Sir Keir Starmer has slammed the rumours he could close pubs early as “nonsense”.
The Prime Minister quelled reports the Government was considering new measures to target harmful drinking.
Sir Keir Starmer visits a pub to discuss impact of Covid-19 (Image: Getty)
When the suggestion was put to him, he said: “Nonsense. This is not government policy. We are not going to do it. Closing time is not going to change, I can give you that guarantee.”
Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, public health minister Andrew Gwynne said the government is considering “tightening up the hours of operation” of bars and pubs as part of an attempt to improve health and combat anti-social behaviour.
Chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty has warned ministers that 60% of the NHS budget will eventually be spent on preventable diseases if current trends continue, an increase from today’s 40%.
Meanwhile L abour is looking to ban outdoor smoking in an effort to curb preventable deaths and alleviate pressure on the NHS.
The proposal would impact small parks, pub gardensand, areas outside hospitals, nightclubs and sports venues.
The hospitality industry warned it would damage venues already struggling since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has called for a “national debate” about the prospect of banning smoking outside pubs.
A restriction is being considered by the Government as part of a range of measures which will be set out shortly, he said.
Ministers are examining what can be done to help smokers quit and to “deal with the scourge of second hand smoke and passive smoke,” he said.
“We definitely want to see smoking phased out in our country, we committed to that in our manifesto,” Mr Streeting told Sky News.
“We want to make sure this generation of children are the healthiest generation that ever lived and therefore they will never be able to legally buy cigarettes.
“We are looking at a range of other measures to also help people who are currently smoking to quit and also to deal with the scourge of second-hand smoke and passive smoking, which is also harmful. We’ll be setting out our proposals on that shortly.”
Asked if he will ban smoking outside pubs, he said: “Look, that’s one of the measures that I’m considering, and I’m up for a national debate on this issue.
“We have got to do two things – reform the health service, but also reform public health, because we might be living longer, but we’re becoming sicker sooner and there is a heavy price being paid for that in our economy, our public finances and in our own health.”
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Piers Morgan fumes ‘just stop now’ as he rages at Keir Starmer’s hypocrisy
Sir Keir Starmer and Piers Morgan (Image: GETTY/ITV)
Piers Morgan has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after a spate of revelations over Labour freebies – insisting: “The gravy train must stop now”.
The former Mirror editor and GMB host was speaking at a time when the PM and senior Labour ministers are under the microscope over their acceptance of donations including clothes and even Taylor Swift tickets.
Today Sir Keir defended his decision to take £20,000 in donations for accommodation to enable his son to revise for his GCSEs, insisting he had “done nothing wrong”.
He has previously accepted donations of clothes, glasses and Arsenal tickets.
Morgan, writing in The Sun, said: “Stop the freebie gravy train – NOW!
Do you think Piers Morgan is right to criticise Keir Starmer? Are Labour really on the ‘gravy train’? Have your say in our comments section.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, makes a speech during yesterday’s conference (Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
“It beggars belief that after all their halo-clad moralising about greedy Tories filling their troughs with gifted clobber, Starmer and most of his cabinet were themselves hoovering up everything from designer clothes to Taylor Swift tickets, and getting Lord Waheed ‘Santa Claus’ Ali to pay for seemingly everything including their lavish birthday parties.”
He warned: “If Labour top brass keep behaving like two-faced charlatans over freebies, the public will gift them their P45s very quickly.”
In a series of broadcast interviews this morning after his speech to the Labour Party annual conference yesterday, Sir Keir said the transition to Downing Street had been “really difficult” for his two children, who were previously raised in North London.
Asked about the donations, Sir Keir said that around £20,000 he had declared from Lord Ali for unspecified accommodation was for his teenager to study for exams in a “peaceful” atmosphere while the then-Labour leader was overwhelmed with media attention in the run-up to the election.
Sir Keir Starmer chats with Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe during a game with Arsenal (Image: Getty)
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs.
“I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed.
“We have lots of journalists outside our house where we live and I’m not complaining about that, that’s fine.
“But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life – I promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying.”
Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli (Image: David Wimsett / Avalon)
“Somebody then offered me accommodation where we could do that. I took that up and it was the right thing to do.”
Subsequently asked whether he would like to apologise for the row, Sir Keir told LBC: “I’m not going to apologise for not doing anything wrong.”
Sir Keir has said ministers will no longer take donations for clothing now they are in Government, but left the door open to receiving more access to events, such as the £4,000 worth of tickets to a Taylor Swift concert he accepted from the Premier League.
The Parliamentary Register of interests shows he has accepted donations of hospitality from Premier League clubs including Arsenal’s rivals Spurs, West Ham and Manchester United – also to watch their home fixtures against Arsenal.
Other donations which he has accepted from Lord Ali include clothing worth £12,000 and glasses valued at £2,485.
More than £700,000 worth of free gifts and hospitality have been accepted by MPs across the political spectrum over the course of the last year, The Observer reported on Sunday.
A total of 141 Conservative MPs took nearly £360,000 in freebies, with almost £300,000 shared out among 118 Labour MPs.
