Peer who gave gifts to Keir Starmer is being investigated after complaint he did not declare interests correctly
Waheed Alli is worth an estimated £200m. Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images
The Labour peer Waheed Alli is under investigation by a parliamentary watchdog over a potential breach of the code of conduct.
Lord 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.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Lord Alli will cooperate fully with the Lords commissioner and he is confident all interests have been registered. We cannot comment further while this is ongoing.”
It is understood that the investigation relates to a clerical element of some of Alli’s already declared interests, and not to donations.
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.
He gave £32,000-worth of clothes to Starmer while he was leader of the opposition, as well as £2,400 for glasses and the temporary use of a £18m penthouse during the election campaign.
Alli also gave Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, and her friend Sam Tarry, then the Labour MP for Ilford South, the use of his luxury flat in New York last winter.
Starmer has come under fire over the extent of donations that he and his frontbench accepted while in opposition. It also emerged that Alli was temporarily given a pass to Downing Street after Labour won the election.
The row overshadowed Labour’s party conference in Liverpool last month.
Alli has been involved in Labour party circles for decades and Tony Blair made him a peer in 1998.
The Guardian contacted Alli for comment. The Lords commissioners’ office declined to comment further.
Alli’s business interests have been under scrutiny since Open Democracy reported last week that the peer added his directorship at Mac (BVI) Limited, a firm based in the British Virgin Islands, to his register of interests only after the news outlet contacted him last month to ask why it was missing.
It found he had not declared that he had been a director of Mac (BVI) Limited since April 2023.
When questioned about it, Alli told Open Democracy the omission was an “unintentional error”, adding: “I hadn’t realised until you asked that it wasn’t listed on my register of interests.”
He then added the directorship to his register as a “non-financial interest”.
Financial accounts show Alli holds “incentive shares” in the firm, so if an acquisition is completed while he is a director, he will receive “a one-off transaction fee of an amount equal to £25,000 per calendar month elapsed between the date of his appointment and a platform acquisition being completed”.
