Jack Gray
BBC Newsbeat

Everyone loves a freebie and outside the Labour conference, people have been telling me whether it’s leftover cakes at work or a make-up sample, a treat you don’t have to pay for is just that little bit sweeter.

But when I ask about freebies for government ministers - well, that’s not quite the same.

Over the past few days, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for accepting donations worth £16,000 for things like clothes, glasses and a box at the Emirates.

Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have also come under fire and they’ve all agreed they will not accept any further donations for clothes.

It’s a political story that’s been cutting through - and mostly when I stop people to talk about it, they say it’s "not fair".

"We all have to pay for our clothes, so why shouldn’t they?" Martin, 18, says.

Film student Sophie, also 18, agrees. "It should be the other way round," she says. "They should be gifting to people who aren’t as fortunate."

David Cornock
Politics reporter

Image source, PA Media

As we've reported, it's not just Rachel Reeves speaking at the Labour conference today.

Earlier, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said the government is "ripping up the very roots of Thatcherism" on transport.

She said the government was "bringing the age of privatised chaos underwritten by public money to an end for good" by returning the railways to public ownership and allowing councils more power to control bus services.

"By the end of this Parliament, our railways will be in public ownership, run by great British Railways in the service of you, the British people," she said.

Haigh also promised to get HS2, which was scaled back by the Conservatives due to soaring costs, "back under control".

Rajdeep Sandhu
Scotland politics correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Gifts and hospitality continue to be a talking point at this year's Labour conference, after the prime minister faced criticism for receiving more than £16,000 for work clothing and spectacles and further donations for his wife.

This time it's Scotland Secretary Ian Murray and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar who are being asked questions. The pair have defended going to a Liverpool FC football game, as guests of Salmon Scotland, while attending the party's conference in the city.

Scotland's Daily Record newspaper reported that the pair went to the Liverpool v Bournemouth game on Saturday.

A Labour party spokesperson said: “Ian and Anas attended as the guests of Scottish Salmon - an important strategic partner in promoting Brand Scotland. All meetings are declared in the usual way.”

In response to the reports, Salmon Scotland said: "As the trade body for the UK’s largest food export and employers in every part of Scotland, we regularly invite ministers and politicians from all parties to events so that we can raise issues affecting our sector."

It's unknown how much the hospitality cost, but it would need to be added to each politician’s register of interests.

Image source, PA Media

It's fair to say Rachel Reeves' speech was the main event today - but there's more to come from the Labour Party conference this afternoon.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will speak, and is expected to accuse the SNP - which runs the Scottish government - of holding the country back.

We'll also hear from Energy Secretary Ed Miliband who's already been criticising the previous government ahead of his speech.

"We all know that the poorest people in our country often live in cold, draughty homes," Miliband has said while at the conference in Liverpool. “It is a Tory legacy. It is a Tory scandal. It is a Tory outrage."

Other appearances today include Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan and Environment Secretary Steve Reed.

You can expect more updates from us as the day goes on, so stick with us.

Image source, PA Media

Has lost growth cost the economy £140bn?published at 13:48 British Summer Time 23 September

13:48 BST 23 September

By Tom Edgington

In her speech, Rachel Reeves claimed: "If the UK economy had grown at just the average rate of other OECD countries under the Tories, our economy would be £140bn larger today."

It’s correct to say UK growth has not been as high as the OECD average. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story.

The OECD is a group of 38 countries that includes rapidly-developing countries - such as Turkey, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

Countries like these often grow quickly as they "catch up" with the technologies that are already used in developed economies.

So you would expect an economy like the UK to grow more slowly compared with the OECD average, according to Prof Stephen Millard of the independent National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

Comparing the UK to other developed economies, like the G7, shows a smaller gap than Reeves suggests.

BBC Verify has approached the Treasury to ask how the £140bn figure was calculated.

The rollout of free breakfast clubs will begin in April - but details are scantpublished at 13:38 British Summer Time 23 September

13:38 BST 23 September

Vanessa Clarke
Education reporter

We now have a few more details on the promise of free breakfast clubs for every primary school in England - but not many.

Up to 750 primary schools will introduce them from April to July 2025, as part of a £7m pilot ahead of the national rollout.

