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.HRachel Reeves freebies exposed from £699 of Adele tickets to £360 flower show treat

EXCLUSIVE: As pensioners worry whether winter fuel cuts will leave them with enough money to eat more of the Chancellor’s expensive freebies can be revealed.

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Rachel Reeves’s 2022 summer of freebies has been revealed (Image: Getty)

Rachel Reeves lapped up a trip to a sold-out Adele gig, Wimbledon tickets and a £350 day at the Chelsea Flower Show, parliamentary records studied by the Express reveal.

Free hospitality gifted to MPs has come under the microscope after Prime Minister Keir Starmer accepted almost £40,000 worth of football tickets and other politicians bagged free entry to sold-out Taylor Swift concerts.

Now analysis of past records has shown that in the summer of 2022, a year after she was appointed Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves started to reap the benefits of being one of Britain’s most recognisable figures and snapped up invites to a host of sought-after events.

Performing live for the first time in five years, global superstar Adele was the hottest show that year and tickets for her Hyde Park gig in London sold out within minutes of being released.

However, Reeves and her boss Keir Starmer didn’t have to worry about hitting refresh on their internet browser because they both snagged tickets worth hundreds of pounds for free.

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Adele’s Hyde Park shows were some of the most sought-after events of 2022 (Image: Getty)

Records show the Shadow Chancellor attended the July 1 gig in Hyde Park with a guest courtesy of industry body UK Music who covered the £699.90 cost.

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Two days later, Reeves enjoyed the hospitality at another exclusive establishment, Wimbledon, taking three guests to the All England Tennis Club in SW19 courtesy of the Lawn Tennis Association – with the tickets being valued at £580.

Just five weeks earlier Lloyds Bank had also spent £360 so Reeves and a guest could attend the Chelsea Flower Show.

This summer of fun had slipped off the most visible records of the Chancellor’s expenses due to a quirk in the way they are recorded. It was only after the Express’s data team started digging into the gifts handed to the senior Labour figure that they came to light.

This is because the gifts MPs receive and register are published on a rolling basis throughout the year using the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Appearing fortnightly on its website whilst Parliament is in session, any gift, trip or donation only remains on the Register “for 12 months after their date of registration, most recent update or end date, whichever is later”.

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Expenses that fall within the parliamentary session normally appear in the final pdf versions available at the top of each page, but those which come outside term time will be less visible.

So you can only find Reeves’s 2022 Adele, Wimbledon and Chelsea Flower Show expenses by carefully combing through the oldest parts of the archive for that year.

Changes have now been made to the way the gifts are published which should make future versions easier to navigate.

Reeves’s acceptance of a host of expensive freebies has come under particularly scrutiny given she is stripping millions of pensioners of their winter fuel payments, with worried campaigners warning it will leave many struggling OAPs having to choose between “heating or eating”.

Investigations by the Express into hospitality gifted to MPs revealed Channel 4 spent nearly £15,000 taking MPs involved in the debate over whether it should be privatised to BAFTA awards and that the Premier League believed it was ‘normal’ to splash £8,500 on a night out for politicians discussing its future at the BRITs.

Graphs compiled by the Express data team also show the staggering way in which Keir Starmer’s hospitality went through the roof after becoming Labour leader.

