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Sir Keir Starmer initially failed to disclose he received £16,200 of free clothing from Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli, in a move that risks fuelling the controversy around the prime minister’s acceptance of freebies.
In April, Starmer first recorded a donation from Alli worth £16,200 in the register of MPs’ financial interests under the category of “any other support”, and described it as “private support for the office of the leader of the opposition, value £16,200”.
The following month, Starmer altered his entry in the register, placing Alli’s donation under the category of “gifts, benefits and hospitality’” and disclosed for the first time that it was “work clothing, value £16,200”.
A spokesperson for the prime minister said Starmer was advised to change the record after more information was requested about the nature of the support he had received from Alli, adding there was “no suggestion of any wrongdoing”. Starmer’s team “acted in good faith at every step” regarding registration of gifts, he stressed.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds sought to defend the prime minister’s acceptance of freebies on Thursday morning, saying that taking hospitality tickets was “not a perk of the job, it’s a part of the job”.
“I can tell you, having been a secretary of state for two months, pretty much every working hour of it is spent working,” he told Times Radio. “And if people get the chance for a little bit of relaxation as part of that, again, I’ve no problem or objection to that.”
The MPs’ code of conduct states members “should not” record in the register “donations or gifts which are intended to provide personal benefit” under the category of “any other support”.
It also states “gifts such as clothing or jewellery” should be recorded as gifts, with information provided on their nature and value.
Starmer’s revision to his entry about Alli’s £16,200 donation in the MPs’ register risks adding grist to Tory claims he has failed to be fully transparent about gifts given to him and his family.
A Conservative party spokesperson said: “The plot continues to thicken with regards to these donations to the PM . . . Sunlight is always the best form of disinfectant, but these edits suggest the government is yet to realise that.”
Andy Carter, a former Tory MP who was a member of the House of Commons standards committee, said there were “serious questions to be answered about why the gift was not registered accurately in the first place”.
The Sunday Times reported that the prime minister broke parliamentary rules by originally failing to record in the MPs’ register clothing worth more than £5,000 given to his wife Victoria by Alli.
Starmer updated the register this month when he became aware he needed to declare gifts given to his wife.
Starmer has been embroiled in a wider controversy about his acceptance of gifts worth tens of thousands of pounds, after pledging to bring an end to sleaze that he claimed had dogged the previous Conservative government.
The Financial Times reported in July that Starmer had accepted £76,000 worth of entertainment, clothes and other freebies since the 2019 election: more than almost any other sitting MP.
This included £2,485 for several pairs of glasses, also provided by Alli, and tickets to football matches and concerts by Adele and Coldplay from other Labour donors.
More recently, Starmer received four tickets to see Taylor Swift worth £4,000 from the Premier League, and £20,000 of accommodation from Alli. This takes the total value of Starmer’s freebies to more than £100,000.
Starmer defended his acceptance of gifts in July, noting a large chunk of the total was for football games outside of London where his security team did not want him sitting in the stands for safety reasons.
Alli has been at the centre of a row after it emerged he was given a Downing Street pass for several weeks over the summer despite not having an official government position.
The media tycoon, who is estimated to have amassed a fortune of more than £200mn, is in charge of Labour’s fundraising.
Alli has also made donations to several cabinet ministers, including foreign secretary David Lammy, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and education secretary Bridget Phillipson.