We've just heard from shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry who spoke about what she called "the most widespread, most historic and most entrenched injustice of all - our society's treatment of women".

She set out three things she would do if Labour wins the next general election:

• Cohabitation: Thornberry says Labour would bring in laws to help women in cohabiting couples - where there is no joint property or shared parental responsibility - when their relationships come to an end, as has been done in other countries like Ireland and New Zealand. She didn't give details about what these laws would be

• Sexual harassment in the workplace: Labour would ensure the same protection is given to people reporting sexual harassment in the work as other whistleblowers get, she says

• Stalking: Thornberry said that "in our country, it is 200 times more likely for a woman to be the victim of stalking that it is for the stalker to end up in prison". Labour would strengthen protection for women from stalkers, Thornberry says - including letting women to know the identity of their online stalkers

Cautious Labour dares to believe it can winpublished at 10:27 BST 10 October 2023

10:27 BST 10 October 2023

Chris Mason
Political editor

This corner of Liverpool is a sea of cautious smiles. A party daring to believe it can win, but aware it has thought that before - in 1992, in 2015, to pick just two - only to go on to lose.

"It is beaten-dog syndrome," as one shadow cabinet minister puts it. The party hears the word "election" and instantly fears history repeating itself.

But hang on, there is an understated confidence around too.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is talking about wanting a "decade of national renewal". A decade. That implies winning two general elections, not just one.

Sir Keir's challenge this autumn looks like this: Opinion polls suggest the Conservatives are unpopular, even deeply unpopular. But they also suggest plenty are not convinced by Labour.

Read more from Chris

The BBC's Ione Wells conveys the atmosphere at Labour party conference ahead of Keir Starmer's speech.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper is due to take the stage at the Labour conference shortly - we'll bring you updates, or you can watch by clicking play above.

This morning she was speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire, and told them that Labour would reverse the government’s plan to house asylum seekers at the ex-RAF Scampton site.

Cooper added that the plan for RAF Scampton was "disrespectful" given the history of the site, which is the former base of the WWII Dambusters squadron.

She also added that Labour would commit to removing any people who might have already been housed at the site by the time the next general election comes around.

Image source, PA Media

Pat McFadden, Labour's campaign co-ordinator, says the dream of home ownership has become “more and more difficult to achieve” and the party want build the next generation of "new towns" near English cities.

New towns were the most ambitious town building programme ever undertaken in the UK and began happening after World War Two to relocate people away from big cities.

McFadden tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that currently developers pick where houses go and it’s often a contentious process.

He says Labour's plans for "a new generation of new towns" would include "other things that make up a community – a GP surgery, this primary school, transport links, businesses".

McFadden adds that the idea of Labour being "the builders" will be at the heart of Starmer’s speech later, and it is about more than just housing – it is about infrastructure, and getting economic growth.

Brian Wheeler

There was a nervous buzz in the air at last night's rally hosted by organisers LabourList, a news website for Labour folk, at a bar in Liverpool.

There was a sense that victory was within their grasp but that they could still mess it all up.

MP Stella Creasey compared it to being 2-0 up after 70 minutes.

Others spoke about the need to avoid complacency. Labour's West of England mayor Dan Norris warned that although the Tories were "hated", it was "not correct to say Labour is loved - we have work to do".

There was some call and response ("are we going to win? Yes!") and much jubilation about last week's Rutherglen by-election victory and anticipation of more by-election success to come.

Labour MP Barry Gardiner got the crowd going with some old school Tory-bashing and a few risque jokes.

Read more from Brian.

Francesca Gillett
Live reporter

It's the third day of the Labour Party conference - and today the highlight for many will be the leader's speech this afternoon.

Sir Keir Starmer's big speech at around 2pm could be his last conference speech before a general election next year, so is possibly his final opportunity set out at length to Labour members his pitch to be prime minister to the country.

Other speeches happening today are shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper later this morning, as well as shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry. There are also fringe events, with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting speaking on cancer care.

Heather Sharp
Live reporter

We're pausing our live coverage for now, but we'll be back tomorrow to cover the third day of the Labour conference in Liverpool including the address by leader Sir Keir Starmer - quite likely his last before the general election expected next year.

