Labour conference live: Rayner fights back tears as she takes to the stage amid party freebies row

Our political editor David Maddox offers his analysis from Labour party conference:

Angela Rayner may have floundered on the BBC this morning talking about gifts and ministers being on the take from wealthy donors and friends but her opening speech to conference as injected some early life into what was threatening to be a despondent affair.

The whole event should be a celebration of a historic victory for the party but was being overshadowed by rows about Sue Gray, Lord Alli, football tickets, holidays in New York and clothes for the prime minister’s wife.

There is a concern among unions and people on the left that Starmer is also leading them to a new age of austerity after the winter fuel payments were removed from 10 million pensioners and Rachel Reeves has been getting ready to wield the axe to sort out the £22bn black hole in public finances.

So it was important that Rayner came out from the get-go with a robust, tub thumping speech.

She has delivered in spades, with joy about the victory, and a succession of much needed reforms that the left have been clamouring for – whether it be workers’ rights or renters reform or building much needed homes.

The cheers which greeted her speech certainly spoke of the way she delivered her much more optimistic message. A contract to the gloom that has been hanging over Sir Keir Starmer and evidence of the emotional chord between her and members.

Ms Rayner is speaking about her plans to give more power to mayors around the country and devolve power from Westminster.

“A new white paper will map out how we will move power out of Whitehall… Just this week I agreed eight devolution deals,” she explained.

She promised that “Northerners will no longer be dictated to from Whitehall”. She said this government will achieve devolution in the North and the change will be “irreversible”.

Angela Rayner has spoken about her mission that all homes are decent and safe.

“When I was growing up we didn’t have a lot, but we had a safe and secure home. But today not everyone does”, Ms Rayner told the Labour conference.

Speaking about the Grenfell tragedy, she said it was a failure of market and state. “It is completely unacceptable that we have thousands of building still wrapped in dangerous cladding seven years after Grenfell”, she continued.

She has also said that she will reverse the decline of social home building. Ms Rayner said that she will “clamp down on damp and mouldy homes” by bringing in legislation to force landlords to fix faults, in social housing and private rental accommodation.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke writes from Liverpool:

Angela Rayner urged people not to forget what the Conservative Party did in government during her main stage speech at the Labour Party conference.

Accusing the Tories of having “failed Britain” and attempting to “cover it up”, the deputy prime minister said there will be “no complacency” from the new government.

Ms Rayner, who was greeted by a standing ovation when she walked on stage, appeared to be on the verge of tears at the start of her speech.

Opening her address, she said: “I’ll try not to get too emotional. Twelve months ago, I stood here and said I’d hope to never open conference again as the deputy leader of the opposition, so it’s a great honour of my life to stand here today as your deputy prime minister.”

Ms Rayner continued: We won because we had the courage to change our party, the discipline to make hard decisions and the determination to remain united, and now change begins.

“Even now, especially now, there will be no complacency. We’ve seen where that leads. Don’t forget what they did: Partygate, Covid contracts, the lies, division, scapegoating and the unfunded tax cuts for the richest that crashed our economy. don’t. forget any of it.

“The Tories failed Britain and they tried to cover it up.”

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner was emotional as she took to the stage at Labour party conference for her speech.

She looked tearful as members gave her a standing ovation, and told attendees: “It is the honour of my life to stand here today as your deputy prime minister.”

“You entrusted us with the task of change and we will not forget it,” she said in a direct to the British people.

Ms Rayner has said “there will be no complacency” for the new Labour government. “The Tories failed Britain and they tried to cover it up. A crater in the heart of Britain’s economy…and a £22bn black hole”, she said.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke writes from Liverpool:

Ellie Reeves has claimed that the Labour government is facing the “worst inheritance of any incoming government in living memory”.

She echoed warnings from other senior cabinet ministers that tough choices will have to be made in the coming weeks, in what is seen as an attempt to prepare the public for tax rises and cuts to public services at next month’s budget.

The chair of the Labour Party also promised the government would be the “most radical and transformation government in history.”

Speaking on the main stage of Labour conference, she said: “This is the worst inheritance of any incoming government in living memory.

“It will be hard and there will be tough choices, and if we don’t take tough choices. If we shirk our responsibility to the public finances, the British people will never forgive us.

“But do not believe the naysayers, do not fall for their tricks. In the last eleven weeks that we have been in government we have already begun the change, setting up GB Energy, establishing a child poverty task force, reform of the House of Lords, ending the ban on onshore wind, beginning work to return rail to public ownership.

“And by the end of this Parliament we will have witnessed the most radical and transformational government in history.”

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is due to take to the stage at Labour conference at 11.25am.

In the first speech by a cabinet minister at the conference, Ms Rayner will focus on the government’s plans for house building.

In comments ahead of the speech, Ms Rayner said Labour have “inherited a Tory housing crisis” and that her government will take “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”.

She will announce that the government will consult on a new Decent Homes Standard for social and private renters.

Labour will also press ahead with Tory legislation, known as Awaab’s law, which sets timescales for social landlords to remedy problems such as damp and mould.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has said the government would introduce new legislation intended to give workers more rights next month.

The government is trying to balance demands from trade unions, who traditionally fund the governing Labour Party, and business leaders, who are concerned about some of the changes.

The Employment Rights Bill will include measures such as prohibiting zero-hour contracts, with about 1 million people in Britain on employment contracts that do not specify a minimum number of hours they can work and pay only for the hours they are on shift, and outlawing fire and rehire tactics.

Labour has also pledged to make parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal available from the first day on the job, although probation periods would remain in place.

“We’ll be putting the legislation forward next month,” Rayner told the BBC. “People will see better workers’ rights, the most improved workers’ rights for a generation.”

The government has promised to produce legislation within 100 days of the July national election. Some businesses say it is unclear what the government is planning.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that workers benefit from coming into the office and working together.

When asked about working from home in an interview with The Times, Ms Reeves said: “I think I lead by example. The first weekend after Labour won the election, I turned up in the Treasury straight after I was appointed by Keir as chancellor and worked through the evening.

“Then we were all in the office all day Saturday, all day Sunday. We weren’t doing it on Zoom… I do think people coming together and working together collaboratively promotes ideas.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has explained why she accepted donations for clothes in an interview with The Sunday Times.

Ms Reeves had accepted £7,500 from a donor, Juliet Rosenfield, for clothes. She said she accepted the donation from a “good friend” who wanted to make sure that she looked professional during the election campaign.

She said: “I know for some readers that will sound a bit odd, and I totally get that. It’s not something that I plan to do now we’re in government. But it was how a friend wanted to help me in the election and I really appreciated that, as I am not massively into clothes and shopping.”

Speaking ahead of Labour conference, Ms Reeves said she wanted to “bring stability back” to the UK and “create the environment where businesses invest”.

She said businesses had nothing to fear from Labour’s push to strengthen workers’ rights. “We have been, and will continue to, consult extensively with businesses on them. We said that we’re going to be the most pro-growth government ever, but we believe being pro-business and pro-worker are two sides of the same coin.”