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So, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has finished her speech at the Labour Party conference.

If you're just joining us, here's a round up of what she said:

• Phillipson began her speech by saying background "will not be a barrier for education", saying there should be "opportunity for everyone"
• She promised a Labour government would restore freedom, learning and joy in education, saying the system was "literally crumbling" in reference to the RAAC crisis in schools
• In further attacks on the government's record, she hit out at what she said was the slashing of staff and standards in early years childcare and accused the Conservatives of having no plan for education
• She also announced a "revolution" in reading standards and a renewed focus on maths
• Phillipson promised Labour would bring maths to life for the next generation, with better training for teachers

'Real world' maths skills in primary schoolspublished at 10:35 British Summer Time 11 October 2023

10:35 BST 11 October 2023

Vanessa Clarke
Education reporter, BBC News

The main headline of Bridget Phillipson's speech was her plan for children as young as four to start learning about budgeting and currency exchange rates.

She said if young people hate maths at 16, “it is too late”, in a direct challenge to Rishi Sunak's plans to keep students studying maths until 18.

Unions representing school heads have welcomed the plans but have pointed out that maths teaching in primary schools is already of a high standard.

Phillipson gives more details about Labour’s plan for improving maths standards in schools.

She says one in four children leave primary school without the maths they need, calling this a disaster.

She says maths is the “language of the universe” and cannot be left to the last years of school.

She says Labour will bring maths to life for the next generation, with better training for teachers.

As reported before the speech, Labour wants children as young as four to learn financial literacy - including budgeting and currency exchange rates.

Bridget Phillipson turns her attention to apprenticeships and promises Labour will change every part of them "and change for good".

Moving on, she says "Our ambition starts as education starts", promising reforms in childcare.

She goes on to say that maths will be better taught at six, not just 16, adding that there will be a new focus on the subject.

Phillipson also promises a "revolution" in reading standards.

Phillipson now attacks the record of the Conservative government on education.

She says 13 years of "Tory failure" means children’s opportunities are limited. But she says it’s worse than that.

She says the backgrounds of children are “ravaging their opportunities all their lives long” and that "breaks her heart".

Phillipson accuses the Tories of slashing staffing and standards in early years child care and having no plan for education.

She said there aren’t enough qualified teachers and the “buildings are turning to dust” - another reference to RAAC concrete in England's schools.

The shadow education secretary says excellence and opportunity should be for everyone, and adds that parents want to make sure children have a love of learning that sets them up to thrive.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson starts her conference speech by thanking party members and MPs.

After telling the story of her childhood, growing up in the 1990s in the north-east of England, she goes on to say that "life should not come down to luck" and that there "should be opportunity for everyone".

She says freedom, learning and joy are the opportunities "which for 13 years this government has ripped away", but promises a "Labour government will give them".

She says, under the Tories, the education system is literally crumbling - a reference to the RAAC concrete crisis in schools.

Phillipson adds that "background will not be a barrier and education", to applause, accusing the Tories of not having a plan for early education.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson walks across the stage, to applause from the auditorium, and takes her place in front of the podium to begin her speech.

We're expecting she will publicly unveil plans to teach "real world" maths skills in primary schools.

You can watch her speech live by pressing the Play button at the top of this page.

We'll also be bringing you those all-important lines and announcements in our text stream.

You can see in the video below the full exchange between Nick Robinson and Sir Keir Starmer on house-building, where the Labour leader is pushed on whether he would over-ride local concerns to get developments through.

Image source, Reuters

One of the interesting exchanges during Sir Keir Starmer's Today interview this morning with Nick Robinson was when he said he was prepared to ignore the concerns of local people in order to press ahead with his plan to build new homes.

The Labour leader, when pressed on the controversy about building HS2 in his own constituency, said concerns of local MPs like him would sometimes have to be overridden in the national interest.

"We hear you, but I'm afraid we're ignoring you," Starmer said.

"Yes. We're going to have to do that. Now, that's not going to be a crude exercise. I think one of the problems we have is that planning is at the moment very, very localised.

"There isn't the ability to look across a wider area and say: 'Where would the best place be for this development? Where could we have a new town?' And so we need to bulldoze through it, but we also need to be pragmatic about how we do it."

Here's a bit more of what the Labour leader had to say when he was questioned on 5 Live Breakfast earlier this morning:

Housing

• The plan for more than a million new homes in new towns in England is to have a bidding process, Starmer confirmed
• Local communities and regional local authorities can put forward a bid for towns
• But they need to be located where the country needs them
• The role of government is to put the basic infrastructure around a new town, he said
• Starmer added his instinct is the bidding process will throw up more bids than we were anticipating"

Vaping

• Starmer said he wanted to prevent vapes being available to young people
• Described them as being "geared to young people, adding he has no doubt they are being "deliberately targeted" by vape companies

As part of his post-conference speech media tour, Keir Starmer also spoke to our colleagues on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Here's a quick summary of what he told them:

Labour's 'non-dom' tax plans

• Starmer said getting rid of the tax status would bring in £2bn a year in revenue. Being registered as non-domiciled for tax purposes (referred to as 'non-doms') allows people living in the UK to avoid paying British taxes on money they've made outside the country

• This money could be used to fund £1.5bn NHS reforms to bring waiting lists down, Starmer suggested
• Bringing down waiting lists matters for "people’s health but also economic growth", he said

• The UK must move to a "preventative model" of health, taking care of people in and closer to their communities, he said, adding that the NHS also needed to use technology and artificial intelligence to help

Childcare

• Starmer reiterated Labour's plans to set up new breakfast clubs
• These changes will "make a massive difference" towards providing the "support children need", he said
• Some revenue raised from the 'non-dom' reforms will go on childcare as well, he said

Will bring you more from his 5 Live interview in the next post.