In the meantime, we've plenty more for you to read:

• Our politics reporters in Liverpool give you a rundown of shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves's speech here
• We've taken a look at Labour's plan to curb private jet use by ministers here
• Our political editor Chris Mason looks at the challenges facing Starmer here

Today's page was brought to you by Becky Morton, Joshua Nevett, Sam Hancock, Michael Sheils McNamee and myself.

Image source, Reuters

The main agenda of day two of Labour's annual conference in Liverpool is now over so we'll be pausing our live coverage shortly.

Here's a reminder of what's happened today:

• In her conference speech, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to "rebuild Britain", including by speeding up the planning process for key infrastructure projects, as well encouraging business investment, to grow the economy and create jobs
• She said her party would fight the next election on the economy, as she sought to present Labour as the party of economic responsibility
• Reeves was endorsed by former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, who in a video message after the speech said it was time to put her ideas into action
• But grassroots left-wing group Momentum said the speech was disappointing, while Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said Labour's plans would fuel price rises
• The party's shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband said a Labour government would double onshore wind, treble solar power and quadruple offshore wind
• A motion calling for UK energy to be brought back into public ownership and for the HS2 high speed rail line to be built in full was backed by Labour delegates
• Meanwhile, delegates in the main conference hall held a moment's silence in memory of those killed in Israel

You can read all the main stories from the conference here.

Earlier we heard from Labour's shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband, who called for the Conservatives to be chucked "into the seven dustbins of history" as he attacked the government's environmental policies.

The line was a reference to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's suggestion that the government had ruled out households needing seven rubbish and recycling bins.

Labour’s Scottish activists are in a buoyant moodpublished at 18:19 BST 9 October 2023

18:19 BST 9 October 2023

David Porter
BBC Scotland Westminster correspondent

It’s fair to say that Labour activists in Scotland are pretty pleased with themselves at the moment. In fact they’re cock-a-hoop.

They’re convinced the political tide is finally turning in their favour against the SNP.

For years being a Scottish Labour MP has been a pretty exclusive club, with just one member, Ian Murray. Now - following last week’s emphatic Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election win - that club has doubled in size.

Michael Shanks, the victor in Rutherglen, is Labour’s new pin-up boy.

He was given the honour of introducing the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool this afternoon.

Sarwar told delegates last Thursday’s result means that his party can now beat the SNP across Scotland.

Labour strategists have long argued that the road to government for Keir Starmer runs through Scotland. By that they mean that getting the keys to Downing Street is made a lot easier if they do well in Scotland.

After last week’s by-election Labour believes 20 or more seats could realistically be in play come the general election. Some believe Labour could once again become the largest Westminster party in Scotland.

That is by no means certain, but it all means Labour’s Scottish activists are in a buoyant mood.

Oscar Bentley
BBC politics researcher

Image source, Reuters

When shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves gave her conference speech earlier, she mentioned numerous policies that Labour wants to bring in if it wins power in the next general election. But which of them were new?These are the ones we hadn't heard before:

• “Enforce the ministerial code’s rules” by stopping “unnecessary” flights by ministers on private jets
• A value for money mandate on hiring external consultants - with a target to halve government spending on them
• An independent inquiry into the failures of HS2 to “learn the lessons for the future”
• A review into major energy, defence and IT capital projects, working with unions so that a Labour government is “ready to get Britain building again”

And these are the ones the party had already spoken about:

• A “fiscal lock”, where any significant tax and spending changes will need a forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - Reeves announced this last month
• A Covid corruption commissioner - Labour told us about this yesterday
• Fast-track planning for battery factories, life sciences and 5G infrastructure - Labour also told us about this yesterday
• A National Wealth Fund, leveraging £3 of private investment for every £1 of public investment - Reeves announced this at last year’s Labour conference
• Raising stamp duty for overseas buyers - Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer announced this at last year’s conference
• The New Deal for Working People, including banning zero hours contracts and "fire and rehire" - Labour has been talking about this since 2021

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent, reporting from Liverpool

Labour has confirmed it has no plans to nationalise key energy infrastructure - despite its conference voting to do so, when delegates backed a motion proposed by the Unite union.

The shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC: “We’re not going to nationalise the energy system.”

Asked if they would follow the vote, he said: “No”.

Reynolds said votes reflected the interests of people at the conference - but that there would be disagreements in some areas.

He added: “I don’t think talking about nationalising the production of the North Sea or whatever is a feasible prospect or even desirable.”

