PM hails next month’s ‘reset’ summit as first step to closer ties, but tensions over trade may prove problematic

Andy Burnham has promised a “serious dialogue” over the UK’s future place in Europe, saying the existing relationship is “not good enough” as he framed next month’s Brussels summit as a possible first step to EU membership.

The prime minister said Britain must take a “clear-eyed rational look” at its long-term relationship with the bloc to boost economic growth and control immigration, which needed to go beyond Labour’s existing red lines.

Ed Davey’s critics want headlines, but their leader’s strategy wins seats. Undermining him could help the rightwing parties into power

Will the first victim of the political conference season be the Liberal Democrats’ Sir Ed Davey? It might seem quixotic, given that he is the most successful liberal parliamentary leader in a century. Yet a meeting of Lib Dem MPs on Tuesday night could see them collect the 18 signatures needed for a confidence vote. It’s hard to see what a putsch would achieve, apart from giving the party’s opponents a stick to beat it with. That may be the point: weakening Sir Ed in an internal war of attrition so that he walks away would be easier than removing him via a no-confidence vote passed by a majority of all Lib Dem MPs.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake,” said Napoleon Bonaparte. With populists slipping in the polls, Lib Dem plotters should remember this, especially as Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives are looking to advance at the Lib Dems’ expense. The Tory economic pitch is to end the 60% marginal tax rate on earnings between £100,000 and £125,000, and let couples pass on the family home plus another £1m tax-free. It’s a clear bid to win back affluent southern voters in England’s “yellow wall”.

Readers respond to John Harris’s article on the need to consider disabled people of working age when reforming the care system

I found myself nodding in agreement at John Harris’s worries about his son’s future as he leaves full-time education to enter the world of adult social services (Social care for disabled adults is in as much crisis as support for elderly people – so why is the government silent about it?, 5 October). John’s concerns were shared by my wife and I as our disabled daughter moved from her specialist residential further-education setting 17 years ago.

However, with her gutsy approach and strong financial support by way of 24-hour care from our local council, she is able to say, “I love my life”, and has expressed this in a little book, How I Flourished, published by Lewisham Adult Learning. This despite being quadriplegic, having no speech and being dependent on her personal assistants for all the necessaries of life.
I could wax at length about her wheelchair dancing, the “proper job” she secured with a wonderful charity (the Deptford-based Entelechy Arts), her painting, thirst for maintaining social relationships involving long and tiring overseas travel, and so on. The blunt truth, however, is that we, as her parents, have always needed to be closely involved in managing her care and safety, and for taking up the opportunities to broaden her landscape. We are aware that she has had a much better deal than so many people in adult care institutions.

The prime minister tells MPs the next summit with the EU will be held on 20 November

Burnham to urge MPs to embrace closer ties with EU

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, is speaking now. He started his speech with an account of a 73-year-old woman dying in North Wales after having to wait 23 hours for an ambulance, and he sought to link this to immigration.

He said:

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that 15,000 people across Britain died last year due to excess wait times for emergency treatment. That’s 300 people a week, 300 lives destroyed, 300 families devastated.

And that number has increased tenfold over the last decade. This is a moral outrage, and it is a direct result of decisions made by Tory and Labour governments.

I don’t think that’s because he wants to have a fight over the European Union. I think that’s because he knows what we’re talking about today impacts hard in what is known as the red wall.

Exclusive: Some of £2bn savings needed from energy budget expected to come from boiler upgrade scheme, sources say

Ministers are preparing to slash the amount of money available to subsidise heat pumps as they look for ways to fund higher defence spending, sources have told the Guardian.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, has been tasked with finding more than £2bn in savings from her budget to help pay for defence investment under a plan drawn up by the previous government.