• David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has announced plans to appoint a special envoy for nature for the first time, in a major speech in which he also said the threat posed by the climate crisis was “more fundamental” than the threat posed by terrorism, or autocratic states. (See 1.35pm.)

• Angela Eagle, the border security minister, has struggled in interviews to defend the large number of “freebies” accepted by Keir Starmer before he became PM. (See 1.32pm.)

• Hollie Ridley, an ally of Keir Starmer, has been appointed Labour’s new general secretary.

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Here is Pippa Crerar and Peter Walker’s analysis of where the Lib Dems go next after their party conference.

And here’s an extract.

As an election strategy, it was simple but hugely effective: combat the usual lack of attention for a smaller party with images of a wetsuit-clad or Zumba-dancing Davey, with each stunt linked the party’s core policy areas of the NHS and care, sewage, and the cost of living.

“In other elections, when we did get airtime we’d be asked about Labour or the Tories, or why we were so useless,” another party insider says. “This time we were asked about our policies.”

Going from 15 MPs to 72 was a dramatic vindication of the strategy, but as Davey closes a gleeful Lib Dem conference in Brighton, some in the party are wondering whether more of the same will work again.

One thing is clear: for now, the tight policy focus remains – as do the stunts. On Saturday, Davey arrived at Brighton marina on a jetski. Later in the conference he accepted a challenge to recite the names of all of his MPs while riding the rollercoaster on the city’s pier.

Some Lib Dems express private worry about this, wanting the party to focus also on areas that distinguish them from Labour, for example on Brexit and a suite of relatively radical tax policies in the election manifesto.

But, for now, Davey seems invulnerable, the beneficiary of an image revamp in which his team sought to highlight the empathy that comes with his role as a carer for his disabled teenage son, and his inherent sense of fun and mischief.

Keir Starmer has restated his promise to allow MPs a free vote on a private member’s bill on assisted dying.

Speaking to reporters in Rome yesterday, where he was asked if he stood by the promise he made to Dame Esther Rantzen, the campaigner who has terminal cancer, to allow a vote on changing the law, Starmer replied:

I gave her my word that we would make time for this with a private member’s bill and I repeat that commitment. I made it to her personally and I meant it, and we will.

The MPs who came in the top seven in the private member’s ballot, which is high enough to ensure any bill they present gets time for a full debate, have not yet said what subject they will choose for their legislation.

The Labour MP Jake Richards, who came 11th in the ballot, has said he will bring forward an assisted dying bill if no one else does. But campaigners would prefer one of the higher-placed MPs in the ballot to take it up.

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is telling TV bosses to employ more working-class people, and to use more production companies based outside London.

She will argue that TV is “one of the most centralised and exclusive industries in the UK” and that this matters because “who tells the story determines the story that is told”.

Speaking to the Royal Television Society’s London Convention this afternoon, according to extracts released in advance, Nandy is saying:

Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not. And if you’ve moved jobs and people and content, but the heads of departments and commissioners are still in an office in London, do something about it.

Eight per cent – the proportion of working class people in TV. Twenty three per cent – the proportion of commissions made by companies based outside of London. Thirty per cent – the fall in trust in media over the last decade. None of this is inevitable.

Frankly, if you don’t know why the film industry is so attracted to the beauty of Sunderland, or why the arts sector is buzzing in Bradford, or the potential to TV of the Welsh Valleys, it is most likely because you’ve never been there. And you have no right to call yourself a public service broadcaster.

I know it isn’t easy. The costs are short term, the payoff is long term. But there is so much at stake and it is my belief that an industry that belongs to the nation is an industry that will not just survive but thrive. That is what I want to see. We will do everything we can to put rocket boosters under your efforts, but that effort in the first place belongs to you all.

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Rachel Reeves has been given the use of Dorneywood, the 21-room Buckinghamshire mansion usually reserved for the second-most senior minister in government, instead of the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, Kiran Stacey reports.

The Tories have dismissed Ed Davey’s claim that his party is best able to provide an effective opposition to Labour. (See 3.17pm.) In a response to Davey’s conference speech, Richard Fuller, the Conservative chair, said:

This confirms that Ed Davey will not hold this Labour government, his ‘pen pals’ [see 3.11pm] to account.

The Liberal Democrats are supposed to be an opposition party, but all their MPs do is agree with everything that Labour want to do.

Only the Conservative party will provide an effective opposition to the Labour government.

Labour has confirmed that its conference slogan will be Change Begins. (See 2.20pm.) Commenting on today’s political cabinet (a cabinet meeting devoted to party political matters, not government matters), a Labour spokesperson said:

Political cabinet then turned to a discussion of the Labour party conference and its strapline: ‘Change Begins’.

The prime minister said that stabilising the economy was the number one priority and that tough decisions were necessary now to deliver on our promise of change …

[Ministers] discussed the contrast between the Labour party conference which is focused on national renewal and a Conservative conference that will show that they have not learnt the lessons from their defeat.

Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, has claimed Labour’s “ideological approach” to the climate crisis will be counterproductive. Responding to Ed Miliband’s speech this morning (see 11.43am), she said:

Under the Conservatives the UK built more offshore wind than any other country bar China and became one of the first countries to come off coal. We’re already a global leader in tackling climate change, but heaping costs on families in Britain won’t want to make other countries follow our lead.

