GB News halts for 'breaking' announcement in humiliating blow to Keir Starmer

Sunday's instalment of GB News was halted for Deputy Political Editor Tom Harwood's report as the Labour Party conference was taking place. Protestors were targeting the event, which Harwood was at the heart of, as he was surrounded by people campaigning against digital ID cards and farmers' inheritance tax.

He explained: "Here, particularly farmers, are aggrieved at Labour Party policies to raise taxes on family farms. I'm delighted to be joined by a guy called Spencer Campbell, who has been farming since he was 13 years old." When Campbell was asked what it meant to him to see dozens of people line the streets to protest with him, he said, "It's incredible. All I want to do is farm. To see farmers coming together across the country, and even across the nation, to speak to farmers and show their support is amazing."

He added: "There are my people." As they were talking, a coffin was carried through the streets, "representing the death of British farming".

Harwood then got the cameras to show motorcycle riders driving through the area with flags on the back of their bikes to protest with the farmers. Banners reading "abolish inheritance tax for all" were waved at the camera during the event in Liverpool.

The reporter explained: "This is a particularly difficult moment for Keir Starmer, who, of course, was accused of perhaps setting up a trust to be more efficient with his own inheritance. But this is a very loud and vibrant protest."

At the conference, Starmer pleaded with Labour to give him space to lead the party in the "fight of our lives" against Reform UK, which is led by Nigel Farage. The leader acknowledged the public's frustration with the time taken to deliver the change people voted for in last year's general election win.

However, he insisted he can turn the situation around and called on Labour to end the "introspection" and "navel-gazing" as speculation mounted about his position.

In an interview on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Starmer said he would be "judged at the next election" on whether he had improved living standards, the NHS, and security.

"I'll be judged at the end of those five years, and quite right too," he added. "But I just need the space to get on and do what we need to do, to do those three things above all else, but also - in a world which is more volatile than any of us have known for a very long time - to ensure that the United Kingdom is safe and secure."