Just say no, prime minister! Accepting gifts can embroil politicians in scandal early in their careers - Nigel Nelson

So from the platform, we’ll be hearing a lot about what a mess the Tories left the country in. This blame game cannot continue forever but don’t expect an end to it any time soon.

I remember Maggie Thatcher keeping it going for 13 years.

What Ms Reeves should do is explain in more detail decisions already made - such as why she needs £1.4billion instantly by whipping winter fuel payments off pensioners next month.

What the Government has put out so far really doesn’t wash. The claim the loss is mitigated by a £460 rise in the basic state pension in April 2025 doesn’t help older people find an extra £300 to keep the heating on until then.

Navigating the issue of frockgate will be a tricky one for Keir Starmer, given that he wants to present his wife receiving £5,000 worth of designer dresses from Labour donor Lord Alli as a non-issue.

The only way to do this is with humour, and I can imagine the No10 scriptwriters now feverishly working away on an appropriate joke to insert into the leader’s speech.

There will be a lot of jokes about it at the Tory conference in Birmingham a week later, but they will have barbs to them.

The was a misstep by the PM. Declaration rules are opaque so I accept the excuse that not submitting on time was an oversight. Nor should we be too bothered about Starmer accepting free football tickets and hospitality.

These are areas where it is difficult to draw the line. The PM can hardly be expected to refuse a glass of wine or a canape at a reception simply because he is not paying for them.

But a line can be drawn on gifts because the optics are always bad once details are revealed. And the PM should have seen that through the new glasses Alli gave him.

As a journalist, I accept hospitality from people I need to talk to, but I have always said no to any offer of an expensive gift.

I once had lunch with the tobacco lobby and at the end of it, they suggested sending me a box of very tempting and very pricey Havana cigars. This was a definite no-no. I knew it would not affect my reporting, but I also knew others might see it differently.

It’s the advice I would give to newbie MPs who want to avoid becoming embroiled in a scandal early in their political careers. Treat geeks bearing gifts the same way as those peddling drugs. Just say no.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting will have a freer hand at the conference fleshing out how he intends to turn the NHS from a sickness service into a prevention service.

Cutting hospital waiting lists will be a key measure of the success of this Labour government. And Streeting should study where Tony Blair at first got this wrong and how he put it right.

In 1997 Blair also promised to reduce the backlog by 100,000 in his first term, a modest figure compared to the one Streeting now faces.

But by 2008 Blair realised this was too simplistic. Cutting overall numbers was easy enough if medics went for low hanging fruit - those with straightforward illnesses which could be picked off without too much trouble.

But it was not being on a waiting list that most concerned patients. It was the time they had to wait. So Blair set a new target which meant delivering treatment within 18 weeks instead of 18 months.

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Once Labour delegates have had their fill of their conference - and filled up on the copious quantities of alcohol available there - attention will turn to the Conservative shindig in Birmingham.

This will be a more muted affair after so many MPs lost their seats. Pitting the four leadership candidates head to head is the best the Tories can do to liven things up.

It will be worth watching more for its entertainment value than its significance. The Tories are likely to change their leader once, if not twice, before the next General Election comes around.

Kemi Badenoch has already managed to kick off the hilarity by claiming she became working class by shifting in a McDonald’s when she was 16.

Er, come again. That makes her working-class credentials about as authentic as Dick Van Dyke’s Cockney accent in Mary Poppins.