Joe Bedell-Brill

Angela Rayner: ‘I don’t believe I broke any rules… in fact I think I was overly transparent’

Angela Rayner: ‘I don’t believe I broke any rules… in fact I think I was overly transparent’

The Labour conference has got off to an awkward start, as senior figures continue to battle controversy around donations, Starmer’s approval rating plummets, and anger persists over the winter fuel allowance. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner defended her holiday stay in a New York apartment gifted to her by Lord Alli. Rayner argued that ‘MPs have accepted gifts for years… all MPs do it’, and said that the important point was that the government was being ‘open and transparent’ about it. Kuenssberg pointed out that it wasn’t declared that former Labour MP Sam Tarry also stayed in the apartment, and asked Rayner if she wanted to say sorry for any misjudgements. Rayner said she believed she hadn’t broken any rules, and that she had paid for her holiday herself.

Rayner vague on ‘biggest wave’ of social housing 

The deputy PM and housing secretary was also asked what proportion of Labour’s promised 1.5 million new homes would be social housing. Rayner repeatedly refused to give a specific number, saying there are ‘so many moving parts’ and that it depended on which building sites became available. Kuenssberg asked Rayner why they wouldn’t remove the right to buy scheme to prevent the loss of social housing stock. Rayner agreed that there should be less of a discount when buying social housing, but guaranteed Labour wouldn’t get rid of the policy completely, saying it had been ‘incredibly important’ to her to be able to buy the council house she had lived in.

Sharon Graham: Labour walking country into ‘austerity mark 2’

Keir Starmer is also facing conflict with unions over the winter fuel allowance. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham what she wanted to hear from Starmer in his conference speech. Graham said that the winter fuel allowance decision is ‘a cruel policy’, and she wanted Starmer to admit it was a misstep, and reverse it. Phillips said that party leaders never admit to mistakes, but Graham argued that a good leader would do so, and that it was a mistake that the first thing Labour had done was to take money away from ‘the poorest in our society’. 

Chris Philp: Starmer has accepted ‘far more freebies than any other MP’

Shadow House of Commons Leader Chris Philp suggested to Kuenssberg that some of the donations Starmer has received, such as clothes for his wife, are ‘weird’ and ‘inappropriate’. Kuenssberg pointed out that Philp’s own party were in no position to attack Labour on this point, but Philp argued that he himself had not accepted any personal donations, and had resigned from Boris Johnson’s government on issues of ‘ethics and integrity’, so had ‘done [his] bit’. Philp also claimed that people connected with the Labour Party were being given roles in the civil service, and that Lord Alli was ‘apparently advising on appointments’ in Downing Street.

Israeli President Herzog: ‘Lebanon has been hijacked by a terror organisation’

The unprecedented pager and walkie-talkie bomb attacks in Lebanon shocked the world this week, and left Israel on the brink of a full-scale regional conflict. In an interview with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Trevor Phillips asked if Israel had decided to ‘abandon restraint’. Herzog claimed that the ‘simple message of Israel’ was that they ‘do not want war’. He said the war was started by the Iranian ‘Empire of Evil’, and Israel was fighting for its existence. Phillips asked if Israel was now at war with Lebanon, and Herzog claimed Israel was ‘not interested’ in a war with Lebanon, but was defending itself against Hezbollah, who he suggested have ‘hijacked’ the country.

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