Big questions in Wales over HS2 fundingpublished at 17:39 BST 9 October 2023

17:39 BST 9 October 2023

Gareth Lewis
Political editor, BBC Wales

Be bold when you’re in power was the message from Mark Drakeford, the first minister of Wales, where Labour has ruled for nearly a quarter of a century.

In an interview earlier, he defended Sir Keir Starmer against accusations of timidity, saying circumstances are very different when you’re not in power.

Drakeford also imagined an era with "no limits" as to what two Labour governments could achieve together.

But senior UK Labour figures won’t commit to whether Wales should get consequential funding of around £2bn for the remaining stretch of HS2.

Never mind a bone of contention - it’s becoming a skeleton’s worth in Wales.

If Labour does win the next general election, might the two-billion-pound question test those limits?

Image source, Getty Images

Also addressing the conference this afternoon has been Labour's Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, who used his speech to praise the party's record in Wales.

He says Wales's Labour government has brought forward "bold reforms", including plans to change the electoral system for the Welsh Senedd to one based on proportional representation and to bring buses back into public control.

Drakeford says his party's ambition approaching the next general election, which must be held before January 2025, is to make Wales once again "a country free of Tory MPs" and "their toxic brand of personal attacks and culture wars".

The Conservatives, of course, frequently criticise Labour in Wales - from their record on NHS waiting lists to the move to reduce the default residential road speed limit from 30mph to 20mph.

A motion calling for UK energy to be brought back into public ownership, starting with the National Grid’s gas and electricity networks, has been passed by Labour delegates.

The motion, proposed by the Unite union, also called for a publicly owned railway and the delivery of the HS2 high speed train line in full.

Nationalisation of energy isn't supported by the Labour leadership but public ownership of the railways is already party policy.

Keir Starmer has said he can't commit to going ahead with HS2's northern leg after the announcement by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that it would be scrapped.

The party leadership do not have to adopt a motion, even if it passes, and nationalisation of the energy industry is unlikely to be in Labour's manifesto for the next general election.

Inside the conference hall, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner has just led a moment of silence for what she described as the "shocking situation and events in Israel".

More than 1,000 people - including at least 10 British citizens - are feared to have lost their lives, she told delegates, before asking everyone to show their respects.

The camera then cut to the hall where MPs could be seen bowing their heads in silence.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Let's recap what we heard this morning, from shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, who is among those on the Labour front bench to have given a speech in the conference hall today.

While he mentioned what he called the “appalling attack on Israel”, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to skip last month’s UN General Assembly, Lammy devoted a part of his speech to the war in Ukraine.

Pledging Labour’s unwavering support to Ukraine, Lammy talked about his recent visit to the country’s capital, Kyiv.

He said anti-corruption campaigners told him the UK must stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “cronies laundering dirty money in our capital”.

He said whistleblowers who expose stolen assets and sanctions breaches would be rewarded under a future Labour government.

“Under the Tories, Britain became the money laundering capital of the world,” Lammy said.

“With Labour, Britain will be the anti-corruption capital of the world.”

As we reported earlier, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves was the top billing for today at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

We've had a bit of reaction from some of the unions, which is broadly positive.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) saying Labour has "a serious plan to deliver an economy that works for working people".

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak praised the promise of increased investment in infrastructure, which he says will lower bills, help achieve net zero carbon emissions and create jobs.

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea says the shadow chancellor "set out a compelling vision" that Labour would run the UK's finances "responsibly and fairly", while creating economic growth through investment which would help rebuild "crumbing public services".

However, ahead of the speech Unite leader Sharon Graham accused Labour of being "timid" and should "come out with a bigger offer".

Unite - historically Labour's biggest financial backer - is calling on the party to take energy into public ownership, something the Labour leadership does not currently support.

Sam Francis
Political reporter, in Liverpool

The conference book shop can be a barometer for the mood of a political party. On the accuracy scale it is just above sticking a finger in the air.

We're only two days into the conference but the best seller so far has been Chris Bryant's Code of Conduct - with sales boosted in part by a book signing held inside the bookshop. The book gives "the inside story" of political misconduct and ideas from Sir Chris, a former chair of the Commons Standards Committee, on how to help solve it.

A collection of George Orwell's essays is also selling well.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, an iconic book on the left that champions workers' rights has so far sold no copies, I'm told.