Keir Starmer pays back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality – UK politics live
Sir Keir Starmer pays back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality
Sir Keir Starmer has paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality he received since entering Number 10 after a row over ministerial donations.
The Prime Minister is covering the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets, four to the races and a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer favoured by his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer.
It comes after Sir Keir and other Cabinet members – who vowed to “clean up” British politics – faced weeks of criticism for accepting tens of thousands of pounds worth of freebies from wealthy donors.
The Prime Minister has committed to overhauling hospitality rules for ministers to ensure better transparency about what is provided following the backlash.
On Wednesday, a Downing Street spokesperson said:
The Prime Minister has commissioned a new set of principles on gifts and hospitality to be published as part of the updated ministerial code.
Ahead of the publication of the new code, the Prime Minister has paid for several entries on his own register. This will appear in the next register of members’ interests.
Gifts paid for by Sir Keir include four Taylor Swift tickets from Universal Music Group totalling £2,800, two from the Football Association at a cost of £598, and four to Doncaster Races from Arena Racing Corporation at £1,939.
An £839 clothing rental agreement with Edeline Lee, the designer recently worn by his wife to London Fashion Week, along with one hour of hair and makeup, was also covered by the Prime Minister.
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Asked about the news that Labour peer Waheed Alli is under investigation by a parliamentary watchdog over a potential breach of the code of conduct, a Labour spokesperson has said:
Lord Alli will co-operate fully with the Lords Commissioner and he is confident all interests have been registered.
We cannot comment further while this is ongoing.
Here is a list of the donations and gifts from Lord Waheed Alli declared by MPs that appear in the latest version of the register of members’ financial interests, which was published on September 2 2024.
The latest register includes all donations and gifts declared in the previous 12 months.
1. Donations
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19 October 2023: £10,000 to Sir Keir Starmer (Labour)
Description in register: “For the private office of the Leader of the Opposition.” -
7 November 7 2023: £12,500 to David Lammy (Labour)
“Towards paying for additional staff for my office.” -
16 November 2023: £8,500 to Angela Rayner (Labour)
“Donation to support me in my capacity as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.” -
8 December 8 2023: £10,000 to Bridget Phillipson (Labour)
“To host a number of events, including on behalf of the Shadow Education Team.” -
11 December 2023: £4,000 to Bridget Phillipson
“To host a number of events, including on behalf of the Shadow Education Team.” -
26 February 2024: £6,000 to Sir Keir Starmer
“For the private office of the Leader of the Opposition.” -
15 April 2024: £8,250 to Angela Rayner
“To support me in my capacity as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.” -
26 April 2024: £900 to Angela Rayner
“To support me in my capacity as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.” -
29 July 2024: £3,550 to Angela Rayner
“Donation in kind for undertaking parliamentary duties.” -
2 August 2024: £10,000 to Liam Conlon (Labour)
2. Gifts
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22 March 2023 (published in register on December 3 2023): £1,200,000 to Dame Siobhain McDonagh (Labour)
“Interest free loan to be repaid on the sale of the home I share with a family member. The move was necessary to provide the family member with complete ground floor access.” -
24 April 2024: £16,200 to Sir Keir Starmer
Work clothing -
22 May 2024: £2,485 to Sir Keir Starmer
Multiple pairs of glasses -
2 August 2024: £20,437.28 to Sir Keir Starmer
Accommodation
Sir Keir Starmer pays back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality
Sir Keir Starmer has paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality he received since entering Number 10 after a row over ministerial donations.
The Prime Minister is covering the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets, four to the races and a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer favoured by his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer.
It comes after Sir Keir and other Cabinet members – who vowed to “clean up” British politics – faced weeks of criticism for accepting tens of thousands of pounds worth of freebies from wealthy donors.
The Prime Minister has committed to overhauling hospitality rules for ministers to ensure better transparency about what is provided following the backlash.
On Wednesday, a Downing Street spokesperson said:
The Prime Minister has commissioned a new set of principles on gifts and hospitality to be published as part of the updated ministerial code.
