Health secretary is due to speak at the Labour conference after announcing plans for an ‘online hospital’ aimed at cutting waiting times

Good morning. Keir Starmer is delivering his speech to the Labour conference later, and it is arguably the biggest personal fightback opportunity he will get this year. Pippa Crerar has written up the slim overnight briefing we got about the speech from Labour. But a conference speech is primarily just a rhetorical event; a budget is a fiscal event, and a policy event, and that is why the most important moment for Labour between now and the end of the year is the budget on 26 November.

Starmer will address delegates with the media already braced for big tax rises this autumn, prompted by what Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, told the conference yesterday. Some of the papers are focusing on the general likelihood of tax increases.

And Whitehall sources told the Daily Mail that the Treasury was examining options for adding VAT to services that are currently exempt – with private healthcare and financial services said to be in the firing line.

Putting VAT on private healthcare could raise £2bn for the Treasury, but would hit up to 8m middle-class families.

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Qatari and Egyptian mediators reportedly met with Hamas on Monday evening but response is so far unknown

Hamas said it will discuss Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza internally and with other Palestinian factions before giving a response. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has already backed the plan, but it remains unclear whether Hamas will agree – or when it might issue its reply.

The proposal demands that Hamas effectively surrender and disarm in return for an end to fighting, humanitarian aid, and the promise of reconstruction in Gaza. The territory has been devastated by the war, with the death toll now at more than 66,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Welcome president @realDonaldTrump’s commitment to end the war in Gaza. Encourage all parties to now seize this opportunity.

The EU stands ready to contribute.

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