Sawt Falasteen - UK's Labour looks to be more cheerful despite gifts and welfare row

Finance minister Rachel Reeves addresses the centre-left party's annual conference in a keynote speech from 1100 GMT, as ministers try to prevent the row over "freebies" from escalating.

The conference should have been an opportunity for Labour to toast its landslide July general election victory over the Conservatives after 14 years out of power.

But in recent days been Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his top team have been forced to fend off accusations of hypocrisy for accepting expensive gifts at the same time as asking ordinary people to tighten their belts.

All of the gifts have been declared and none falls foul of the parliamentary rules.

But the record shows that Starmer accepted more than £100,000 ($132,000) in gifts and hospitality since December 2019 -- more than any other lawmaker.

It also emerged that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner accepted the loan of a New York apartment for a holiday.

Education Minister Bridget Phillipson also admitted receiving a £14,000 donation to fund a 40th birthday event and another reception.

Since Friday it has also emerged that Reeves, who has angered trade unions and her fellow Labour MPs by announcing plans to axe a winter fuel payment for many pensioners, accepted some £7,500 in clothing.

Reeves has defended the abolition of the £300 payment to 10 million pensioners to help them heat their homes due to what Labour says is a "£22 billion black hole" left by the Conservatives.

Motions have been proposed at the conference calling for the cut to be abandoned. Sharon Graham, general-secretary of the Unite trade union, called it "cruel" and urged a U-turn.

Trade minister Douglas Alexander conceded stories about free gifts were "not the headlines we would have chosen" for its first party conference since winning power.

- Reasons to be cheerful? -

Reeves' speech, which comes a little over a month before Labour's first detailed budget, will be closely watched given her talk of difficult decisions that has been seen as a warning of possible tax hikes and spending cuts.

UK state debt in August reached a landmark high of 100 percent of the country's gross domestic product -- its total annual output -- a level unmatched since the early 1960s.

Starmer previously warned Britons that the budget announcement on October 30 would be "painful".

But Reeves on Monday attempted to inject a note of optimism following criticism from commentators that she and Starmer have been too gloomy.

Pledging that there would be no "austerity under Labour" she insisted there would be "growth in public spending", adding that there were "loads of reasons to be optimistic".

In her speech she is expected to vow a "budget that will rebuild Britain and deliver the change Labour promised", with economic growth as the government's "number one mission".

Reeves is also expected to announce the appointment of a new Covid corruption commissioner next month to try to claw back billions of pounds in taxpayers' money wasted on contracts during the global health emergency.

The Conservatives under Boris Johnson have been heavily criticised for how it awarded contracts to supply for protective clothing and other equipment during the pandemic.

This saw "billions of pounds of public money handed out to friends and donors of the Conservative Party. Billions more defrauded from the taxpayer", Reeves is expected to tell the conference.

N.Awad--SF-PST