Taylor Swift and Arsenal tickets: How bad is the gifts row for Keir Starmer?
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From tickets to see Taylor Swift to work clothes and accommodation, Starmer is being showered with more free gifts than any other British politician. But is there anything wrong with this?
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In brief…
- Keir Starmer is facing pressure for accepting more than £100,000 in gifts and donations, more than any other MP.
- Gifts include tickets to see Taylor Swift and Arsenal football club, work clothes and accommodation.
- His Labour colleagues have defended the PM, arguing no rules have been broken.
What’s the story?
Have you ever been offered free football tickets?
Keir Starmer has, many times over. These are not the only freebies he’s received.
In fact, the Prime Minister has accepted £107,145 worth of gifts and donations since December 2019 - more than any other MP in this time frame.
But is there anything wrong with this?
Does it raise legitimate conflict of interest concerns? Or is the story just a desperate attempt to paint Starmer as corrupt?
These are the questions The News Agents will discuss on today’s podcast.
Who is Starmer accepting gifts from?
The Premier League dished out £12,588 worth of gifts to Starmer.
That includes four Taylor Swift tickets worth £4,000, two Euros finals tickets costing £1,628, and many tickets to watch his favourite club - Arsenal FC. Those cost over £6,000.
Labour peer Waheed Alli has been the largest donor over the period. He handed Starmer the equivalent £39,122 in gifts and hospitality donations.
These gifts included his work clothing, which cost £12,000, accommodation worth over £20,000 and glasses that cost £2,485.
Has Starmer broken any rules?
Starmer did run into some problems when he failed to declare £5,000 worth of clothes Lord Ali donated to his wife.
But the Prime Minister has argued that his team “reached out proactively” to the parliamentary authorities to declare this in time.
The regulator has also rejected demands from Conservative Party figures for an open investigation, which could imply Starmer did not engage in wrongdoing.
All MPs are required to register gifts and donations within 28 days.So long as these gifts are declared on the MPs register of interests within this timeframe, then according to the rules, there is nothing wrong with accepting them.
That is, unless there is a perceived conflict of interest.
What has Labour said?
Starmer previously said his acceptance of Arsenal tickets concerns security requirements of not being able to go in the stands.
He said: “If I don’t accept a gift of hospitality, I can’t go to a game.“You could say: ‘Well, bad luck.’ That’s why gifts have to be registered.
But, you know, never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far.”But Starmer’s critics say he should pay for that himself.
His Labour colleagues have also leapt to his defence.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "There are many ways that sponsors or supporters support politicians.
Sometimes it's with staffing costs, sometimes it's with money for campaign literature, sometimes it's more of a personal nature but I've no objection to that.”
Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Starmer is a man of “enormous integrity” when pressed about the acceptance of gifts.He told The Guardian: “This is not somebody who thinks that somehow the rules don’t apply to them, or there’s one rule for him and another one for others, like predecessors that have occupied his post.
“He is a person of enormous integrity, and that will be reflected in the way that he operates.”
The News Agents take
Jon thinks that the whole thing “stinks”.
“Keir Starmer has made a mistake here. I just can't see any other way of describing it. It just looks and sounds terrible.”
But Jon does say there is an argument to be made for accepting at least some kind of gifts when it comes to clothes for the PM and their partner.
“Maybe there should be more support given to the Prime Minister, and particularly the wife of the Prime Minister or husband of the Prime Minister, because they are very much public figures. They are on display at various different events.”
"If you just an ordinary person and you feel you can't just go out in the same frumpy outfit, or whatever it happens to be that you've worn at six previous occasions, then maybe there just does need to be something."
But when things like Arsenal tickets or Taylor Swift concerts are involved, that is where Jon draws the line. “Don't take stuff which looks makes you look like you are exceptional”, he says.
Emily agrees that this doesn’t exactly do Starmer any favours. “If you set yourself up as a different kind of politician, as somebody who's sick of the Tory lies, sick of the Tory sleaze, then why would you do it?”, she says.
Emily adds: “He doesn't need that stuff. He doesn't need the extra money. He could quite happily do without these headlines right now going into the Labour Party Conference.”
Listen in full on The News Agents
