Labour conference live: Rayner gets choked up during speech before receiving second standing ovation

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:

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.”

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:

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 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”.

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 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.”

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 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.