page, as well as analysis and video highlights.

You can also watch along by clicking Play at the top of this page.

This will be Starmer's chance to say 'why Labour?'published at 13:52 British Summer Time 10 October 2023

13:52 BST 10 October 2023

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent, reporting from Liverpool

You can’t help but notice Labour has a spring in its step just now.

They’re ahead in the polls - and by-election victories have only made that confidence grow.

But why are they so far ahead? Is it because Sir Keir Starmer is exciting voters? Or because they’re unhappy with the Conservatives?

I think Starmer is going to try and address some concerns about enthusiasm for his vision in his speech. We’re told he’s going to try and answer the question: “why Labour?”

It’s a big moment for the leader to make a positive case for backing his party at the election.

Georgia Roberts
BBC Scotland Westminster correspondent

In his speech, Sir Keir Starmer will talk about how Scotland can “lead the way to a Labour government”.

We’ll see Labour touch on the issues of Scottish independence by presenting themselves as the unifiers, with “old wounds of division” inflicted by the SNP and Conservatives beginning to heal.

For Scottish Labour, this conference has also served as a victory lap following the party’s thumping by-election win in Rutherglen and Hamilton West last week.

It’s given the atmosphere here a shot in the arm. Scottish talks and events have sometimes felt more akin to gigs with members energised by the win and how it could lead to a smoother path to No 10, as Labour in Scotland – after years stuck in the doldrums – potentially brings SNP dominance to an end.

That enthusiasm has spread far and wide in the party as the Labour leader will demonstrate in his speech.

Image source, Getty Images

We're about half an hour away from hearing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's speech. Before then, let's have a quick recap of what's happened at the conference so far today.

Knife crime and violence against women: These two issues have dominated the day's agenda - both in terms of speeches and a special panel chaired by shadow minister for domestic violence Jess Phillips.

Shadow home secretary's speech: Yvette Cooper pledged that "the next Labour government will put specialist rape investigation units in every police force and domestic abuse experts in every 999 call centre". She also went big on knife crime, announcing a 10-year programme to tackle both it and "the crisis of youth mental illness".

Shadow attorney general's speech: Emily Thornberry dedicated a large section of her speech to what she described as the "injustice" of how women are treated in society. Tackling issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace and stalking, Thornberry said a Labour government will "strengthen protection for women".

A 'cautious' but 'optimistic' mood at conference: The BBC's Ione Wells nicely summed up how MPs and delegates are feeling at this year's Labour gathering. Perhaps most interesting is how she said those at the top of the party are feeling ahead of Starmer's much-anticipated speech. Watch her take here.

The speech: Starmer's due to talk just after 2pm. We'll bring you live updates right here, and you can watch for yourself by clicking the Play button at the top of this page.

Image source, PA Media

There's cheers and applause from Labour delegates as Sir Keir Starmer arrives at the conference venue in Liverpool ahead of his leader's speech at 14:00 BST.

We'll bring you what he says in words and pictures while you can also stream the speech without leaving this page by clicking on the Play button in the picture above.

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting from Liverpool

Labour plan to use “Vote Rishi, Get Liz” to attack the Conservatives in the run-up to the next general election.

Senior figures in the party believe that former Prime Minister Liz Truss is “toxic” with voters, the BBC has been told.

Figures in the party intend to use this to argue that if the Conservatives won a majority it would likely be small enough for prominent figures on the right of the party, including Truss, to have a significant influence on policy.

For years, the Conservatives used a similar attack line against Labour.

When Ed Miliband, now the shadow energy secretary, was leader of the Labour Party the Conservatives repeatedly argued that a vote for him would be a "vote for the SNP.”

Labour insiders are more confident they can rebut this attack line, following the swing back to Labour from the SNP in the recent Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

But now, sources suggest they want to learn something from the Tories’ former strategy.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from Liverpool

Ken Ritchie must be the only campaigner at this conference who doesn’t want Sir Keir Starmer to adopt his group’s key demand – to abolish the monarchy. Not yet anyway.

“We are really trying to get the debate started around the monarchy and republicanism,” he tells me as he hands out leaflets to bleary-eyed conference-goers.

“We know that we can not ask anybody to get rid of the monarchy at this stage.”

Labour for a Republic – which has “hundreds” of members – feels public opinion is moving their way.

And, says Ken, they would like Labour to look at some of the protections and privileges given to the King – and the “vast expense” of the monarchy, which he says “symbolises the sort of society Labour was created to overturn.”

Image source, EPA

The Labour Party Conference 2023 has been in full swing since Sunday, in Liverpool, with Sir Keir Starmer's leader's speech coming up in about an hour.

Obviously there's a lot going on in and around the venue, so let's get you up to speed at what has happened so far.

Shadow levelling-up secretary Angela Rayner gave the first big speech of the event on Sunday.

She highlighted Labour's mission to grow the economy, and took a few swipes at the Conservatives.

Yesterday, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves spoke about the economy, job security and cost of living.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sawar told the party about making history, following their win last week in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

Delegates in the main conference hall held a moment's silence in memory of those killed in Israel.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from Liverpool

Housing campaign group Shelter have given a cautious welcome to Labour’s housing plans – even though they fall well short of the number of homes the charity believes need to be built.