Ahead of the publication of the new code, the Prime Minister has paid for several entries on his own register. This will appear in the next register of members’ interests.
Gifts paid for by Sir Keir include four Taylor Swift tickets from Universal Music Group totalling £2,800, two from the Football Association at a cost of £598, and four to Doncaster Races from Arena Racing Corporation at £1,939.
An £839 clothing rental agreement with Edeline Lee, the designer recently worn by his wife to London Fashion Week, along with one hour of hair and makeup, was also covered by the Prime Minister.
UK and EU pledge to strengthen economic and defence cooperation
The UK and European Union will work to strengthen co-operation on the economy and security as Sir Keir Starmer promised to “make Brexit work”.
The Prime Minister met European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen for talks in Brussels, with Starmer promising to offer “pragmatic, sensible leadership” as he pushed for a reset in the UK-EU relationship after the turbulent Tory years.
A joint statement after the talks said the two had agreed to meet again this autumn, with a plan for regular EU-UK summits at leader level beginning in early 2025.
The statement said:
They agreed a stable, positive and forward-looking relationship was in their mutual interests and provided the basis for long-term co-operation.
They agreed to take forward this agenda of strengthened co-operation at pace over the coming months, starting with defining together the areas in which strengthened co-operation would be mutually beneficial, such as the economy, energy, security and resilience, in full respect of their internal procedures and institutional prerogatives.
Speaking in Brussels, Starmer said:
I firmly believe that the British public want to return to pragmatic, sensible leadership when it comes to dealing with our closest neighbours, to make Brexit work and to deliver in their interests, to find ways to boost economic growth, strengthen our security and tackle shared challenges like irregular migration and climate change.
He added that “in dangerous times we have a duty to work together to preserve stability and security”, referring to the crisis in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.
Starmer said:
We are determined to put this relationship back on a stable, positive footing that I think we all want to see.
Von der Leyen said the various arrangements put in place since the Brexit vote, including the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) needed to be fully implemented.
She said:
We have a set of solid agreements in place. We should explore the scope for more co-operation, while we focus on the full and faithful implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, the Windsor Framework and the TCA.
The Prime Minister is under pressure to agree to Brussels’ calls for a deal on youth mobility, to allow young EU citizens greater freedom to come to the UK to study and work and vice versa, something he has so far resisted.
The Prime Minister’s red lines for the reset rule out a return to the single market, the customs union or freedom of movement. But pro-EU campaigners have pushed for him to give ground on a youth mobility scheme.
Sir Nick Harvey, chief executive of European Movement UK, said:
Dismissing the idea of reciprocal youth mobility simply means letting down British young people, who face all sorts of economic difficulties and have seen their horizons curtailed by Brexit.
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Sir Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen have agreed to work “at pace” to take forward “an agenda of strengthened co-operation”.
The Prime Minister and European Commission president will meet again this autumn and there will be regular leader-level EU-UK summits, with the first expected in early 2025.
In a joint statement, the leaders said they “underlined their mutual commitment to the full and faithful implementation” of the existing post-Brexit agreements, and they “reaffirmed their mutual commitment to uphold international law and to the European Convention on Human Rights”.
It added:
They agreed a stable, positive and forward-looking relationship was in their mutual interests and provided the basis for long-term co-operation.
They agreed to take forward this agenda of strengthened co-operation at pace over the coming months, starting with defining together the areas in which strengthened co-operation would be mutually beneficial, such as the economy, energy, security and resilience, in full respect of their internal procedures and institutional prerogatives.
The SNP has called for a “full investigation” by the standards commissioner and the independent adviser on ministers’ interests into donations made by Lord Alli to Labour MPs.
The party’s Cabinet Office spokesman Brendan O’Hara MP said:
I welcome the announcement of this investigation, following calls from the SNP. The Labour Party freebies scandal has wrecked public confidence in Keir Starmer, his government and the Westminster system, and there must be full transparency and accountability.