Later on today, Labour will publicly unveil plans to teach "real world" maths skills in primary schools.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Philipson will say in her speech to the Labour conference this morning that children as young as four should learn financial literacy - including budgeting and currency exchange rates.

Under the plans, teachers would get extra training funded by ending some tax breaks for private schools.

Labour says poor maths skills in childhood can embed problems that last into adulthood, such as the inability to analyse basic graphs and calculate the value of supermarket offers.

The party says the plans will "bring maths to life" for pupils and represent a direct challenge to Rishi Sunak's plans to have all students study maths in some form until the age of 18.

• Read more here

Image source, PA Media

Image source, EP

This year’s Labour conference is drawing to a close but there’s still time for a few more speeches.

The last to speak will be shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, who will argue that reform of the NHS is needed if it is to survive.

He will set out Labour’s plan to:

• Provide two million more operations, scans and appointments a year on evenings and weekends
• Double the number of NHS scanners
• Deliver 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments

Labour says this will cost £1.5bn in total and be paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status.

Streeting will say that reform will play a bigger part than investment in rebuilding the NHS.

“Pouring ever-increasing amounts of money into a system that isn’t working is wasteful in every sense,” he will say.

We’ve heard this before from Streeting, who has stressed more money alone will not be enough to resolve some of the problems hampering the NHS.

Read more about Labour's pledge to provide 2m extra NHS appointments a year here

In his BBC Radio 4 Today interview, the Labour leader covered much of the ground he had covered on Breakfast. Here are the main points:

• He described Hamas's attack on Israel as "appalling and shocking", saying Israel must have the right to defend itself against terrorism, and to do what it could to get its people being held hostage back
• He said his wife had extended family in Israel, and there was also "real anxiety" there about how this had happened
• Starmer said his talk, in his speech yesterday, of "bulldozing" planning restrictions was about social justice, because owning your own home was "hugely important" to people's security
• He said Labour would be "pragmatic" about development, but was "going to have to do it" to get new homes built
• He said Labour could cut NHS waiting lists through extra out-of-hours appointments, and fund this by ending the non-dom tax status
• He spoke again about class, saying too many young people from working-class families were held back by a sense that success was not for them
• Starmer said he got his determination from his mother, who he said had always driven forward in her life despite being in poor health

The interview with Sir Keir Starmer ended a little while ago (he can speak faster than your writers can type), but we've got more to come soon.

We'll bring you a summary of his key lines from Nick Robinson's interview on Today in a few minutes.

This page will move on to cover the end of the Labour Party conference, where delegates will hear from shadow health secretary Wes Streeting and shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson.

Stick with us for all the latest news, expert analysis of the party's pitch to voters, and how things have gone for Labour over the past four days.

Nick Robinson turns his attention to the protester that interrupted Starmer's speech within seconds of it beginning yesterday.

Starmer says he was "not going to let this idiot ruin four years of work".

He says he just "took off my jacket, rolled up my sleeves, and got on with it".

Robinson probes further. Your security is not something you discuss in public, but has it made you pause, he asks, mentioning the murders of MPs Sir David Amess and Jo Cox.

Starmer says he cannot equate his experience with those incidents, but at the time he thought he was "not going to be deflected by anything".

Robinson mentions a section in Starmer’s speech yesterday where he spoke about working-class people being held back by a “nagging voice” in their heads.

Robinson asks: Are you telling us that you hear that voice of doubt?

Starmer says he did and “that’s why I’ve said it repeatedly”. He says he never envisaged being in a position where he could be prime minister.

He says that holds back more young people than almost anything else.

Robinson then asks him again whether that “nagging voice” might have given him doubts about winning the next general election.

Starmer says his mum - who suffered from a rare form of arthritis - instilled a sense of determination in him.

He says he tried to put across that sense of determination in his speech.

Still with Labour leader SIr Keir Starmer on Radio 4's Today programme, where he is asked about how they will pay for NHS reform or housebuilding, given the state of the public finances.

Starmer says that's why he made economic growth the central theme of his speech yesterday.

Nick Robinson says tax money from growth comes in the long term, asking if there's a secret plan for raising money.

Starmer says where investment makes sense and protects jobs, a Labour government would spend money.

Pressed on whether investment is code for borrowing, Starmer says his party will always tell people where the money will come from for any funding commitments.

"The idea of unfunded spending commitments was tested to destruction by Liz Truss a year ago and we're still paying the price," he says.

Starmer adds he isn't prepared to let that happen under a Labour government,

Robinson asks Starmer next about the "potentially more uncomfortable thing" from his speech - reform in the NHS.

"Are you willing to bulldoze the British Medical Association [the doctors' union] to go seven days a week?" he asks Starmer.

The Labour leader says this is a voluntary scheme, which will tackle waiting lists - the "central problem" facing the NHS, he adds.

Robinson puts it to Starmer that if he is sincere about the NHS, surely he must take more workers on?

Starmer says you have to first answer the "front door question... the immediate problem" which is bringing down waiting lists.

He suggests the NHS has so far been a "sickness service", but AI and technology must be used to improve preventative care.

Nick Robinson's second set of questions to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on Radio 4 is about his stated desire to fight for working people.

Robinson says he talked about bulldozing planning rules in his speech. He says this isn't the sort of thing a social justice campaigner would say.

It is about social justice, Starmer insists, adding that owning your own home is hugely important to working class families.

He says his family didn't have a lot of money but owned their own home, which gave them security.

That is the ordinary hope of many working people, he says.

He says bulldozing planning rules - especially when it comes to building houses - is important to achieving social justice.