Labour conference live: Rayner takes to stage after defending government in freebies row with ‘all MPs do it’
Angela Rayner says she has broken no rules on accepting political donations
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Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is due to speak at the Labour party conference after defending the government over freebies accepted by senior ministers.
Ms Rayner told the BBC on Sunday morning that gifts and donations were “a factor in our political life”, adding: “MPs have accepted gifts and donations for years. All MPs do it”.
She said she had accepted donations to help her stand as deputy leader and that she had not broken any rules by accepting a free New York holiday stay last year from donor Lord Alli.
Ms Rayner will be the first cabinet minister to deliver a speech at the Labour party conference in Liverpool. She will focus on her plans for housing, promising decent homes for all and a kick-started programme of building.
Sir Keir Starmer and his chief of staff Sue Gray are also facing a deepening row over football freebies after it was revealed yesterday that Sir Keir shared a corporate box at Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday with a powerful lobbyist who backed plans for a breakaway Super League.
The Independent’s political team will be reporting throughout the day from the Labour party conference in Liverpool.
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When is Angela Rayner due to speak at Labour conference?
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is due to take to the stage at Labour conference at 11.25am.
In the first speech by a cabinet minister at the conference, Ms Rayner will focus on the government’s plans for house building.
In comments ahead of the speech, Ms Rayner said Labour have “inherited a Tory housing crisis” and that her government will take “a wave of bold action to not only build the housing our country needs and boost social and affordable housing, but to ensure all homes are decent, safe and warm”.
She will announce that the government will consult on a new Decent Homes Standard for social and private renters.
Labour will also press ahead with Tory legislation, known as Awaab’s law, which sets timescales for social landlords to remedy problems such as damp and mould.
Rayner: New law to boost workers’ rights will be introduced next month
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has said the government would introduce new legislation intended to give workers more rights next month.
The government is trying to balance demands from trade unions, who traditionally fund the governing Labour Party, and business leaders, who are concerned about some of the changes.
The Employment Rights Bill will include measures such as prohibiting zero-hour contracts, with about 1 million people in Britain on employment contracts that do not specify a minimum number of hours they can work and pay only for the hours they are on shift, and outlawing fire and rehire tactics.
Labour has also pledged to make parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal available from the first day on the job, although probation periods would remain in place.
“We’ll be putting the legislation forward next month,” Rayner told the BBC. “People will see better workers’ rights, the most improved workers’ rights for a generation.”
The government has promised to produce legislation within 100 days of the July national election. Some businesses say it is unclear what the government is planning.
Rachel Reeves says workers benefit from being in the office
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that workers benefit from coming into the office and working together.
When asked about working from home in an interview with The Times, Ms Reeves said: “I think I lead by example. The first weekend after Labour won the election, I turned up in the Treasury straight after I was appointed by Keir as chancellor and worked through the evening.
“Then we were all in the office all day Saturday, all day Sunday. We weren’t doing it on Zoom... I do think people coming together and working together collaboratively promotes ideas.”
Rachel Reeves explains clothes donation as help from a good friend during election campaign
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has explained why she accepted donations for clothes in an interview with The Sunday Times.
Ms Reeves had accepted £7,500 from a donor, Juliet Rosenfield, for clothes. She said she accepted the donation from a “good friend” who wanted to make sure that she looked professional during the election campaign.
She said: “I know for some readers that will sound a bit odd, and I totally get that. It’s not something that I plan to do now we’re in government. But it was how a friend wanted to help me in the election and I really appreciated that, as I am not massively into clothes and shopping.”
Speaking ahead of Labour conference, Ms Reeves said she wanted to “bring stability back” to the UK and “create the environment where businesses invest”.
She said businesses had nothing to fear from Labour’s push to strengthen workers’ rights. “We have been, and will continue to, consult extensively with businesses on them. We said that we’re going to be the most pro-growth government ever, but we believe being pro-business and pro-worker are two sides of the same coin.”
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has been forced to defend using a Labour peer’s donation money to have a 40th birthday party.
