Sir Keir Starmer and his chief of staff Sue Gray are facing a deepening row over football freebies as the Labour conference begins in Liverpool.
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.
Embattled Sue Gray was also in the box, with the tickets funded by Spurs. She was pictured sitting next to Katie Perrior, the founder of a communications company that worked on the effort to form the League.
Labour ministers have been trying to move past negative stories about donations, with Sir Keir, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves all deciding to no longer take money to fund free clothes.
Sir Keir admitted on Sunday that it was his job to get a grip on leaks from Downing Street in an interview with The Observer.
He said: “It is my job to do something about that and I accept that responsibility. And that just damages everybody.”
Key Points
- Starmer’s approval rating drops to lowest ever ahead of Labour conference
- Sir Keir arrives ahead of Labour’s conference that will show ‘how we’re rebuilding our country’
- Labour try to move on from clothes donation row
- Farage wraps up Reform conference saying: ‘There is nothing we cannot achieve’
- Starmer, Rayner and Reeves will no longer accept donations for clothes
- Chancellor reportedly considering increasing alcohol duty
Angela Rayner to announce renters protections at Labour Party conference
07:00
Tara Cobham
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
06:00
Tara Cobham
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:
‘Out of touch’ Starmer failing to deliver change in Scotland, says Flynn
05:00
Tara Cobham
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
04:00
Tara Cobham
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:
Recap: Watch as Nigel Farage pledges to vet ‘extremists’ from Reform UK membership
03:00
Tara Cobham
Eminem, fireworks, and the cult of Nigel Farage: Inside Reform UK’s party conference
02:00
Tara Cobham
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:
Feel-good factor of Labour’s landslide win in July’s general election already begins to wear off
01:00
Tara Cobham
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
Sunday 22 September 2024 00:00
Tara Cobham
Starmer promises to protect public services from future austerity cuts
Saturday 21 September 2024 23:25
Tara Cobham
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to protect public services from swingeing cuts, as he made a bid to move on from rows over donations and strife at No 10, after arriving at the Labour Party conference.
The Prime Minister said his Government was not “going down the road of austerity”, like that pursued by David Cameron’s administration.
It may signal that the Treasury has found new ways to free up funds, after the halt on spending to address a £22bn black hole in the public finances announced not long after Labour came to power.
David Lynch reports:
Starmer wants Government to be compared with Labour’s post-war administration
Saturday 21 September 2024 23:24
Tara Cobham
Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted his Government to be compared with Clement Attlee’s transformational post-war administration.
The 1945 Labour government set up the NHS and helped rebuild the UK after the devastation of the Second World War.
The Prime Minister told Labour activists he wanted his plans for the country to be viewed with the same sense of pride.
He also joked that since entering No 10 he had bonded with Larry the cat because they both had experience “chasing pests out of Downing Street”.
At a reception at the Labour conference in Liverpool he said: “In less than 14 weeks, we’ve achieved more than the Tories did in 14 years. We’ve ended the strikes in the NHS so our doctors are back in the surgeries, carrying out operations, getting waiting lists down.
“We’ve set up a national wealth fund to get the investment we need into our country. We have launched GB Energy, that publicly owned company.
“We talked about this for years, now we are doing it, to generate the next generation of clean power.
“We have begun to end no-fault evictions.
“We’ve reformed planning, we’ve got rid of the ban on onshore wind, we are moving ahead with solar.
“Buses across the country will be better regulated, with fares and routes regulated by local people and railways are coming back into public ownership.”
He added that Labour had a “10-year plan for the NHS so we get it back on its feet and fit for the future so that people will, in years to come, look back with the same pride at the 2024 Labour Government as they do the 1945 Labour government”.
The Government was also carrying out “the biggest levelling-up of workers’ rights in a generation”.
Drones seized by police for breaching Labour Party conference restrictions
Saturday 21 September 2024 23:23
Tara Cobham
Drones have been seized by police after they were flown in breach of airspace restrictions during the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Merseyside Police said they seized three drones on Saturday after a temporary airspace restriction covering much of Liverpool city centre was put in place.
The restriction means it is an offence for any unmanned aircraft to fly below 2,000 ft above sea level in the specified area between 10pm on September 20 and 5am on September 26, without the explicit permission of Merseyside Police.
In a post on social media, Merseyside Police said: “We seized three drones in Liverpool today, Saturday 21 September, as they were being flown in breach of restrictions put in place for the duration of the Labour Party conference taking place in the city this week.”
