Angela Rayner strikes emotional chord with Labour members in tub-thumping conference speech amid gifts scandal

News analysis: Angela Rayner has lifted Starmer’s gloom as Labour’s conference opens in Liverpool

Angela Rayner may have floundered on the BBC this morning while talking about gifts from wealthy donors but her opening speech to the Labour conference injected some life into what was threatening to be a despondent affair.

The dark clouds gathering over Liverpool as activists arrived today seemed symbolic of a sense of foreboding about the state of the new Labour government.

The party is still less than three months on from the exhilaration of that massive election victory over the Tories.

What should have been a celebration of a historic victory has been overshadowed by rows about Sue Gray, Lord Alli, football tickets, holidays in New York and clothes for the prime minister’s wife.

Rayner addresses conference (PA)

The idea that Labour ministers so early into a government are behaving like pigs at the trough, much like the Tories, has set a jarring note for the whole event.

Rayner’s suggestion with Laura Kuenssberg that it was OK to take gifts because “all MPs do it” hardly sat well with the “change” narrative the party promised voters.

There is also a concern among unions and people on the left that Starmer is leading them to a new age of austerity after winter fuel payments were removed from 10 million pensioners – and with Rachel Reeves preparing to wield the axe to sort out the £22 billion black hole in public finances.

So it was important that Rayner came out from the get-go with a robust, tub-thumping speech.

After fighting back the tears, she delivered that in spades, with a celebration of the election victory and a succession of reforms for which the left has been clamouring, whether it be rights for workers and renters or building new homes.

Lines of worry on members’ faces in the auditorium visibly turned into smiles.

The cheers which greeted her speech spoke of the optimism of Rayner’s delivery of an optimistic message and struck an emotional chord with her audience.

It is now up to her fellow ministers to build on the sense of hope Rayner has brought to proceedings. It may still prove a significant challenge.