Labour conference live: Nurses pointedly reject pay deal during Rachel Reeves’ historic conference speech

Lord Waheed Alli is reportedly at the Labour conference amid a row about his donations to senior figures in the party.

Sky News reported the Labour peer, who has given tens of thousands of pounds worth of clothing to the prime minister and his wife Victoria, was spotted at the Liverpool conference.

Sir Keir Starmer recently faced criticism after it emerged he was late to declare a donation from Lord Alli, although there is no suggestion the peer has done anything wrong.

There are long queues to get into the Labour conference as Rachel Reeves prepares to make her speech today.

The chancellor will be speaking at noon. She will be trying to inject more positivity into the doom and gloom Labour had projected on the economy since it came to power.

Wes Streeting has joked that Sir Keir Starmer’s embattled senior aide Sue Gray had “shot JFK” and “no one should earn more than the prime minister” amid a row over her salary.

The health secretary made light of suggestions of mounting acrimony at the heart of government as he spoke at an event on the sidelines of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

Speaking to a crowd at the gathering hosted by think tank Labour Together, Mr Streeting: “I want to welcome the BBC’s conviction that no one should be paid more than the prime minister, that no one should receive hospitality, and that we should judge performance on social media mentions.

“Be careful what we wish for, comrades.”

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story:

The SNP Westminster leader has called the chancellor to “put down the axe” and boost investment to deliver economic growth.

Mr Flynn accused Rachel Reeves of “repeating the Tories’ mistakes” by planning “damaging austerity cuts”.

Ahead of her keynote speech at the Labour conference, he said: “Rachel Reeves is repeating the Tories’ mistakes by imposing damaging austerity cuts, which will starve the economy of investment and make things worse for families and public services.

“Fourteen long years of Tory cuts proved beyond doubt that austerity simply doesn’t work. Instead of ‘fixing the foundations’ it weakened them – reducing economic growth, squeezing wages, harming public services and pushing families into poverty.

“It’s no wonder the Labour Party is plummeting in the polls, when it has broken its promises to voters and is imposing billions of pounds of cuts, which economists are warning will hit growth.”

A new poll has revealed that three in five people expect Labour to lose the next general election in 2029.

Less than three months after Sir Keir Starmer’s landslide election, 60 per cent of voters think he will not secure a second mandate.

The poll, conducted by the More in Common think tank, also found more than half of those surveyed do not believe Sir Keir will lead Labour into the next election.

48 per cent of respondents said they believed he would still be prime minister by the next election, while 52 per cent said he will not.

The chancellor has said that she had not “expected” or “wanted” to make changes to winter fuel payments.

Rachel Reeves told the BBC’s Today programme on Radio 4 this morning that “I was not planning to make these changes to winter fuel payment.

“These were not changes that I expected to make or wanted to make, but when faced with a situation when there’s a £22 billion black hole – not some year in the future – but this year in the public finances, it requires difficult decisions.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said there will not “be a return to austerity” but that “detailed” spending by department will be “negotiated”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Ms Reeves said: “There won’t be a return to austerity, there will be real terms increases to government spending in this parliament.”

She told the programme that she has been “really clear” that the “only way to sustainably fund public services is through growing the economy.”

When pushed further on her spending plans, Ms Reeves added: “What I’m saying is there will not be real terms cuts to government spending, but the detailed department by department spending will be negotiated.”

Rachel Reeves has defended Angela Rayner in a row over the deputy prime minister reportedly hiring a vanity photographer to publicise her work.

The chancellor said it is normal for government departments to have communications budgets and stressed the photographer would not just promote Ms Rayner, but the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as a whole.

On Monday morning she told Times Radio: “All government departments under all governments have press officers and communications budgets. It’s not a personal photographer. It’s to promote the campaigning work of governments.”

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story:

Rachel Reeves has admitted people might “find it odd” that Labour MPs have received clothes as gifts.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, she denied that she was gifted the suit she was wearing.

Asked if she paid for the suit she was wearing, she said: “I did, the suit is from Hobbs and I bought it and I will be wearing it for my conference speech this afternoon.

“But I understand why you asked the question, and I can understand why people find it a little bit odd that politicians get support for things like buying clothes.”

She also defended MPs or shadow ministers accepting freebies like concert or football match tickets.

The chancellor pointed out that she has been to events like the First Night of the Proms with prominents BBC figures.