LONDON -- This should be a time of celebration for Britain’s Labour Party, which opens its annual conference Sunday less than three months after winning power in a landslide after 14 years in opposition.But it’s no victory lap for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.His government is facing a reckoning with a battered economy and an electorate impatient for change.The mood among Labour members gathering in the northwest England city of Liverpool has been further dampened by a tempest over Starmer’s acceptance of freebies at a time when the millions of people are struggling with the cost of living.Starmer insists he followed the rules when he took clothes and designer eyeglasses from Waheed Alli, a media entrepreneur and longtime Labour donor.
But after days of negative headlines, the party now says Starmer won’t accept any more free outfits.“I get that people are angry,” said Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who also accepted donations to pay for clothing.“But donations for gifts and hospitality and monetary donations have been a feature of our politics for a very long time,” she told the BBC.“People can look it up and see what people have had donations for, and the transparency is really important.”Starmer won the July 4 election on a promise to “restore politics as a force for good” after scandal-tarnished years under the Conservatives.
He vowed to get the country’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.Since then, he has struck a gloomy note, saying there is a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the Conservative government, and warning that “things will get worse” before they get better.One of the government’s first major acts was to strip millions of retirees of a payment intended to help heat their homes in winter.Starmer also had to deal with anti-immigrant unrest that erupted after three children were stabbed to deat...