The freebies row engulfing Sir Keir Starmer deepened on Friday night as it emerged he was given another £16,000-worth of clothes by Labour peer Lord Alli.
Two donations, one for £10,000 in October 2023 and another for £6,000 in February this year, were quietly ‘recategorised’ by Downing Street amid intense scrutiny.
It brings the total accepted by the Prime Minister from Lord Alli for clothing to £32,000. He also accepted more than £2,400 for several pairs of glasses.
It comes amid mounting questions about the PM’s use of the Labour peer’s £18 million penthouse flat in Covent Garden, central London, including he and his family living there during the election. That freebie was valued at £20,437 for a near seven-week stay.
The latest clothing freebies, revealed in the Guardian, were originally recorded in the MPs’ register of interests as simply support ‘for the private office of the leader of the opposition’, as he was not PM at the time.
Sir Keir Starmer addressing the nation as leader of the opposition at Lord Alli’s Covent Garden penthouse flat
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer received another £16,000-worth of clothes from Labour peer Lord Alli (pictured)
Sir Keir and his family also stayed at Lord Alli’s £18 million penthouse flat in Covent Garden, central London for nearly seven weeks during the election
It was not known that they were for clothes until last night. It is understood that following further advice given to No 10 it sought a ‘recategorisation’ of the donations.
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It throws into question many more thousands of pounds-worth of donations registered by Cabinet ministers, as several have listed donations generically.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner registered an £8,500 donation from Lord Alli in November 2023, listed as a ‘donation to support me in my capacity as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party’. Another for £8,250, registered in April this year, was listed the same.
A third given to her by the Labour peer, for £3,550 in June this year, later turned out to be clothes after initially being listed simply as ‘donation in kind’.
Sir Keir registered £16,200 in gifts from Lord Alli in May this year and did record it as being for ‘work clothing’ in the MPs’ register of interests. He registered £2,485 for ‘multiple pairs of glasses’ in the same month.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister was accused of ’empty promises’ and ‘hypocrisy’ in a letter from Tory frontbencher John Glen, Shadow Paymaster General.
Sir Keir Starmer attending a breakfast meeting with business leaders at the consul general’s residence in New York
Sir Keir with Sir Jim Ratcliffe at a match at Old Trafford. Sir Keir has also come under pressure for accepting tickets to Premier League football matches
Mr Glen wrote: ‘You pledged to put ‘country first, party second’.
‘Actions speak louder than words. In recent weeks, the scandals over Lord Alli, Sue Gray [earning more than the PM] and appointments to the Civil Service have exposed these promises as empty and hypocritical.’
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Labour has refused to answer questions about Lord Alli being given a No 10 pass to attend meetings on the grounds of national security. The pass has since been withdrawn.
In his letter, Mr Glen added: ‘It is incredulous to claim that it would compromise national security to disclose which political figure authorised his pass, when it was given, and when it was returned.’
The PM has also had to defend himself for using Lord Alli’s apartment to record two clips, one telling Britain to work from home in the pandemic and another paying a tribute to the late Queen.
The former, from December 2021, saw him sat at a desk with a family picture on the shelves behind him, creating the impression he was at his home and leading to accusations he tried to ‘hoodwink’ the public.
He also came under fire for his seven-week stay there which the PM said was to allow his son to study for his GCSEs ‘in peace’.
Tory frontbencher John Glen accused the Prime Minister of ’empty promises’ and ‘hypocrisy’
The use of the penthouse to film the two clips was not recorded in the MPs’ register of interests as Downing Street said it fell below the £300 value threshold for declaring gifts. The stay with his family was, valued at £20,437.28 – around £450 a night.
Critics have accused the PM of undervaluing the gift, with smaller nearby properties commanding £30,000 a month in rent.
Sir Keir is also facing questions about other times Lord Alli may have made properties available to the party. Some 23 donations for ‘hospitality’ from the peer – worth £55,000 – were recorded by the Electoral Commission, made to Labour. The party yesterday refused to say what the donations related to.
The PM has received more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader: £107,145-worth since 2019.
A Labour spokesman said: ‘All donations are declared in accordance with Parliamentary and Electoral Commission rules.’
The issue of donations to senior Labour Party politicians threatened to overshadow events at last week’s conference in Liverpool.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin during the CNBC (Image: PA)
Sir Keir Starmer was given additional clothes valued at £16,000 from wealthy Labour peer Waheed Alli, which the Prime Minister declared as a donation to his private office, it was been revealed.
The donations, consisting of two instalments of £10,000 in October 2023 and £6,000 the following February, bring the total value of clothing accepted by Sir Keir to £32,000 – not far below the average UK salary, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The most recent donations were at first described as being for the private office of the leader of the opposition, meaning they were not publicly known until now.
Sir Keir is believed to have consulted with the registrar of MPs’ interests and will reclassify the donations as clothing given in kind. His original declarations were made within the required timeframe.
Nevertheless, the latest disclosure is likely to reopen the debate over donations accepted by Starmer and other frontbenchers while they were in opposition – many from Mr Alli, a prominent media entrepreneur.
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Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner (Image: Getty)
The PM has faced further questions for his decision to accept almost £2,400 for glasses, and for staying in an £18m penthouse during the election campaign, courtesy of Alli, in order to provide his son with a quiet place to say during his GCSEs.
Sir Keir has also faced criticism for taking luxury gifts, including thousands of pounds worth of football and concert tickets for Taylor Swift.
His wife, Victoria, as well as Labour heavyweights including Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Deputy PM Angela Rayner, have also received free clothes.
After a public backlash, all three have since said they will no longer accept clothing while in office.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves (Image: Getty)
Labour has defended these donations, pointing out that all political parties, while in opposition, invest in the image and presentation of their candidates, including clothing, media training, and photography.
It was earlier this month revealed that the parliamentary standards watchdog would not be investigating Starmer’s previous failure to declare clothes donated to his wife by Alli.
Since becoming Labour leader, Sir Keir has accepted almost 40 free tickets, mostly to football matches, plus £4,000 in hospitality for a Taylor Swift concert and £698 for Coldplay tickets in Manchester.
During an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, host Nick Robinson said: “The principle that people are talking about is: ‘buy your own stuff.’”
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Sir Keir said: “I won’t be making declarations in relation to clothing, again, understood.
“In relation to the second example you put to me, football, I’ve bought season tickets in the stand, and I’ve them had a long time, and I go with my boy, who’s 16.
“As a result of security, I can’t go in the stand, so Arsenal Football Club said, ‘Be our guest in the director’s box if and when you can get to a match.
“And that actually is a ticket you can’t buy. People say, ‘Well, why don’t you pay for it?’ You can’t buy a ticket in the director’s box, but it means I can continue to do something which is really special to me, which is to go to football with my boy.”
Questioned about stayed at Lord Alli’s property, he continued: “Let me just tell you what that was for. That was because at the beginning of the election, and we didn’t know when it’s going to be called, my boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs.
“I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school and do his exams without being disturbed.
“We had lots of journalists outside our house where we live. I’m not complaining about that, that’s fine. But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs, and it’s your one chance in life, I promised him we would move somewhere, we’d get out of that house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying.
“Somebody then offered me accommodation where we could do that, and I took it up and it was the right thing to do for my book.”
