Michael Gove tells Liz Truss that cutting tax for highest earners is wrong as protesters gather at start of Tory conference – live | Politics

Ben Quinn

The former Spice Girl – Melanie Brown – has told an event at the Conservative Party conference of her fears that the “massive issue of domestic abuse” will slip down the agenda during “these times of absolute economic chaos.”

The singer, known to millions as Mel B or ‘Scary Spice’, was speaking at a meeting organised by the Sun and Women’s Aid, which she became a patron of in 2018 after leaving what she described as an abusive relationship.

“We need to reform everything, the courts, the police, even GPs, even people in your work environment, HR, you need to have a safe place where you can go without any shame and know the warning signs,” said Brown, who was made an MBE for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women.

Women’s Aid is publishing research which found that 40% of adults believe that people who carry out domestic violence against women were enabled by sexism, compared to some 60% who felt the opposite and regarded it – in the words of the charity’s CEO – as “bad people doing bad things”.

“What we have is a real gap in people’s understanding of how prevalent this crime is,” said Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid. She went on:

We are not ready yet as a society to support women and that is the fundamental question. This is due to sexism and misogyny that underpins all those systems. They are not created to recognise the harm that women face on a daily basis.

The new Women’s Aid research also found there was a 15% drop in how seriously people regarded an instance of domestic abuse, such as if a man slaps his wife, if the perpetrator apologised afterwards.

Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish prime minister), has said Liz Truss is showing “genuine engagement” with the Northern Ireland protocol problem and wants a negotiated solution.

Speaking on RTE, Martin said:

I had a positive and warm meeting with Liz Truss when we met the weekend of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.

I did, to be fair, detect a genuine engagement and a wish to get this issue resolved.

I think she would prefer a negotiated solution and the subsequent meeting between Liz Truss and Ursula von der Leyen [European Commission presiden] went well also and I think in many respects it’s about getting this into a process between the European Union and the United Kingdom to get this issue resolved once and for all, not least because of the issues [like] the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis.

Europe and United Kingdom need to be acting together on that.

Really the protocol should not be an issue causing that degree of distress in the relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary and leading Boris Johnson supporter, has accused Liz Truss of throwing Kwasi Kwarteng “under a bus” in her interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg this morning. (See 9.53am.)

If Dorries thinks that Johnson was too loyal, she might want to read Andrew Gimson’s new book about him, Boris Johnson: The Rise and Fall of a Troublemaker at Number 10. Dorries was one of Johnson’s early supporters when he ran for the Tory leadership, and she has always said that she likes him because he never patronised her in the way that people like David Cameron did. But Gimson reveals that in private Johnson was not always complimentary about his most loyal supporters.

Johnson is said, when shown the list of his first seventy parliamentary supporters, to have exclaimed: ‘For fuck’s sake go and find me some sensible people!’

Many Guardian readers will agree with Gimson’s verdict on Johnson in the book – “a vile, disgusting human being”. But it was one of Andrew Gimson’s sons who said that. Gimson himself, who has already written one frequently-updated biography of Johnson, has made a career out of arguing that the liberal intelligensia has underestimated Johnson’s talents and appeal. He is at it again in this volume which, while ultimately unconvincing (Sonia Purnell explains why here), is nevertheless thought-provoking, exceptionally well written and informed by a deep knowledge of political history.

Tories face large protest at party conference

Jessica Murray

A large crowd of protesters has gathered in Birmingham’s Victoria square, around the corner from where the Conservative party conference is taking place.

Rail union boss Mick Lynch, who is due to address the crowd this afternoon, said the rising cost of mortgages could mean “we have people on reasonable incomes facing homelessness in the future”. He went on:

You see all around you ordinary men and women who are desperate for a pay increase. I’m worried our communities are going to be impoverished, and if we don’t stand up to that it will be too late to stop this juggernaut of the right wing destroying our communities and creating division.

The government has to be stopped because they have an agenda which nobody voted for in this country.

Police had to step in keep back angry protesters as business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg walked to the conference via the edge of the protest site. (See 1.32pm.)

“We’d like a change of government, and we want more of a focus on policies that support everyday people rather than just the rich,” said Brianna, a protester from Birmingham who was with her three children, including five-year-old Dilly who was holding a placard saying “I want a better prime minister”.

Jacob Rees-Mogg was booed loudly by hundreds of protesters in Birmingham, PA Media reports. PA says:

The business secretary was escorted by several police officers as he walked across Victoria Square, where demonstrators had gathered to vent their anger at the Government as the Tory conference gets under way in the city.

The crowd pursued him, jeering and booing, with some shouting “Tory scum”.

Demonstrators furious at Liz Truss’s economic plan are carrying signs reading “unelected, unaccountable, unhinged” and “wages up, bills down, Tories out”.

UPDATE: Here is some video footage from Birmingham Live’s Rhi Storer.