'Change has started': Prime Minister's first words as he arrives at Labour Party Conference in Liverpool

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour’s conference will show “how we’re fixing the foundations and rebuilding our country”.

Arriving at the conference centre in Liverpool alongside his deputy Angela Rayner, the Prime Minister said it was “our biggest conference ever and the first one in 15 years with Labour in government”, adding “change has started”.

Labour’s annual party conference will begin in Liverpool on tomorrow (Sunday, September 22). It is the first the party has held since winning the general election in July.

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As the PM and is senior ministers prepare for a busy few days, he has found himself embroiled in a row over donations for clothes.

Neither Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, nor Chancellor Rachel Reeves will accept such donations in the future, it is understood.

The move comes as Labour seeks to put to bed a row about Sir Keir and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer’s acceptance of gifts, including clothing, from prominent Labour donor and peer Lord Alli. Sir Keir has accepted around £39,000 from Lord Alli since December 2019.

The Financial Times newspaper has meanwhile reported that donations “in kind” to Ms Rayner and Ms Reeves listed in their registers of interests were also for clothing.

Ms Rayner received funding towards clothing from Lord Alli, while a donor called Juliet Rosenfeld provided funding for the Chancellor’s wardrobe in four instalments, the FT said. Sir Keir maintains he has followed all the rules on accepting donations.

In recent weeks the Prime Minister, an avid Arsenal fan, has also come under pressure for accepting more than £35,000 of free football tickets over the last Parliament, along with thousands more in free clothes and concert tickets.

Although he is an Arsenal season ticket holder, Sir Keir told the BBC on Thursday that security concerns meant he could no longer watch games from the stands without a large and expensive police presence.

He told the BBC he was “not going to ask the taxpayer to indulge me to be in the stands when I could go and sit somewhere else where the club and the security say it’s safer for me to be”.

Sir Keir’s register of interests shows most of his tickets have been provided by individual football clubs or the Premier League, although investment firm Cain International and Bishop Auckland-based Teescraft Engineering paid for him to attend games against Chelsea and Newcastle respectively.