Drone users flying inside the restricted airspace that have not been granted permission could be prosecuted, as well as have their equipment seized and confiscated, police said.
Chief Inspector Iain Wyke, of protective security operations at Merseyside Police, said: “Our policing plans for the Labour Party conference are extensive and take into consideration land, sea and air.
“These airspace restrictions, like other security measures we will have in place such as road closures or patrols on the River Mersey, are aimed at keeping delegates and the wider public safe.”
He added: “Specialist resources, made up of Merseyside Police officers and officers from regional and national teams, including air support, will be in place for the duration of the conference.”
Anyone who wants to seek consideration to fly a drone in the restricted area must obtain permission from Merseyside Police by emailing drone.exemptions@merseyside.police.uk.
Keir Starmer had a plan to win the election, but no plan for government
Saturday 21 September 2024 23:00
Tara Cobham
Nobody had high expectations of this Labour government. That could have been one of its strengths: that people would accept it had taken over at a time when the public finances were in a bad way, and so any small improvement would be a welcome relief, earning generous approval from the voters.
But I am afraid Keir Starmer has blown it. He has taken people’s low expectations and said, in effect, that they were not low enough. It has become an established view – already – that the government has made a bad start, which means that a lot of the coverage of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, starting this weekend, will be organised around the question: Can he turn things around?
That such a question is being asked at this early stage is almost a guarantee that the answer is “No”.
John Rentoul writes:
In pictures: Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner arriving ahead of Labour conference
Saturday 21 September 2024 22:00
Tara Cobham
Starmer’s approval rating drops to lowest ever ahead of Labour conference
Saturday 21 September 2024 21:44
Tara Cobham
Sir Keir Starmer’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest ever ahead of his party’s first conference since coming into power, a new poll has revealed.
The prime minister’s net approval rating has plunged even further to -26 per cent, with a majority now disapproving of the way he is handling his job, according to Opinium’s lastest poll.
On the eve of the Labour Party Conference, which begins in Liverpool on Sunday, the research showed Sir Keir’s score is down 13 points from -13 a fortnight ago, standing at his lowest ever by 12 points.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has an almost equally low approval rating of -25 per cent.
By contrast, Rishi Sunak’s approval ratings have risen 5 points to -25 per cent, which has been stable for most of the post-election period, and Ed Davey’s ratings are relatively stable at +3 per cent.
Almost half of the public now have a more negative view of Starmer (45 per cent) and Labour (45 per cent) since they came into office.
Labour continues to lead on most issue areas, but has almost lost its lead on the economy, standing at only +1, down from +10 in July.
Will the chaos in Starmer’s government make his missions impossible?
Saturday 21 September 2024 21:00
Tara Cobham
For a party which won a stonking majority of 174 only two months ago, Labour’s annual conference starting this weekend would normally be a celebration. Yet Keir Starmer can’t allow more than a brief nod to his landslide victory, which already feels a long time ago.
Instead, he must use the Liverpool gathering to get his government back on track. In theory, Labour should be able to set a positive media agenda at the conference but it now needs to move on from revelations about Starmer’s £107,000 of freebies since 2019 and infighting among Downing Street aides, both of which have distracted the government.
Sue Gray, his chief of staff, should have ensured she did not earn more than the prime minister. Her lack of a political radar, coupled with Starmer’s similar background as a public servant rather than party political animal, has created an absence of political judgement at No 10.
Andrew Grice writes:
Recap: What did we learn from Farage’s Reform UK conference speech?
Saturday 21 September 2024 20:00
Tara Cobham
Full story: Starmer arrives at Labour conference with promise to rebuild UK
Saturday 21 September 2024 19:00
Tara Cobham
Sir Keir Starmer said Labour was “rebuilding our country”, as he arrived at his party’s conference intent on shifting attention away from rows over donations and internal No 10 infighting.
The Prime Minister said “change has started” as he arrived at the Liverpool conference centre.
But the feel-good factor of Labour’s landslide win in July’s general election has already begun to wear off, as Sir Keir battles a backlash over donations of clothing to him and his wife and damaging briefing revealing splits within his No 10 operation.
David Lynch reports:
Scotland’s first minister says he wants people to see independence as a solution to day-to-day challenges
Saturday 21 September 2024 18:04
Holly Bancroft
John Swinney has said he wants to make sure people see independence as the solution to day-to-day challenges as the SNP launches a new leaflet on the issue.
Scotland’s First Minister said the SNP wants to reach people who do not yet believe in independence as the party seeks to boost confidence and support for the idea.
