Angela Rayner has attempted to deflect attention away from Labour’s sleaze chaos by telling delegates at the party’s conference to remind voters about partygate.

The Deputy Prime Minister has denied she broke any rules over the donated use of a New York apartment owned by the Labour peer Lord Alli, who has also donated thousands of pounds in clothes to Sir Keir Starmer.

In her keynote speech on the first day of Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool, Ms Rayner told party members: “Don’t forget what they did.”

“We won because we had the courage to change our party, the discipline to make hard decisions, and the determination to remain united,” she said. “And now, change begins.

“Even now, especially now, there will be no complacency. Don’t forget – partygate, Covid contracts, lies, division, scapegoating and the unfunded tax cuts for the rich that crashed our economy. Don’t forget any of it.

“The Tories failed Britain and tried to cover it up. A crater in the heart of Britain’s economy, a puncture in the pocket of every working family and a £22 billion black hole, and not as much an apology, let alone an acceptance, from the Tories.”

Earlier on Sunday she denied breaking any rules over the use of a donated New York apartment owned by Labour peer Lord Ali. It has emerged that a former Labour MP, Sam Tarry, joined her for parts of her stay at the flat but was not named in the parliamentary declaration.

Ms Rayner told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I followed the rules.”

The Deputy Prime Minister also rejected the idea that Lord Alli was given anything in return for the donations he gifted to her. She said: “I promised nothing and gave him nothing in return.”

‘Devolution revolution’

Turning to policy, the Deputy Prime Minister – who is also the Housing Secretary – unveiled an extension to her devolution plans.

“Today, I’m proud to announce the next step in our devolution revolution,” she said. “This Government will change the future of the north of England so northerners will no longer be dictated to from Whitehall.

“We will be the Government to complete devolution in the north, change will be irreversible, and I will get it done. And as a proud northerner, this milestone is personal to me.”

Ms Rayner also said she could be trusted with any cuts she has to make in her department because she had to live on £60 a week when she had a child.

“The Tories have left us facing tough choices,” she said. “And even tougher ones face families across Britain, struggling to make ends meet.

“Look, I get it – balancing my own department’s budgets brought me back to the old days when I had 60 quid to get me and my son through”