But it’s still unclear what they will look like - whether children would receive breakfast as part of the usual school day or if parents can drop their kids off early so they can eat breakfast and socialise before the school day begins.

The clubs are being introduced to "improve pupil behaviour" as well as "help parents who are having to juggle work commitments".

But one think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has said while breakfast clubs have been shown to boost grades, scope for reducing school absences - one of the main reasons Labour said they would be introduced - is smaller.

Headteacher unions have previously welcomed the idea but say it's important the clubs are fully funded and can be delivered without expecting more from existing school staff.

Just as Rachel Reeves' speech was finishing earlier, we received the news that nurses in England have voted by two-thirds to reject the government's 5.5% pay rise offer.

The offer was announced by the chancellor at the end of July, shortly after Labour won the general election.

Two-thirds of the 145,000 members of the RCN who voted online said the rise was not fair. But the union is not planning to ballot its members to see if they want to take strike action.

Instead, it is planning to see how the government responds to this vote.

Earlier today, Reeves spoke of the independent review bodies that were set up by the previous government to look into pay rises. She said then that offering the pay rises was the "right thing to do".

• You can read more about nurses rejecting their pay offer here

In a speech lasting around 45 minutes, Chancellor Rachel Reeves criticised the so-called "black hole" she inherited from the Tories; doubled down on the "tough" decisions she's prepared to take; and received rounds of applause for policies including free breakfast clubs for primary school children in England:

Here's a rundown of the main points from her speech:

• Reeves began by referencing her status as first female chancellor, paying tribute to previous "trailblazing Labour women" as well as "thousands of women...who broke barriers"
• She called Labour the "party of economic responsibility" as she promised not to take risks with taxpayers' money. Repeating the line "that's the Britain we're building" she listed a number of future plans - including a "new deal for working people"
• She regularly took shots at her predecessors, including the £22bn "black hole" she says she inherited. She said it's why she took "in-year" action - in other words, immediate cuts, including to winter fuel payments
• As for future plans, Reeves spoke of Labour's intention to appoint a Covid corruption minister - whose role will be to assess disputed Covid contracts, and claw back taxpayers' money
• There will be "no return to austerity", the chancellor insisted - echoing a line from her morning media round
• She concluded her speech with a section on children and their right "to succeed". From next April, an initiative will see free breakfast clubs launched in "hundreds of schools" in England, before the scheme is rolled out nationally

Business was a major focus of this speechpublished at 12:58 British Summer Time 23 September

12:58 BST 23 September

Simon Jack
Business editor

Rachel Reeves tried to appeal to both employers and workers in a speech in which business was a major focus.

She promised to revive the concept of a UK Industrial Strategy - popular with business owners and groups - but effectively abolished by the last government.

She also mentioned business rates reform several times, which high street businesses will cheer as she has hinted before that she would try and reduce rates for small businesses and hike them for large multinationals and tech companies.

Her commitment to increase, tighten and extend windfall taxes on oil and gas companies got cheers in the room, but may get groans in Scotland while there is some business disquiet about her recommitment to enhancing workers' employment rights and further boosting the living wage.

"It was made clear to me that failure to act swiftly could undermine the UK's fiscal position with implications for public debt, mortgages and prices," Reeves said.

"And so, I took action to make the in-year savings necessary."

Watch the moment Rachel Reeves defended her cuts - including to winter fuel payments - below.

We're nearing the end of this speech now - Rachel Reeves' first one at Labour conference as chancellor.

She repeats a promise that she will not "duck" on "hard choices" and, alongside that, says the government "will make fair choices".

This will mean an end to "easy answers, empty promises and Tory stagnation," she says - saying once again that this is "the Britain we're building".

Finishing with a couple of short, sharp sentences, she tells those in the audience:

"That is the Britain I believe in.

"Together, let's go and build it."

She receives huge applause, a standing ovation and a hug from Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Reeves speaks now, to applause, of the Labour pledge to introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England.

The initiative will start in "hundreds of schools" in April ahead of being rolled out nationally, she says.

The chancellor describes it as an investment in young people - and says the move will help to tackle the issue of child poverty.

Getting personal now, Reeves talks about her background - specifically having parents who were primary school teachers.