Just over a decade after the independence referendum, Mr Swinney joined fellow MSPs and campaigners in Glasgow on Saturday for what the SNP describes as a national “day of action” by the party.
Mr Swinney said: “Ten years on from the independence referendum, people are thinking about the future of Scotland, and I want to make sure that message resonates throughout our country.
“So the SNP is embarking on a whole amount of campaigning activity to set out the advantages and the opportunities of independence to the people of Scotland.”
Asked whether there is much appetite for talk of independence when many people are more concerned about issues such as the cost-of-living crisis and day-to-day challenges, Mr Swinney said an independent Scotland could offer a solution to these.
He said: “My priority is to make sure that independence is viewed as the solution to the day-to-day challenges that people face in their lives.
“So if people are concerned, as I understand that people are, about the cost of living, it’s vital that they see independence as the solution to that particular challenge and that difficulty, so that’s an issue.”
‘Don’t compare Keir to Boris’ pleads minister as Abbott accuses PM of being ‘in pocket of millionaires’
Saturday 21 September 2024 17:30
Tara Cobham
Diane Abbott has accused Keir Starmer of being “in the pocket of millionaires” as senior party insiders fear that Labour is being put on trial over the freebies saga.
The claim by the veteran leftwing Labour MP, who Sir Keir’s allies attempted to block from standing in the recent election, has come amid growing unease over the influence of Lord Waheed Alli and the £107,000 of gifts received by the prime minister since 2019.
The row is threatening to derail what should be a triumphant Labour conference in Liverpool in the wake of the election victory in July.
Political editor David Maddox reports:
Saturday 21 September 2024 16:57
Holly Bancroft
Nigel Farage used his closing speech at Reform UK’s conference on Saturday to speek of the need to establish the party’s roots across the UK, announcing first a conference in Wales on November 8 at Newport’s Celtic Manor Hotel.
A November 9 conference in Exeter will follow, as will one on November 11 in the North East.
On November 30, Mr Farage said his deputy Richard Tice and others would host an event in Scotland.
Reform is eyeing up the Senedd, Wales’ Parliament, because the proportional voting system there makes it easier for the party to gain a greater number seats than at Westminster, where it won five constituencies in July’s general election.
The system has, in the past, benefitted Ukip, a party Mr Farage used to lead, and could stand to benefit his new party further as the voting system in Wales will be tilted towards a more proportional system at the next Senedd election.
Sir Keir arrives ahead of Labour’s conference that will show ‘how we’re rebuilding our country’
Saturday 21 September 2024 16:19
Tara Cobham
Sir Keir Starmer said Labour’s conference would show “how we’re fixing the foundations and rebuilding our country”.
Arriving at the conference centre in Liverpool alongside his deputy Angela Rayner, the Prime Minister said it was “our biggest conference ever and the first one in 15 years with Labour in government” adding “change has started”.
John Swinney ‘stunned’ at Prime Minister clothing donations row
Saturday 21 September 2024 15:56
Tara Cobham
Scotland’s First Minister has said he was “stunned” to hear that Sir Keir Starmer had accepted clothing donations.
John Swinney said that the prime minister has now done the right thing, after it emerged that he and his most senior ministers will no longer accept donations to pay for their clothes, but that it should never have happened in the first place.
He told the PA news agency: “I think, like most members of the public, my jaw dropped when I heard this story emerging. I just never, ever thought this happened. I just was stunned by it.
“So I’m not surprised they’re stopping doing it, because it’s completely ridiculous, and I certainly don’t think that this is the way that well-paid public servants should be operating.”
Asked whether the Prime Minister and senior ministers have done the right thing by saying they will no longer accept clothing he said: “Yes, but they shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place.”
Mr Swinney said he has never been offered donations of clothing.
Sir Keir says he has followed all the rules on accepting donations.
Reform to host Wales conference and regional events as it eyes up Senedd
Saturday 21 September 2024 15:45
Holly Bancroft
Reform UK is to hold events in Wales, Scotland and across the English regions, as it eyes up representation in the Senedd and town halls, Nigel Farage has said.
The Reform leader announced a Welsh conference, a Scottish gathering, and regional events in the North East and South West, as the party rounded off its national conference.
Mr Farage on Friday laid out a plan to professionalise the party, giving its members a stake in its ownership.
He also pointed to the Liberal Democrats’ campaigning success as a model to follow and said he hoped Reform could set up a similar local branch structure in the future.
Insisting upon the need for the party to professionalise in his closing conference speech on Saturday, Mr Farage said: “There is a limit to what the leadership team and the professional management structure can bring you.
