Starmer will no longer accept donations for clothes

The Prime Minister and his most senior ministers will no longer accept donations to pay for their clothes.

Neither Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, nor Chancellor Rachel Reeves will accept such donations in the future, the PA news agency understands.

The move comes as Labour seeks to put to bed a row about Sir Keir and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer’s acceptance of gifts, including clothing, from prominent Labour donor and peer Lord Alli.

Sir Keir has accepted around £39,000 from Lord Alli since December 2019.

The Financial Times newspaper has meanwhile reported that donations “in kind” to Ms Rayner and Ms Reeves listed in their registers of interests were also for clothing.

Ms Rayner received funding towards clothing from Lord Alli, while a donor called Juliet Rosenfeld provided funding for the Chancellor’s wardrobe in four instalments, the FT said.

The latest in the row over donations comes as the Labour Party heads to Liverpool for its first annual conference since it won the general election in July.

Sir Keir maintains he has followed all the rules on accepting donations.

In recent weeks the Prime Minister, an avid Arsenal fan, has also come under pressure for accepting more than £35,000 of free football tickets over the last Parliament, along with thousands more in free clothes and concert tickets.

Although he is an Arsenal season ticket holder, Sir Keir told the BBC on Thursday that security concerns meant he could no longer watch games from the stands without a large and expensive police presence.

He told the BBC he was “not going to ask the taxpayer to indulge me to be in the stands when I could go and sit somewhere else where the club and the security say it’s safer for me to be”.

Sir Keir’s register of interests shows most of his tickets have been provided by individual football clubs or the Premier League, although investment firm Cain International and Bishop Auckland-based Teescraft Engineering paid for him to attend games against Chelsea and Newcastle respectively.

He is far from the only MP to have received freebies over the past year, with more than 70 current MPs from across the political spectrum listing free tickets to sporting events in their registers of interests.

Tickets have been provided by private donors, corporations, football clubs or sport governing bodies, among others.

Responding to the latest on the row, a Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Nothing Labour say will change the fact that Keir Starmer and his top team have accepted thousands of pounds in freebie clothes whilst simultaneously consigning 10 million pensioners to a cold and hard winter.

“And not only have they loaded up on freebies whilst lecturing the public about integrity, morality, and tough choices – they also appear to have continuously failed to properly register these crony gifts.

“The British public are no fools though, and can see Labour for what they truly are – pure hypocrites.”

The SNP’s work and pensions spokesperson Kirsty Blackman said: “Voters were promised change but instead the Labour Party is copying the worst excesses of the Tories on sleaze, austerity cuts, and cronyism. It’s no wonder they are plummeting in the polls.”

Published: 21/09/2024 by Radio NewsHub