Watch: Reeves’s hypocrisy over freebie row

Back to Labour’s freebie row, which has spilled over into conference week. Sir Keir Starmer’s top team is desperate to get on top of the scandal, yet every time they try, they somehow manage to make things worse. Take Labour’s winter fuel payment-cutting Rachel Reeves, for example, who spoke to ITV News today about the fiasco. The Chancellor was quizzed about the whole affair on the airwaves after Labour’s popularity nosedived amid tales of extravagant gifting. First admitting to a cronyism problem that the party is ‘making sure we get a grip of’, Reeves then turned to defend a series of luxurious donations:

What really grates is that people donate and then they get something in return. What we saw during the pandemic was people who had donated to the Conservative party then getting government contracts, government money for things like PPE.

Or, um, like a millionaire donor receiving a No. 10 pass? Lord Alli has donated almost £16,200 of workwear to the Prime Minister and £5,000 of new clothes to Lady Starmer – as well as having helped fund eight Labour leadership candidates, donating to seven current members of the Cabinet.