“Yes, of course, we can make the big arguments. Yes, of course, we can make the news.
“Yes, of course, we can dominate social media in a way the other parties couldn’t even consider, and yes of course, with a small professional team we can put together unbelievable stage sets and conferences like this.
“But that only takes us so far.”
Labour MP pushes for Channel 4 to lead way for ban on gambling adverts
Saturday 21 September 2024 15:20
Holly Bancroft
Channel 4 is facing demands to stop running betting companies adverts ahead of attempts to bring in a full ban on the “harmful” commercials.
A letter from Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel has been sent to chief executive Alex Mahon, pushing for an end to accepting paid adverts from betting companies.
Mr Sobel has targeted Channel 4 because it is still in public ownership despite an attempt by Boris Johnson to sell it off.
The letter has arrived amid growing momentum behind demands to end betting company advertising to help tackle gambling addiction.
Read the exclusive from political editor David Maddox here:
Labour conference to promise ‘chaos’ of Tory rule never to be repeated
Saturday 21 September 2024 15:01
Holly Bancroft
Labour will tell members next week that change has “begun” and that the “chaos” of Tory rule must never be repeated.
Labour’s party conference begins in Liverpool on Sunday and, according to The Times, the conference slogan will be “change begins”.
Despite a positive offering at conference, there are signs things are not going well behind the scenes. One cabinet minister told the paper that the Downing Street operation was a “complete circus” and another said they were “extremely worried” about the impact of several weeks of negative press on the government’s approval ratings.
One senior Labour figure told The Times that the government needed to get a grip on bad headlines about donations for clothes and special advisor pay.
They said: “They just need to get a grip. We’re going into conference and all Keir is going to get asked about is taking freebies and infighting in Downing Street.”
Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s head of political strategy, has reportedly told the cabinet that conference week is “politically vital” for Labour. “The country has never needed renewal more,” he was reported as saying.
Diane Abbott suggests the Labour party is ‘in the pocket of millionaires’
Saturday 21 September 2024 14:03
Holly Bancroft
Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott has suggested on social media platform X that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party has “changed into an organisation whose leaders are in the pocket of millionaires”.
Ms Abbott tweeted a picture of Sir Keir on Saturday with the caption: “Ellie Reeves MP says ‘Labour’s GE victory was only possible because under Keir’s leadership we changed the party’ Changed it into an organisation whose leaders are in the pocket of millionaires?”
Ms Abbott, who was suspended from the party last year, had the Labour whip restored before the general election.
Sir Keir and other senior leaders within the Labour party have been facing criticism over accepting thousands of pounds in donations for clothes. Sir Keir, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves have all pledged to no longer take donations for clothing.
Nigel Farage wraps up Reform conference saying: ‘There is nothing we cannot achieve'
Saturday 21 September 2024 13:37
Holly Bancroft
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said that he has set out the “building blocks” that will help grow the party into a nation-wide election force.
He described Reform’s party conference as a “resounding success for this party”. In his closing address on Sunday, he added: “The first thing I think we’ve learnt, is we’ve learnt about organisation... there is a limit to what the leadership team and the management structure can give you. Yes of course we can bring the ideas, we can make the news, we can dominate social media... and we can bring together conferences like this. But that only takes us so far.”
Speaking about giving away his ownership of Reform, Mr Farage said he had given power to the members to grow the movement.
He reiterated the need for planning and professionalism to grow the party in different areas of the country, and establish campaigning groups and infrastructure in every area.
Mr Farage promised that the “sky is the limit for this party”, adding: “There is nothing we cannot achieve”.
He claimed the conference had been the “most joyous gathering of a political party, I reckon, that has ever happened in modern history”.
He said the key take away message from the conference was “optimism”.
Unite union will try to force vote on winter fuel allowance at Labour conference
Saturday 21 September 2024 13:02
Holly Bancroft
The union Unite will try to force a vote on reversing the government’s cuts to winter fuel allowance at the party’s conference.
The conference, which is being held in Liverpool, will start tomorrow. Unite has submitted a motion calling for “a vision where pensioners are not the first to face a new wave of cuts”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been under increasing pressure to scrap the plan to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has defended the move saying that “tough decisions” were necessary to stabilise the economy and boost growth. While the Unite vote will be politically inconvenient, it will not be binding.
Sir Keir is expected to meet with union general secretaries today in an effort to persuade them not to side against him on the fuel allowance vote.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering increasing alcohol duties in next month’s Budget, it has been reported
Saturday 21 September 2024 12:32
Holly Bancroft
In case you missed it..
