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White House Correspondent
Watch as the annual Labour Party conference kicks off in Liverpool, with speeches from Angela Rayner and foreign secretary David Lammy.
The event began on Sunday morning (22 September) still mired in a row over gifts to senior MPs and questions about Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.
Senior government figures sought to move on from the row over donations in a series of interviews ahead of a conference that had been expected to be a victory lap for the party after its landslide election victory in July.
Ms Rayner, the deputy prime minister, said she understood why people were “frustrated” and “angry” that figures including Sir Keir had received thousands of pounds in gifts.
But she added these had been “a feature of our politics for a very long time”, arguing that donations were necessary because of the expense of running for office, and stressing the importance of transparency.
Ms Rayner has herself been criticised for staying in a flat owned by Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli while on holiday in New York, but denied breaking any Commons rules about declaring the gift.
She also hit out at reports suggesting strife in Downing Street focused on Sue Gray, the prime minister’s chief of staff.