Businesses, energy experts, and the unions have said that Labour’s ideological approach to energy will raise bills and send businesses abroad to countries with higher emissions. That’s worse for the British economy and worse for climate change overall

Hollie Ridley has been appointed as Labour’s new general secretary, the party said this afternoon. The announcement came after Ridley was interviewed by the national executive committee which “concluded that she was the outstanding candidate to succeed David Evans”, the outgoing general secretary, the party said.

Ridley was Labour’s general election field director at the election. She transformed how the party organised, Labour said. “Innovation was central to her approach, including introducing the first ever fully digital polling day as well as overseeing the party’s voter persuasion and targeting strategy,” it said.

Ridley, who joined the party’s staff in 2011, as a trainee organiser, said:

The Labour party is the greatest vehicle for social progress in British history. But we can only do that when we win.

Keir [Starmer] has shown that the Labour party is at its best when it is outward facing and focussed on the needs of the British people. I look forward to working with him to deliver that in the years ahead.

Starmer said:

Hollie is an outstanding leader who played a critical role in the general election campaign. She brings experience, expertise and a clear vision about what is needed for continued electoral success.

We won the general election as a changed Labour party and I look forward to working closely with Hollie to remain true to that promise as we change Britain.

Ridley first got involved in Labour politics in her home town of Dagenham, where she was involved in challenging the BNP, Labour said.

This is from Luke Akehurst, a Labour MP who sits on the NEC.

Davey said Lib Dem values were needed across the world too.

To resist the rise of the extremists – not just at home but around the world.

With Vladimir Putin waging his brutal war in Ukraine.

With the terrible humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Hamas’s terrorist atrocities on October 7th.

Hostages still held captive. The continuing illegal occupations and the threat of regional escalation.

With the looming spectre of a second Trump presidency. How I hope and pray to see Kamala Harris defeat him this November.

At a time of such instability and uncertainty, it is our values that must prevail.

Decency. Compassion. Community. Respect for the rule of law.

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Values that have always been at the heart of our party.

Our party believes that basic rights and dignity are the birthright of every individual.

Our party celebrates Britain’s diversity as a great strength.

Our party knows that our country thrives when it is open and outward-looking …

When it stands tall as a force for good in the world, instead of shrinking from it and turning inwards.

And crucially, our party stays focused on tackling the real problems in people’s lives –

From health and care to crime and the cost of living –

Instead of looking for scapegoats or conspiracy theories as a shortcut to electoral success.

Our values are the antidote to the populism and extremism that threatens our communities, threatens the traditions we cherish, and threatens the British way of life.

You are the antidote to hate and division

And Davey ended by saying the Lib Dems could use those values to build a brighter future.

Let’s offer real hope.

Let’s build a brighter future.

And let’s keep on winning, so we can make it happen!

Davey claims the role of the Liberal Democrats has never been clearer.

I believe our role in British politics – the Liberal Democrats’ purpose in British politics – has never been clearer than it is today.

Not just to vanquish what’s left of the Conservative Party. Not just to take their remaining seats.

And not just to be the careful scrutineers of Labour’s actions.

But after what we saw on our streets this summer, I have never been more certain of the need for a party with our principles and our values, front and centre of the political debate.

He says the rioting this summer was carried out by “a small minority of thugs resorted to appalling racism and violence”. They were not protests, he says.

He goes on:

It’s absolutely right that anyone involved in those riots now faces the full force of the law.

And let me say to all of you from Muslim and ethnic minority communities, who watched in fear – as those awful scenes unfolded –

Who were forced to ask whether it was safe to step out onto your own streets, to go into your own city centres, or to pray at your own mosques –

We stand with you. You should always feel safe. And we will work with you to tackle the appalling scourge of Islamophobia and racism.

Davey turns to the Tories.

And the Conservatives are already showing that they are unfit for opposition too.

It’s hardly surprising I suppose.

Expecting that lot to hold the government to account on the NHS or the economy would be like putting a bull in charge of repairing the china shop.

I mean, who would leave the job of upholding ethical standards in government to the gang who put Boris Johnson in Number 10?

And when the country needs an Opposition to scrutinise next month’s Budget, it’s not a job for the Tory geniuses who cheered Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng to the rafters, is it?

Just look at the quartet heading to Birmingham in a fortnight to audition for the job of Conservative leader.

They really are scraping the bottom of the barrel with these new TV reality shows, aren’t they?

And he says it is now the job of his party to stop them ever returning to power.

The modern Conservative Party is so out of touch with so many of their former voters – so far removed from the real lives of ordinary people –

That it no longer merits a place at the top table of our politics.

We can’t let them back – after all the damage they’ve done to our great country.

We can’t let them off the hook – after the chaos and misery they’ve caused.

Friends, our job is to consign the Conservative Party to the history books.

The Lib Dems made a good start at the election, he says, winning 60 seats from the Tories.

Voters who believe in the fundamental British values of fairness, decency, freedom, and respect for the rule of law –

And who no longer see those values reflected in the party of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss –

But who found those values strong in the Liberal Democrats.

So friends, on the fourth of July we made a great start. But now let’s go further.

Let’s finish the job.

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Davey says the Lib Dems will hold Labour to account, champion practical solutions on issues like health, care, the cost of living, sewage, nature and the climate.

And they will oppose Labour if it is wrong – as it was over winter fuel payments, he says.

Davey goes on:

Back when I was first elected in 1997, Paddy Ashdown adapted the serenity prayer for a better, more constructive approach to opposition.

Paddy’s Serenity Prayer went like this:

“May we have the power to oppose what we must oppose.

Courage to support what we must support.

And the wisdom to know the difference.”