08 October 2023 , 12:17
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A protester was escorted off stage after attempting to disrupt Labour conference on its first day.
A man stormed the stage and started ranting about the NHS and the National Executive Committee (NEC), the Labour Party's governing body at the main podium. "An NHS fit for the future needs funding. Some of the motions put out aren't even about NHS funding," he shouted into a turned-off microphone.
Audience members booed, with one person heard shouting "clear off!" The crowd then started slow-clapping to seemingly encourage the stewards taking him off. The protestor thanked his "comrades" as he was reluctantly pulled off the stage.
Chair of the NEC Johanna Baxter, who was chairing the panel at the time, responded: "Conference, I was just about to say there is now an opportunity for anyone who wishes to raise points... but I was interrupted." Another delegate - after being invited to come up to the stage - later criticised the NEC for "overruling" the Conference Arrangement Committee, which she criticised as being an "undemocratic decision".
An uninvited speaker was removed from the podium just before Angela Rayner's speech (Getty Images)The protestor's attempt to disrupt the conference came before Angela Rayner's speech. But it did not dampen the room, with the Deputy Labour leader having the audience in stitches at her jokes and commanding a standing ovation at the end.
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It comes after Keir Starmer unveiled his £1.5billion plan to save the NHS in an exclusive interview with the Mirror. The Labour leader set out a bold vision to create an extra 2 million appointments a year – with patients seen in NHS hospitals by NHS staff. Under his health plans, cash-strapped doctors and nurses will be offered generous overtime in a bid to restore the service to its former glory.
Pressed on doctors still being able to earn more by doing private work, Mr Starmer said doctors "will probably got more (money) in the private sector" but he believed they would do overtime for the NHS "because they want to bring down the waiting list as well". NHS staff "are up for this because they know that bringing down the waiting list will reduce the pressure on them in the long run", he said.
He told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: "They want to do this just as much as we do and it is desperately needed. We need growth in our economy, we need to raise living standards across the country. We will never do that with the mess that this Government has made of the NHS."
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