Labour conference live: Rachel Reeves gives speech after crowd boos winter fuel allowance debate delay

The Tories have accused the Labour Party of hypocrisy after it emerged Angela Rayner used taxpayer funds to hire a “vanity” photographer.

Simon Walker was reportedly payed a salary of £68,000 to take photos for Ms Rayner’s Ministry of Housing.

John Glen, the shadow paymaster general, said: “This is just the latest in a long line of Labour ministers saying one thing and then doing another.

“Labour’s promise to cut the size of the government spin bill was nothing more than empty words, they’d rather spend taxpayers’ money on their own vanity projects than on keeping pensioners warm this winter.

“After scrapping Conservative plans to slim down civil service headcount, Labour should stop pretending that their decision to cut the winter fuel allowance was anything other than a political choice.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the photographer had been hired to chronicle the work of the department, not just Ms Rayner.

“Many government departments employ official photographers to share the work of the department and ministers with the public,” the department said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves turned the tables on the BBC’s Nick Robinson while being grilled on her free clothes, pointing out the presenter took her to the Proms in an outing paid for by the broadcaster.

In an interview with the BBC, just hours before her speech to Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Ms Reeves defended the party from wider allegations of sleaze and cronyism centred on ministers’ repeated acceptance of gifts and freebies.

Our political correspondents Archie Mitchell and Millie Cooke have the full story:

Labour’s biggest donor Lord Waheed Alli has found himself at the centre of a political row over the acceptance of gifts and hospitality by senior MPs in the party.

In the first controversy to hit Sir Keir Starmer’s new government, questions have been raised over Lord Alli – the business executive who has donated some £700,000 to the party over the past two decades – being handed a Downing Street pass.

In a row dubbed “passes for glasses”, it has emerged that Lord Alli had gifted the Sir Keir eyewear and work clothing worth £18,000, clothes for his wife Lady Victoria Starmer, and a £10,000 donation to the PM’s chief of staff Sue Gray’s son Liam Conlon’s campaign to become a Labour MP.

Read the full article below:

Rosie Duffield, backbencher for Labour, has criticised top cabinet figures including Sir Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson for accepting free tickets to the Taylor Swift concert.

Ms Duffield said: “I had Taylor tickets during her last visit to the UK, paid for myself obviously.

“We earn more than most people so why on Earth should we all take free tickets while others save up and queue?”

Nearly a quarter of those who voted Labour (23 per cent) describe their opinion of the party as unfavourable, Archie Mitchell writes from the Labour party conference.

One in four Britons (23 per cent) see Labour as caring about ‘people like them’, with two-thirds (67 per cent) see Labour as not caring about older people

After the general election in July, voters were fairly evenly divided on how they viewed Labour – nearly half (47 per cent) said they had a favourable opinion of the party, while a similar number (46 per cent) said they saw the party unfavourably.

Now, less than three months on, only one in three people (34 per cent) say they have a positive opinion of the party, while a clear majority (57 per cent) view Labour negatively.

Winter Fuel Payments will be stopped for millions of pensioners this winter as Labour pushes on with its plan to boost public finances by means-testing the cold weather benefit.

The Labour government has been urged to review its decision affecting 10 million pensioners after the regulator Ofgem announced household energy bills will rise by £150 in October.

If you’ve been affected by the change to Winter Fuel Payments, here’s what you can do:

The number machetes, swords or zombie knives on the streets has nearly doubled in five years, police figures suggest.

Data obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act showed that in 2023 the three types of weapons were mentioned in more than 14,000 crimes recorded by 32 police forces in England and Wales.

In 2019, 7,159 offences were recorded as involving large blades. The figure rose to 14,195 in 2023.

Nearly 10,000 of the 2023 offences involved machetes, double the number from five years before, the broadcaster reported.

On Tuesday a ban on owning zombie-style knives and machetes comes into force, following a four-week amnesty scheme where owners have been encouraged to hand the weapons into police, local authorities or knife crime charities.

The ban is part of efforts to reduce knife crime, with campaigners including actor Idris Elba pushing for the large blades to be outlawed.

The government has additional plans to ban ninja swords.

While Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her keynote speech about her plan for the economy, Liz Truss has just posted a video to celebrate two years since her disastrous mini-budget.

The then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was blamed for damaging the UK economy causing Ms Truss to resign as prime minister.

Taking to X, formerly twitter, the former PM said the British economy would be “in much better shape if the mini-budget had been implemented” and accused the “economic establishment” of “undermining” her plan.