Labour conference live: Rachel Reeves stands by winter fuel allowance cut as nurses reject 5.5% pay rise

An SNP MP has described Sir Keir Starmer and his top team’s acceptance of thousands of pounds worth of free gifts including clothing from Labour donor Lord Alli as “totally indefensible”.

Angus and Perthshire Glens MP Dave Doogan told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think I, like most other ordinary people from ordinary backgrounds, are aghast at the naivety of UK Government ministers leaving themselves open to whatever the donors of these gifts expect in return.

“If something looks too good to be true, then it probably is. Everybody knows that.

“I think we need to ask ourselves why the most senior members of the UK Government are naively walking into gifts for this and gifts for that totalling £800,000, and thinking that there is no strings attached. Of course there are strings attached. It’s such a bad look.”

He added: “Let’s be really clear, Angela Rayner in particular, and Keir Starmer especially – these are not poor people.

“If Keir Starmer wanted £2,500 worth of glasses, he could have easily bought them. But he didn’t. He took it off somebody who was offering it to him, and that’s not the world that the rest of us walk in.

“People up and down these islands who voted Labour will be thinking to themselves, ‘I think I’ve backed the wrong horse here’, especially in Scotland when 37 Labour MPs are dutifully lining up to defend the actions of the prime minister which are actually totally indefensible.”

Keir Starmer has defended his gift-taking as he took part in two eve-of-conference interviews, insisting that it is transparency that matters.

But the prime minister is facing new questions about a football match he and his controversial chief of staff Sue Gray attended after hospitality was arranged by Spurs.

He was also pictured at the game with lobbyist Katie Perrior, who ran Boris Johnson’s publicity campaign when he became mayor of London in 2008.

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Sir Keir Starmer said he was a “leaner-in” who does not want to keep artificial technology (AI) at “arms length”.

Speaking at a business event at Labour’s annual conference, the Prime Minister said: “AI is obviously a big game-changer, you can already see the potential but we’re still in the foothills…

“But do you lean in and say that this is a great opportunity or do you lean out and say woah, this is a bit risky. I’m a leaner-in.”

He added: “The first thing is to lean into it and say it’s an incredible set of opportunities, not to keep it at arms length.”

Employer concerns about the Labour Government’s workers’ rights package have been “addressed and understood,” Rachel Reeves has said amid speculation over whether the legislation could be watered down.

The Chancellor indicated the Government does not want to make it harder for companies to hire temporary workers or students with its Employment Rights Bill.

She told a business event at the annual Labour conference in Liverpool: “We’ll be publishing more details in the next couple of weeks, but I hope that you see that your concerns have been addressed and understood.”

Rachel Reeves acknowledged that nurses have rejected the Government’s pay offer but said “my understanding is that is advisory I very much hope there will not be industrial action going forward in our health service”.

Asked whether she believed the era of strike action was over, the Chancellor told a business event at the Labour Party conference: “We accepted the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies… that was important to bring to an end the industrial disputes.

“It was the right decision, in the national interest, also to address recruitment and retention challenges.

“You may have seen the nurses have voted today against the settlement… but my understanding is that is advisory and I very much hope there will not be industrial action going forward in our health service.”

Ms Reeves said that many public sector workers were disappointed and “rightly so” that their wages have fallen behind the cost of living, but insisted the new Government was “listening” and “willing to work with them”.

“We hope, and through our actions we want to bring an end to those industrial disputes that have been so disruptive both to the people who use our public services and for the wider economy.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that donations for clothes were “very beneficial” to her during the election campaign.

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that “an old friend” of hers wanted to offer support.

“The way that she wanted to support was to help me buy clothes for the campaign trail and for big events and I was very grateful for that support,” Ms Reeves added.

She told the programme: “We declared it in the proper way and we asked the registrar the best way to record it and we did it in the way that was asked of us.

“I never planned to continue this in government but it was something that was very beneficial to me during the campaign.”

Wes Streeting joked at a fringe event that if he kept saying how proud he was of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, it would pay off at the Budget.

Having said repeatedly he was “proud” of Rachel Reeves’s decisions on pay settlements, he told a Labour conference fringe event: “I’m also sure, by the way, if I keep on saying how proud I am of the Chancellor that will be worthwhile in the coming Budget.”

Wes Streeting denied that the Government had made a strategic error by emphasising its determination to end strikes, following the rejection of a pay offer by the Royal College of Nursing.

The Health Secretary told a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference: “I thought the Chancellor was absolutely right after the election to, firstly, recognise the enormous price that we were paying as taxpayers and as patients for industrial action in the NHS and the abysmal failure of the last government to negotiate effectively to end these disputes.”

Adding he was “proud” that the Chancellor “acted quickly to resolve that dispute”, he said he could understand why nurses “feel strongly about pay and also the conditions they are working in.”

Mr Streeting said: “I think the nursing profession know that they have now in a Labour Government a team that they can be proud to be part of and work with to do something truly remarkable, which is to take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, get it back on its feet and make it fit for the future.”

Home ownership is “not the right option” for some people, Rachel Reeves has said.

The Chancellor said the Government’s commitment to banning no-fault evictions was to ensure there is greater security across all sectors.

Ms Reeves said: “For some people owning your own home is not the right option and we need a private rental sector… that’s why we’ve committed to banning no-fault evictions.”

She said “in all sectors we need greater security”.

Jonathan Reynolds has defended the government’s workers’ rights package, saying it was “not dictating to businesses” or “forcing things on people if they don’t want them”.

Appearing at the Labour Party annual conferences business day, the Business Secretary fielded questions on the balance between employee and employer protections.

“This is the floor rising,” Mr Reynolds said.

“It’s not dictating to businesses, it’s not forcing things on people if they don’t want them.”