The work strains credulity but soon the rubber band will ping!

ANgela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, has reclassified a gift from Waheed Alli, the Labor peer. She declared 3,550 in July as an in-kind donation to carry out her parliamentary duties. On Thursday, she updated the register of MPs' interests to admit that the donation was for work clothes.

It wasn't a good time to tell the truth, but the day after a budget that increased bus fares by 50 percent and taxes by $40 billion suggests the government is oblivious to the risks of a rule for them, another for the rest of us. Could the Labor Party have forgotten its attack on Boris Johnson so soon?

If the budget is going to collapse, it won't be because there were hidden injustices or because markets briefly reacted badly. It will be because people see a gap between what politicians say and what they do.

Scunthorpe voters who switched from the Conservatives to Labor told Luke Tryl in a discussion group for More in Common that the way they balance things seems underhanded, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. They enjoyed the extra spending on the NHS and seemed to begrudgingly accept the tax increase, even though they tax you through the back door and just changed the wording to suit them, but it's still a tax.

But that benefit of the doubt will be eroded if Rayner forgets to declare a few extra outfits. Voters are willing to endure a common sacrifice; What they won't tolerate is hypocrisy.

Rayner, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have admitted that they should not have accepted personal gifts by saying they would no longer accept them and, in Starmer's case, by refunding Taylor Swift's tickets. he received as Prime Minister.

Rayner's reclassification of his $3,550 donation once again calls attention to the fact that Labor is failing to live up to its own pious rhetoric in attacking the Tories. His initial statement not only did not mention that it was clothing, but claimed that it was parliamentary work when we now know that the clothing, donated in June this year, was intended for the election campaign, when Parliament was dissolved.

The Prime Minister hopes to put an end to this story by publishing new rules on ministerial gifts and hospitality, perhaps next week. But until he and his senior ministers repay all the personal gifts received, both in opposition and government, they will continue to leave a bitter aftertaste.

Of course, the question of gifts is trivial on one level. Everyone knew before the election that Alli had given Starmer suits and glasses, and he barely batted an eyelid. But small things can look different from the government's perspective. And things that start small can derail noble ambitions.

Especially if people think they can spot a trend. Starmer said one thing to be elected Labor leader and something quite different once the votes were counted. Now he's accused of saying one thing to get elected prime minister, including swearing in blood that he wouldn't touch farmers' inheritance tax cuts, and then doing something quite different now that he is in government.

In both cases, we find excuses for him. He was to save the Labor Party by taking it back from the Corbynites who still held a sway among its members. Then he had to try to put the country on a better path by winning the votes of a tax-averse electorate.

If this Scunthorpe focus group is to be believed, he and Reeves almost managed to achieve the necessary rescue of the public finances and public services, without breaking the rubber band of trust.

But the elastic is tight and Rayners clothing stretches it a little more. It doesn't help that David Goldstone, the head of the new Office for Value for Money, is paid 950 euros a day.

The rhetoric of service government has strained the rubber band of trust because, like Tony Blairs purer than pure, it has created expectations that will inevitably be disappointed if the new government conforms to exceptional ethical standards.

One of these days, that rubber band is going to Ping!