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Cabinet ministers were branded ‘hypocrites’ last night for claiming soaring amounts on expenses to heat their second homes while stripping ten million pensioners of their winter fuel payments. Eleven of Sir Keir Starmer‘s Cabinet have relied on taxpayer-funded help to pay their energy bills, analysis of expenses receipts reveals, with the amount they claimed soaring by 75 per cent over three years. Critics last night said it ‘wasn’t a good look’ amid warnings that hundreds of thousands of pensioners will be forced to choose between ‘heating or eating’ because of Labour’s overhaul. Among the claimants was Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who announced last month that she was axing cold-weather payments for millions. She said it was necessary to help plug a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in the public finances she claims was left behind by the Tories. Eleven of Sir Keir Starmer ‘s Cabinet have relied on taxpayer-funded help to pay their energy bills, analysis of expenses receipts reveals. Pictured: Figures of six top Labour ministers Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet pose for a photo with Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month Critics last night said it ‘wasn’t a good look’ amid warnings that hundreds of thousands of pensioners will be forced to choose between ‘heating or eating’ because of Labour’s overhaul to winter fuel payments (stock image) But nearly half of this sum relates to inflation-busting pay hikes the new administration has offered to public sector workers, sparking accusations that they’re ‘robbing’ the elderly to appease their union baron ‘paymasters’. In 2021-22, Ms Reeves claimed £382 for help towards paying the energy bills at her second home. This shot up to £1,186 last year. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, whose department is responsible for denying elderly people the fuel payments, claimed £1,284 towards her energy bills in 2021-22, and £2,400 last year. Energy Secretary Ed Milliband’s claims also shot up from £650 to £1,100, while Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s surged from £1,052 to £1,896. In total, the 11 Cabinet ministers claimed £7,187 towards their gas and electricity bills in 2021-22, which soared to £12,620 for the first three-quarters of last year. Baroness Altmann, a former pensions minister in David Cameron’s government, said: ‘It makes you want to weep. It almost beggars belief that ministers don’t seem to realise how many millions of people in this country who are elderly are struggling to make ends meet. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, whose department is responsible for denying elderly people the fuel payments, claimed £1,284 towards her energy bills in 2021-22, and £2,400 last year Energy Secretary Ed Milliband’s claims also shot up from £650 to £1,100, while Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s surged from £1,052 to £1,896 Baroness Altmann, a former pensions minister in David Cameron’s government, said: ‘It makes you want to weep’ Dennis Reed, director of pensioners’ campaign group Silver Voices, said: ‘It’s rather sad and hypocritical’ ‘When they see the kinds of figures the Government says it can afford [in public sector pay rises], it will upset a lot of pensioners and make them very angry.’ Dennis Reed, director of pensioners’ campaign group Silver Voices, said: ‘It’s rather sad and hypocritical. ‘And I hope that, when Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall and the others come to consider whether they should continue this very cruel policy, they come to realise that this is not a good look. ‘I’m afraid it feeds into the narrative that there’s one rule for those at the top of society and another rule for the rest of us, and particularly those at the bottom end of the income scale.’ The claims relate to money that MPs, whose salaries rose to £91,346 this year, are entitled to receive for having to work from two locations if their constituency is not in London. They can claim money towards the cost of having a property near Westminster, including council tax and utilities. Tory energy spokesman Claire Coutinho said: ‘The Chancellor has made a choice to axe winter fuel payments for vulnerable pensioners whilst delivering inflation-busting pay rises demanded by her union paymasters and refusing to clamp down on the welfare bill’ There is no suggestion that those who have made claims have broken any rules. It came amid reports yesterday that Ms Reeves is refusing to publish a report into the impact of scrapping the winter payments. Impact assessments are routinely published when governments cut benefits, but Ms Reeves is ruling out releasing the findings – or even confirming if or when an investigation was carried out, the Sunday Express reported. Tory energy spokesman Claire Coutinho said: ‘The Chancellor has made a choice to axe winter fuel payments for vulnerable pensioners whilst delivering inflation-busting pay rises demanded by her union paymasters and refusing to clamp down on the welfare bill.’ She demanded that Ms Reeves ‘come clean’ and admit exactly how many pensioners will suffer. Tory MP Dr Caroline Johnson added: ‘Cold homes are associated with excess winter deaths. The pension credit thresholds are low. If elderly people cannot afford to heat their homes they are at increased risk of becoming ill.’ Pensioners face more misery after experts at the Cornwall Insight consultancy said they believe energy bills will jump by as much as £150 this winter. They think the energy price cap will be hiked by as much as 10 per cent, from the current level of £1,568 for a ‘typical’ household, when the regulator Ofgem reviews it this week. Adam Scorer, boss of fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, said: ‘If these alarming estimates are confirmed by Ofgem on Friday, energy bills and energy debt will stretch household finances beyond breaking point.’ A Labour spokesman said: ‘The accommodation costs budget is designed to meet costs incurred by MPs as a result of working from two permanent locations. MPs of all parties are entitled to this, and they continue paying their utility bills for their own homes like everyone else.’H