Shelter chief executive Polly Neate says: "Keir Starmer's bold vision has huge potential; the first generation of new towns had social housing at their heart.”

But she adds: “All political parties need to commit to building the 90,000 genuinely affordable social homes each year that this country desperately needs."

A little earlier, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper gave her conference speech in which she declared that Labour is the "true party of law and order".

Among other things, she said a Labour government will aim to "halve serious violence", establish new youth hubs to turn teenagers away from knife crime and "put police back on the beat".

In case you missed it, here's a snippet of her speech:

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from Liverpool

Sir Keir Starmer’s cardboard doppelganger was out and about again this morning.

Green New Deal Rising – a group of young Labour activists angry about the leadership’s stance on green issues and much else besides – have had a busy week.

Will they round it off with some sort of demonstration during the leader’s speech?

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from Liverpool

Sir Keir Starmer will argue for 10 years to build the new homes and communities he says the country needs.

But why stop there?

“We need at least three terms as a Labour government to deliver on this,” Dame Meg Hillier has just told a fringe meeting.

The Labour MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, who chairs the powerful public accounts committee, was only half-joking.

It took the last Labour government three terms to fully deliver on its “decent homes” initiative, she said. These things take time….

There's less than two hours to go until Sir Keir Starmer's speech - the big event of the day. Housing is expected to be a major focus, with the Labour leader set to say a Labour win would mean a "decade of national renewal" after 13 years of Conservative-led government.

Starmer is set to to pledge to "build a new Britain" with extra powers for housing and local mayors and to accelerate building on unused urban land if Labour wins the next election.

The plans for a wave of new towns near England's cities are meant to echo those built by the first Labour government after WWII.

Another section of the speech is expected to be tough on policing, with Starmer thought to say that Labour's plan to recruit more neighbourhood police officers will guarantee patrols for town centres, as part of a plan to crackdown on crime and anti-social behaviour.

More here

Problems affecting women has been a big theme at the Labour conference this morning.

Emily Thornberry outlined how Labour plans to tackle issues such as stalking and harassment, and Jess Phillips - the shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding - is now chairing a panel on how to end violence against women and girls.

The panel includes reality TV star Georgia Harrison, who won over £200,000 in compensation damages after her ex shared an explicit video without her consent.

Harrison talked about her experience of being inundated by messages from her Instagram followers sharing their trauma over revenge porn. She backed Labour's plans, saying: "It's amazing to hear Labour taking serious action".

Cooper now turns to Labour's plans to tackle knife crime - which we mentioned earlier. She says knife crime has gone up by 70% in eight years but too little has been done to deal with the problem.

Reminding the audience of Labour's phrase of the Blair era – "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" – she says the party has to act on dangerous knife crime.

She says the model for change will be the early education Sure Start centres, again of the Blair government, which brought together different services - and Cooper says the next Labour government will do the same for teenagers.

"We're announcing a new 10 year programme across government, bringing together services and communities – 90 youth hubs with both mental health workers and community workers – to tackle the crisis of youth mental crisis. To give teenagers the best start in life... to stop the knife crime that is killing our children."

She says Labour's mission is to halve serious violence, put police back on the beat, restore respect for the rule of law and keep our children safe. With that she finished her speech to applause from the hall.

We're now hearing from shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper at the main stage in conference. She starts talking about violence and abuse that "too many women face".

She begins with a personal story about domestic abuse in her own family several generations ago. "We cannot stand by and let our daughters face the same abuse as our grandmothers," Cooper says.

"The next Labour government will put specialist rape investigation units in every force, domestic abuse experts in every 999 call centre," she says - something that was announced last year.

"We will require police to use tactics normally reserved for organised crime or terrorism to identify and go after the most dangerous repeat abusers and rapists and get them off our streets."

Labour has a spring in its step - but Starmer must now provide a visionpublished at 11:14 British Summer Time 10 October 2023

11:14 BST 10 October 2023

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Polls suggest Labour could have a good chance of winning the next general election – last week’s by-election in Rutherglen gave them hope a comeback in Scotland is on the cards.

But is Labour’s current success a positive or a negative choice? Are people enthused by Labour’s offering? Or is it because the Conservatives are unpopular?

Some Tories think all is not lost – and that there is little enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer on the doorstep.

So part of the Labour leader’s challenge later is to provide more detail of his vision. What would Starmer be like as prime minister? What are the policies he thinks can capture the public imagination at a general election?

This is quite possibly the last time Starmer addresses his party conference before a general election. Will he give activists a vision they can go and sell to the country?

We'll be hearing from the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper soon, and we already know that one key part of her speech will be on plans to tackle knife crime.

She will talk about Labour plans to set up a £100m "tough love" youth programme to help tackle the problem, if the party gets into power.

The Young Futures programme would be rolled out in communities that currently face youth crime and violence.

Each community will be offered a "young future hub" to bring together youth workers, neighbourhood police officers and mental health workers to spot young people at risk of being drawn into violence - and work with them to get them on a different path.