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.
Angela Rayner defends Labour government over donations row saying ‘all MPs do it’
Watch live as Angela Rayner addresses Labour Party conference amid donations row
Angela Rayner shown public reaction to Labour donations row in awkward moment on live TV
If he fails to get a grip on his government, Starmer’s five missions will become impossible
Starmer claims ‘transparency’ is key as it emerges he and Gray accepted more football freebies
Bridget Phillipson says 40th birthday paid for by Lord Alli was a work event
Bridget Phillipson has suggested her 40th birthday event, which was paid for by Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli, was a work event.
Asked about two events paid for by the Labour peer, the education secretary told Sky News: “The first event was my birthday – 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.”
The event, which cost thousands of pounds, took place in a “work context”, Ms Phillipson added.
She said: “My own family didn’t come to that. I celebrated my actual 40th birthday with my family, we went for a pizza, I celebrated with my kids.“This was where I got together colleagues, journalists, trade unionists, education people.”
Sir Keir facing criticism over Spurs football freebie
Sir Keir Starmer and his chief of staff Sue Gray are facing a deepening row over football freebies following a story in The Mail on Sunday.
It has emerged that the prime minister and Ms Gray enjoyed a corporate box at Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday, with the tickets reportedly funded by Spurs.
Ms Gray was pictured sitting next to Katie Perrior, the founder and chair of iNHouse communications, which worked on the plan to form a football Super League.
Tory MP John Glen reacted to the revelations by telling The Mail on Sunday: “Is there no freebie that Sir Keir will not take?”, adding: “In view of Labour’s plans for a new football regulator, his presence and that of Sue Gray is a clear conflict of interest.”
Angela Rayner to announce renters protections at Labour Party conference
Angela Rayner will announce a series of measures to protect renters from fire safety defects, damp and mould, and drive up housing standards in her speech at Labour Party conference.
The Deputy Prime Minister will commit to “building homes fit for the future” in Sunday’s speech, which will open Labour’s first annual gathering since winning the general election.
Before her speech, Ms Rayner – who is also Housing Secretary – said: “Just because Britain isn’t working at the moment, it doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed. We will deliver for working people and, in doing so, show that politics can change lives.
“We’ve inherited a Tory housing crisis. This Labour Government is taking 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.”
The package is expected to include a new law aimed at ensuring landlords respond to reports of hazards like damp and mould swiftly.
The proposed legislation, Awaab’s law, is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died as a direct result of exposure to mould in the social home his family rented in Rochdale.
Labour estimates it would support tenants in 746,000 homes with reported serious hazards to secure faster repairs, reducing health and safety risks.
Ms Rayner will speak of plans to accelerate efforts to fix unsafe cladding on high rise buildings across the UK, just weeks after the conclusion of the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
She is also expected to lay out Labour’s intention to consult on a new decent homes standard for all social and private rented homes.
How a school mock election launched the careers of Britain’s most powerful sisters
When Neil Kinnock’s Labour suffered a humiliating shock defeat to John Major’s Tories in 1992, he would not have known that a school mock election coinciding with the national vote would launch two of his party’s future stars.
At Cator Park School for Girls, in Beckenham, a 13-year-old Rachel Reeves decided to run in the mock election. Her campaign manager was her sister Ellie, who was a year younger.
Now Rachel is chancellor of the exchequer, while Ellie is chair of the Labour Party. Both are pivotal figures in Keir Starmer’s top team and were hand-picked by him to change the country and make the party a winning machine.
Political editor David Maddox reports:
How a school election launched the careers of Britain’s most powerful sisters
Exclusive: Labour chair Ellie Reeves and chancellor Rachel Reeves have become the most powerful British sibling duo since David and Ed Miliband served in Gordon Brown’s cabinet
‘Out of touch’ Starmer failing to deliver change in Scotland, says Flynn
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has said that Labour is failing to deliver the change it promised voters in Scotland at the UK general election.
Speaking before Labour’s party conference starts on Sunday, Mr Flynn said Sir Keir Starmer has shown he is “completely out of touch” with people north of the border by imposing further austerity.