It’s now essential that in addition to this narrow inquiry, there is a full investigation by standards commissioners and the independent adviser on ministers’ interests into all the donations made by Lord Alli to Labour MPs and the subsequent granting of a Downing Street security pass.
Voters are appalled that Labour ministers have been lining their pockets with more than £800,000 of luxury designer clothes, holidays, hospitality and donations, while imposing painful austerity cuts on the rest of us, and they want to know what donors were getting in exchange.
We need answers – including why these gifts were taken, whether there have been breaches of the MPs and ministerial code, and why Lord Alli was handed a security pass to the halls of power.
Eleni Courea
The Labour peer Waheed Alli is under investigation by a parliamentary watchdog over a potential breach of the code of conduct, writes the Guardian’s political correspondent Eleni Courea.
Alli is being investigated after a complaint that he has not registered his interests correctly.
He was listed on the Lords standards commissioners’ website on Wednesday as being subject to an inquiry.
“The fact that an investigation is taking place does not mean that the rules have been broken,” the notice stated.
Lord Alli, a media businessman and a major Labour party donor who is worth an estimated £200m, has been thrust into the spotlight over tens of thousands of pounds worth of gifts he gave to Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner.
The SNP’s Cabinet Office spokesperson Brendan O’Hara MP, has now welcomed the Lords commissioner’s investigation into Lord Alli, after calling for an inquiry last week.
In a statement, O’Hara wrote:
The Labour Party freebies scandal has wrecked public confidence in Keir Starmer, his government and the Westminster system, and there must be full transparency and accountability.
It’s now essential that in addition to this narrow inquiry, there is a full investigation by Standards Commissioners and the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests into all the donations made by Lord Alli to Labour MPs and the subsequent granting of a Downing Street security pass.
Voters are appalled that Labour ministers have been lining their pockets with more than £800,000 of luxury designer clothes, holidays, hospitality and donations, while imposing painful austerity cuts on the rest of us, and they want to know what donors were getting in exchange.
We need answers – including why these gifts were taken, whether there have been breaches of the MPs and ministerial code, and why Lord Alli was handed a security pass to the halls of power.
The reference to the security pass comes after it emerged he used it to help organise a reception for fellow donors in the garden of No 10. Labour says he held the pass to help with “transition work” once the party came into government.
In his letter asking for an investigation into Lord Alli, the SNP MP Brendan O’Hara wrote that the revelations about donations had “become Sir Keir Starmer’s version of the expenses scandal”.
He said that unless the matter were “comprehensively investigated”, then it was “inevitable that the damaging drip, drip of revelations will continue to erode public trust”.
The row over Waheed Alli’s donations had risked defining Labour’s first months in office, and partly overshadowed their conference in Liverpool last week. The risks are particularly high for Keir Starmer, given his repeated election pledges to be a contrast to the sleaze and self-interest of the Conservatives.
The SNP had asked for an investigation into Alli’s donations last Friday in a letter to the standards commissioners in the House of Commons and House of Lords, the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Sir Laurie Magnus, and the cabinet secretary, Simon Case.
You can read more from my colleagues Rowena Mason and Peter Walker here on their report last Friday:
As the row over Alli’s donations to Labour emerged last month, my colleague Kiran Stacey profiled the millionaire businessman, who made his name as a co-founder of Planet 24, the television production company that created convention-defying hits such as the Big Breakfast and The Word. He later became chair of the fashion website Asos.
You can read his profile here:
We now have more details into the investigation into Waheed Alli, the Labour peer at the centre of a row over donations to Keir Starmer.
He is facing a probe by the Lords’ standards watchdog over an alleged failure to register interests.
It comes after a backlash over tens of thousands of pounds worth of gifts accepted by the prime minister from the peer, a major party donor.
According to an update published on Parliament’s website on Wednesday, Lord Alli is being investigated by the Lords’ commissioner for “alleged non-registration of interests leading to potential breaches of paragraphs 14(a) and 17 of the thirteenth edition of the code of conduct”.
These rules relate to making clear what the interests are that might be reasonably thought to influence a member’s parliamentary actions and ensuring entries are up to date.