Was it the photo of the Siberian kitten that gave it away? Or the conference eve announcement that the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor would not take any more free clothes? Or maybe it was George Foulkes asking to interview Laura Kuenssberg about the salaries of television presenters?

The gauntlet thrown down on Twitter/X over Kuenssberg’s pay (£325,000-£329,999 since you ask) was one of many signs that this Labour Party conference would not be quite as advertised. Instead of a post-election victory rally in Liverpool, the wagons were being circled for a good old fashioned Labour conference of old, complete with accusations that the media was out to “get” the party, in this case over freebies.

You might have expected this halfway through a Labour government’s term, but Team Starmer has been unable to make it to 100 days, the traditional point of taking stock, without generating headlines asking if the man in charge is up to the job.

After the weekend papers highlighted the donations row the Sunday politics shows were next into the fray. It was obvious from Sky News’ Sunday with Trevor Phillips that the kitten picture released by Downing Street (Sir Keir plus “Prince”) was not going to cut it as a distraction. There was no mention of the cat as Phillips, generally held to be one of the nicest chaps in political journalism, grilled the minister like a kipper.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, found herself explaining how a bash paid for by Lord Waheed Alli was not her 40th birthday party but a work event attended by reporters, trade unionists and others. Her actual birthday was spent having pizza with her children. Was this how Phillipson imagined her first conference as a minister would be? Probably not.

The next gripping insight into the extracurricular lives of ministers came when Angela Rayner, deputy PM, was interviewed on BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. At issue here were free clothes given to Rayner and a stay at Lord Alli’s Manhattan apartment over Christmas. The clothes were declared as “office support” and she did not say that a friend, then a fellow MP, had also stayed at the flat.

Rayner’s defence for accepting gifts was that “all MPs do it”. She understood that people were frustrated and angry, but said donations have been a feature of our politics “for a very long time”. No rules were broken, she insisted, and there was no apology. The important thing, according to Rayner, was that everything was transparent and declared.

If this was the Downing Street line it was pretty weak. As if to prove it, Kuenssberg put a selection of emails from viewers on screen, one of which, from “Clive”, said of the row over freebies: “Frankly, it stinks.” And he was a Labour Party member.

After defending her own actions, Rayner spoke out in support of Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff. It was revealed last week that Gray was paid £170,000, some £3000 more than her boss. Rayner said she did not accept that Gray was “part of the problem at all”, and that the adviser would still be in her job come Christmas.

BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show had Ian Murray, the Scottish Secretary, as its main interview. But a decision to position him at a busy thoroughfare in the conference centre meant the viewer, and Murray, had trouble hearing what was being said. While not exactly as chaotic as Paxman-Wheeler at the Brandenburg Gate, give it another five minutes and who knows.

For the last Labour conference as busy as this you have to go back to Brighton in 1997. Then, as now, Labour was back in government for the first time in an age and all was right with their world. In reality, trouble was brewing in the background over a £1 million donation from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone. But that story would not break till November, long after the party conference had been and gone.

The F1 donation scandal was arguably more of a threat to the then Labour government than the current row over gifts. There was the amount of money involved for a start, £1 million (and potentially more), as opposed to the tens of thousands in gifts received by today’s ministers.

The F1 donation was not revealed until later in the year, when the government announced the sport would be exempt from a tobacco sponsorship ban, and only then because journalists asked about it. The gifts given to Labour MPs and ministers have been, for the most part, disclosed according to the rules. The declarations may not have been as detailed as they could have been, but they were made and accepted.

Wardrobegate/Frockgate is no Ecclestone, then, but it does amount to a serious cloudburst over what should have been a straightforward victory parade. In part the problem is one of timing, with conference coming after the axing of the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners, and before what has been trailed as a tough budget on October 30. And who has been shouting loudest about the need to make sacrifices? Only the same ministers in receipt of lots of lovely free stuff.

Things can only get worse for the Labour leadership if conference backs the reinstatement of the winter fuel payments, or calls grow for the Prime Minister and others to refund the cost of gifts received. The F1 money went back eventually. For Labour to do the same with individual donations would be a messy and protracted business. Moreover, it would throw the system for all MPs into doubt.

If the footfall behind Ian Murray was a guide, this should be Labour’s busiest conference in years. So far it is not turning out to be its cheeriest, but it is early doors. Much depends on the tone set by Rachel Reeves today in her speech, and by the Prime Minister tomorrow. Given how prominently both figure in the current row over gifts, a little humility would be a nice surprise.