He said the SNP is ready to work with Labour to “deliver the step change people in Scotland deserve”.
Sir Keir has faced criticism over his Government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments and this week was caught up in a row over clothing donations.
Mr Flynn said: “The Labour Party has only been in office for three months but it is already plummeting in the polls as a result of breaking so many promises to voters.
“Sir Keir Starmer has shown he is completely out of touch with people in Scotland by imposing billions of pounds of austerity cuts on pensioners, low income families and public services, while milking the system for all its worth to get £100,000 of designer clothes and freebies for himself.”
He described this as “shockingly bad judgment” and said the Labour government is “failing to deliver the change it promised voters in Scotland”.
On Friday, it emerged that the Prime Minister and his most senior ministers will no longer accept donations to pay for their clothes.
Mr Flynn said: “Governments are defined by the choices they make. The Labour Party’s political choice to cut the winter fuel payment for 860,000 Scottish pensioners, push thousands of Scottish children into poverty with the two child benefit cap, and to continue Tory cuts to public services stains its reputation and shows its election promises were worthless.
“The SNP wants to work with Labour to deliver the step change people in Scotland deserve. That means an end to austerity and real investment to improve our NHS, boost household incomes, deliver affordable homes, and build a strong economy that works for ordinary families.”
He added: “The time for warm words is over and patience is fast running out. People in Scotland want to see real change now.”
Labour doubles down on pensioner winter fuel cuts
Keir Starmer’s top team is unapologetic about the cut to the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners as the party chair warned “we have to get the money from somewhere” on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
Rising star in the cabinet Ellie Reeves, who is due to open the conference on Sunday, has insisted the government shouldn’t “paper over the cracks” as she admitted she understood that the party would face a wave of emotion if pensioners die this winter in cold homes.
Her warning, in an exclusive interview with The Independent, comes as Sir Keir prepares to square up again to the left of the party trying to embarrass him by demanding the reversal of the winter fuel cut.
Political editor David Maddox reports:
Labour doubles down on winter fuel cuts: ‘Money has got to come from somewhere’
Exclusive: Labour chair Ellie Reeves speaks to The Independent about taking on Momentum, why change was needed to win the election, keeping pensioner winter fuel cuts and the need to build more prisons
Recap: Watch as Nigel Farage pledges to vet ‘extremists’ from Reform UK membership
Eminem, fireworks, and the cult of Nigel Farage: Inside Reform UK’s party conference
Reform UK’s conference had the buzz of a party punching well above its weight. And that is exactly what the party’s leadership is attempting to do. Nigel Farage and other senior figures spent today’s conference – the largest it has ever held – trying to persuade its members, and the wider public, that it is a credible electoral force.
They even went so far as to suggest Mr Farage could be the next prime minister.
With just five sitting MPs, the most the party has ever secured in its short history, it’s certainly a bold ambition.
Political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:
Eminem, fireworks, and the cult of Nigel Farage: Inside Reform UK’s party conference
Despite the seriousness of its plans for the next five years, the party made no attempt to tone down the theatrics – or the dog whistle politics
Feel-good factor of Labour’s landslide win in July’s general election already begins to wear off
The feel-good factor of Labour’s landslide win in July’s general election has already begun to wear off, as Sir Keir Starmer battles a backlash over donations of clothing to him and his wife and damaging briefing revealing splits within his No 10 operation.
There is also lingering anger over the decision to strip winter fuel payments from about 10 million pensioners, with union calls at conference to reverse the move.
With the Labour conference taking place against a backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters also gathered on Liverpool’s waterfront to coincide with the start of the party’s event.
The prime minister arrived with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and was met by a small group of cheering activists ahead of the formal start of the conference on Sunday.
He said the conference would show “how we’re fixing the foundations and rebuilding our country”.
Sir Keir said the gathering was “our biggest conference ever and the first one in 15 years with Labour in government”, adding “change has started”.
Recap: Watch as Starmer defends accepting free Arsenal tickets
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