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering increasing alcohol duties in next month’s Budget, it has been reported
Ms Reeves has not ruled out putting up tax on beer, wine and spirits as part of a plan to restore public finances.
She has been presented with forecasts that show that putting up alcohol duty would raise an extra £800m next year, the Telegraph reports.
Alcohol duty rises each year in line with inflation unless the chancellor decides to freeze it.
While the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation is set to be 2 per cent next year, industry sources told the paper that forecasts produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility point to a potential increase in duties by more than 6 per cent.
Nandy says government shares public’s priorities after clothing donations row
Saturday 21 September 2024 12:09
Holly Bancroft
Ministers have sought to end the perception they are leading “very different lives” to the public ahead of Labour’s party conference amid efforts to draw a line under a row about clothing donations to high-profile government figures.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said it was important to demonstrate the government’s priorities are “the country’s priorities” after it emerged on the eve of Labour’s annual gathering that clothing donations would no longer be accepted by the prime minister and his top brass.
Neither Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner nor Chancellor Rachel Reeves will accept such donations in the future.
Labour leaders are headed to Liverpool for their party conference, with Sir Keir due to speak on Tuesday.
Read more here:
Starmer’s popularity ratings will bounce back, Angela Rayner says
Saturday 21 September 2024 11:04
Holly Bancroft
Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity ratings will bounce back, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has said.
In an interview with The Guardian, Ms Rayner predicted that Sir Keir would become more popular as the public started to feel the impact of a Labour government.
She said: “I think he’ll be remembered as somebody who fixed the foundations. Public service is not about being popular, it’s about being responsible more than anything. That’s more important.”
Ms Rayner also promised to give extra powers to mayors around the country. She said: “We’re going to make sure they’ve got all the ingredients to thrive because... where you put power with people with skin in the game, you can truly deliver.
“My ambition is to have more powers and to have more mayors... I’m not going to force people to have a mayor but I do want to see more, and deeper powers for those areas.”
Speaking about Labour’s plans for the future, she pledged: “Within five years, people will have a better life. We won’t be able to fix everything immediately, but you will see the sprigs and the difference that the Labour government has made.”
We don’t want news to be dominated by conversations about clothes, Nandy says
Saturday 21 September 2024 09:55
Holly Bancroft
The public commentary around clothing donations is not what Labour wants to focus on as the party goes into its conference, culture secretary Lisa Nandy has suggested.
She told Sky News: “We certainly don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes when we have a really positive agenda for this country.
“But I think these have always been very difficult issues in British politics. We rightly have a system, I think, where the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things, we don’t claim on expenses for them so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind, MPs of all political parties have historically done that and that is the system that we have.”
She said she had not received any clothing gifts from donors, but added: “I don’t make any judgment about what other Members of Parliament do.
“The only judgment I would make is, if they are breaking the rules and they are trying to hide what they are doing, that is when problems arise.”
Labour leaders ‘don’t want people to believe’ that they are living different lives from the public, minister says
Saturday 21 September 2024 09:34
Holly Bancroft
Senior government figures’ decision to stop accepting donations of clothes is aimed at ending the perception they are living “very different lives” from the public amid ongoing cost-of-living pressures, Lisa Nandy suggested.
Asked about the reasoning behind the decision, the culture secretary told BBC Breakfast: “For exactly the reason that you just said, that people are really struggling in this country, and we don’t want people to believe that we are living very different lives from them.
“Most people who go into politics, of all political parties, are ordinary people who want to make people’s lives better.
“It is important to us that people know that that is what we are as a government and that we have their priorities absolutely up front and centre of ours.
“The country’s priorities are our priorities.”
Ms Nandy said the most important thing the government had done since coming to office was being “open and transparent about what we are doing”.
Sir Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves will stop taking donations for clothing after a row over freebies.
Eminem, fireworks, and the cult of Nigel Farage: Inside Reform UK’s party conference
Saturday 21 September 2024 09:19
Holly Bancroft
Political correspondent Millie Cooke is at the Reform UK conference this weekend.
Here is part of her dispatch from the first day on Friday:
“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.
Telling members “the sky is the limit”, Mr Farage also laid down some serious policy changes that he said would help get them there.
Speaking without notes on the main stage, after walking in to the sound of Eminem’s ‘Without Me’ accompanied by a selection of pyrotechnics, Mr Farage – perhaps underwhelmingly to some watchers – said the party needs to emulate… the Liberal Democrats.”
Read more here:
