Health Secretary Wes Streeting thanks Scousers as Labour conference begins in Liverpool

Health Secretary Wes Streeting praised Liverpool as he returned to the city for the Labour Party conference. The conference began on Sunday at Liverpool's Exhibition Centre, with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner taking to the stage for the first major speech of the event.

It is the party's first conference since returning to government in July and the third year in succession that it has been held on Liverpool's waterfront. Politicians, delegates and the media began to arrive at the conference site - spreading across the M&S Bank Arena, the convention centre and the Liverpool Exhibition Centre - on Sunday (September 22) morning, and the Health Secretary was among them.

Speaking to the ECHO's Political Editor Liam Thorp on a Facebook Live video, Mr Streeting said: "We’re here and that’s great - it’s the first Labour conference under a Labour government for 15 years and it’s brilliant to be here talking about what we are doing and what we’re going to do and what we’re going to say.

READ MORE: What new Labour government has got right and wrong as party arrives in Liverpool

READ MORE: Keir Starmer promises to 'turbocharge' Liverpool as conference kicks off in city

"We love Liverpool - it’s a great city. We always get such a warm welcome and the number of people who, the moment I got off the train, said ‘It’s great you’re here, it’s great that we’ve got Labour back in government’."

The lead up to the conference has been dominated by headlines about gifts given to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer - following hot on the heels of the controversial decision to scrap winter fuel payments for the majority of pensioners. Mr Streeting said the event in Liverpool presented his party with a chance to change the narrative.

He told the ECHO: "Ultimately, we’re going to be judged by what we do in government - what we change for people in government. We know that times are tough in the country at the moment and that’s why we’ve got to make tough choices now to fix the foundations.

"If we get the foundations right, we can build the homes we want to live in and we can build the country we want to live in. That’s where the hope is and that’s where the future lies.”

Tomorrow will see a speech from Chancellor Rachel Reeves, as she lays out the government's economic plans, before the Prime Minister takes to the stage on Tuesday. There is also a packed programme of fringe events and the ECHO will be reporting live from all four days of the conference.