Ms Phillipson said that the 40th birthday event was a work event and was not a personal occasion.
She described the event, saying: “I was turning 40, I thought it was a good opportunity to get people together in a professional context. So it was journalists, trade unionists, education people, MPs and shadow cabinet.”
Ms Phillipson faced criticism for declaring two donations from Labour peer Lord Alli, totalling £14,000, as for “a number of events, including on behalf of the shadow education team”.
Education secretary defends decision to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the government would offer “hope and optimism” but it had to take difficult decisions such as stripping winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners.
She told Sky News this morning: “I take absolutely no relish in the fact that we’ve had to make this decision.
“It was not a decision that we expected to make ... Look, there was that huge gap in the public finances, £22 billion.
“The Tories knew that. They called an election, they walked away, and they left it to somebody else to sort out.
“We will fix it, by the way. We will sort this. We will get our economy back on a much firmer footing and we will deliver some hope and optimism about the difference that we can make.”
Rayner denies breaking rules over New York holiday
Angela Rayner has denied breaking Commons rules over declaring a stay in a New York flat owned by Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli.
The Deputy Prime Minister told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I don’t believe I broke any rules.
“I had the use of the apartment and I disclosed that I had the use of the apartment.
“In fact, I think I was overly transparent because I think it was important despite it being a personal holiday because that person, as a friend, had already donated to me in the past for my deputy leadership.”
The Sunday Times had published a story saying that Ms Rayner had appeared to break the rules by failing to declare that a friend joined her on the holiday.
Ms Rayner stayed at the $2.5m apartment in Manhattan over the festive period last year.
Starmer comes out fighting on gifts row after lobbyist revelation and promises ‘no new austerity’
Sir Keir Starmer has defended his gift taking insisting that it is transparency that matters in two eve of conference interviews.
After taking £107,000 in gifts since 2019, more than two and a half times more than any other MP, the Labour leader was challenged on whether he was being hypocritical after criticising Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak for the same.
He responded: “Rules matter. Transparency matters.”
“My criticism was actually more about Johnson than Sunak, because I don’t think [Sunak] needs to take donations.”
He said: “I’ve reiterated that this side of the election people are entitled to see whether you’ve taken gifts, and if so, what are they for?”
He has recently accepted the donation of a box at Arsenal so he can watch matches there without security concerns and remains unrepentant.
“Now that is a gift but I think accepting that is more understandable. If I insisted on going in the stands, that would cost the taxpayer more money through extra security.”
The prime minister said “people will judge me on delivery” not gifts.
Starmer claims ‘transparency’ is key as it emerges he and Gray accepted more freebies
Keir Starmer has opened the Labour conference with a defence of his gift taking
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has defended Right to Buy but said that there needs to be a fairer system to make sure that housing stock isn’t depleted.
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Rayner said: “We’re consulting to have a fair system that says if you have lived in a home for a long time.. you can get a discount. But it has to be balanced against depleting housing stock.”
She said she would take “blockages” out of the house building system to kick start thousands of new homes. “I want safe and secure good houses that are built but also I’m going to take away some of these blockages that exist”, she explained.
Ms Rayner also said that Labour will be delivering “the most improved workers rights for a generation”.
Ms Rayner will be delivering the opening speech at Labour conference this evening, focused on her plans for safe and decent housing standards.
Angela Rayner defends Labour against freebie allegations
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has said she “promised nothing” to Labour peer and donor Lord Alli and “gave him nothing” in exchange for donations.
She explained the clothing donations she had received by saying that people wanted to support her. “These are individual donations, no one’s been given millions, billions of pounds contracts,” Ms Rayner said on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Asked about Sir Keir and Sue Gray’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur and alleged infighting in No 10, Ms Rayner said: “I do not see this caricature that we are somehow all fighting over mansions or are all at loggerheads with each other. Actually we are all really focused on making sure that we deliver. That’s what people are going to ask in a few years time.”
She defended saying Ms Gray saying “she has been doing an incredible job”, and criticised a “demonisation” of her in the media.
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