"I know how hard my mum and dad worked," she says, accusing the Conservative government at the time of showing "again and again" that it "did not care" about these kinds of schools.

Reeves says she joined Labour because she believes "that strong public services are the backbone of any decent society".

With a reference to the Tony Blair era, she says: "I joined this party because of three words spoken in a conference hall in Blackpool twenty eight years ago: education, education, education."

The phrase that keeps coming up again and againpublished at 12:41 British Summer Time 23 September

12:41 BST 23 September

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent, reporting from Liverpool

There’s one line recurring again and again in the chancellor’s speech: "That’s the Britain we’re building."

This is clearly a feature of Rachel Reeves’s determination to demonstrate more optimism - not just the tough choices to come but the rewards she believes will come from having made them.

The phrase may also be an allusion to Labour’s determination to increase housebuilding, perhaps the biggest component of the government’s plans to increase economic growth.

I think it is also a conscious echo of the last speech delivered by a prime minister to a Labour conference - Gordon Brown in 2009.

In that speech, Brown reeled off a list of what he saw as the New Labour governments’ achievements, concluding to a raucous ovation: "That’s the Britain we’ve been building together”.

Clips of the speech are often shared on social media by Labour politicians and activists - Reeves is subtly signalling to them that she hopes to build a similar record in government.

Reeves is continuing to talk about British business and growth.

She says now that just as growth must be "built by the many" - its proceeds must also be "felt by the many".

The government will deliver on a "new deal for working people" that does that, she says, highlighting a ban on zero-hour contracts and an end to fire and rehire.

Labour "will make work pay," she says. "That is the Britain we're building. That is the Britain I believe in."

The government will launch plans next month for a "new industrial strategy," Rachel Reeves, delivering her first Labour conference speech as chancellor, says.

"The age of trickle down, trickle out economics is over".

This strategy will drive and shape "long term growth," the chancellor goes on, and "unlock investment, create jobs and deliver prosperity."

"Britain is open for business once again."

Reeves shifts now to mention the budget, which is due at the end of October - Labour's first one in 14 years, she says, again to huge applause.

"Because I know how much damage has been done in those years [...] there will be no return to austerity," she promises.

She said the same thing to the BBC's Today programme earlier, when asked by presenter Nick Robinson, and went as far then as promising that "there'll be real terms increases to government spending [overall]".

Moving on to the pandemic, Reeves speaks of Labour's plans to appoint a Covid corruption commissioner - she says this is down to the "carnival of waste and fraud that took place" during that time.

Reeves adds that when her party got into government earlier this year, there were £674m of contracts in dispute. The commissioner will assess these contracts.

"I won't run a blind eye to rip-off artists and fraudsters, who used a national emergency to line their own pockets. I won't let them get away with it," she says to rapturous applause.

Reeves does not duck winter fuel rowpublished at 12:27 British Summer Time 23 September

12:27 BST 23 September

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent, reporting from Liverpool

The most controversial decision Rachel Reeves has made in her 80 days as chancellor is withdrawing the winter fuel allowance from most pensioners.

The chancellor just tackled that head on, arguing that pensioners would still benefit from a rising state pension because of Labour’s commitment to the triple-lock.

Interestingly, she made an argument in this section which was not really about the winter fuel allowance itself, but about the necessity of making controversial decisions overall.

"I know that not everyone in this hall or in the country will agree with every decision that I make. But I will not duck those decisions, not for political expediency, not for personal advantage… I did not take those decisions lightly, I will never take the responsibility of this office lightly," she says.

For all that Reeves’s speech today is more optimistic than her previous rhetoric, she is making this argument because she knows that there is more controversy to come - with decisions that will not only be divisive nationwide but within the Labour Party.

Continuing to criticise the situation that she inherited, Reeves refers to roads that will never be built and hospitals that would never treat a single patient.

She says she was told that a "failure to act swiftly could undermine the UK's fiscal position with implications for public debt, mortgages and prices".

That is why, she says, she took "in-year" action - that is, immediate cuts.

Labour's reviewing things that have been promised but not budgeted for, Reeves tells conference.

As for the winter fuel payment decision, she acknowledges not everyone will agree but insists she "will not duck" those decisions.