Labour should not offer companies meetings with ministers in return for cash again, Ed Miliband has suggested.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband at Labour’s Party Conference (Image: Getty)
The Energy Secretary fired a four-word warning and signalled he was not comfortable with the offer, after a newspaper reported Labour’s commercial team had offered company chiefs a chance to “gain insight” with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds for £30,000.
Asked about his message to his party, Mr Miliband told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Don’t do it again is my message.”
He also defended his Cabinet colleague Mr Reynolds, telling ITV the minister was “completely unaware of this invitation”, adding: “He is not attending this.”
Mr Miliband also said: “The answer is – whether it is me or Jonathan Reynolds – it is not about paying to have access. That is not what we are about, no.”
Reports said The party invited bosses to a plush restaurant for the “rare chance” to “gain insight” from Mr Reynolds in return for sponsorship of the meal.
Mr Miliband also said Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to repay £6,000 worth of donations sends “a signal” and was a “prelude” to introducing new rules on gifts for ministers.
Sir Keir paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts because he “understood the public mood”, Mr Miliband has said.
The Cabinet minister said that the Prime Minister had decided to return the money received since the election because he “wanted to send a signal to the public”.
Mr Miliband told BBC Breakfast: “He made the decision he did to pay some money back because he wanted to send a signal that he understood the public mood and he says he will introduce new rules for ministers and I think it’s the right thing to do on these issues.”
Asked if there had been any directions to ministers about paying back some of their own freebies, he replied: “No.
“Look, I think the Prime Minister is in a particular position because he’s the Prime Minister and he wanted to send a signal that he gets public disquiet about these issues.
“And one way of dealing with that is to bring in new rules which is what he’s said he’s going to do, and I very much support that.
“But he’s also taken the step of paying back some of the money, just to send the very clear signal that he gets it on this issue.”
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If you think Keir Starmer is dull wait until he’s replaced by his Fun Police cadet
Keir Starmer could be replaced by another dull politician (Image: PA)
Keir Starmer is so boring that I worry he’ll send the nation to sleep and change it irrevocably before we wake up.
I’m only half-joking. There’s something incredibly worrying about smartly dressed politicians who hide behind a perception of calm authority.
Obviously, Drear Starmer’s efforts at placidity have now shattered after a sustained assault from his own stupidity stretching from free specs to finding himself in a box at one of the quietest football stadiums in the world. He was attempting to return books at the time.
So dead is any claim he had on calm, that there are rumblings of his replacement. And who better to boot out the borebot than Rachel Reeves?
She has some punch about her. You have to if want to bulldoze any hopes for the economy as soon as you come into power. But ultimately, like many modern-day British politicians, she is insufferably dull.
Why do I say this? Because I feel that strongly about anybody who even considers raising the duty on alcohol. To do so is either money-grubbing (boring), puritanical (very boring) or health-obsessed (insufferably boring).
Whatever the reasoning, if Rachel Reeves does force me to pay more for my Guinness, I fear I’ll be haunted by the realisation that she’s still in power when I most likely hoped a few drinks would help me forget.
Perhaps that’s her plan: to make us think of her and the Labour Party whenever we valiantly choose to support struggling pubs. I’d imagine that’d be enough to put anyone off drink.
Somebody should tell the interfering dullards that run the Labour Party that there is a hidden danger in this masterplan. Which is that we’ll just drink more in the hope that a greater volume of alcohol works its magic on memory if we’re only willing to try.
Who knows? Rachel Reeves might save pubs after all. But I’d much rather she figures out a way to do this without increasing the price of a £6.70 pint (yes you read that right, yes it was in London, no the pub isn’t very nice).
Making ordinary people pay more for small comforts is about as imaginative as politicians get nowadays. They’re a boring bunch and they shall always be so until the public and press are willing to tolerate an interesting person governing the UK again.
Instead we could face, in the near future, sedation at the hands of a woman so tedious she snapped up the opportunity to watch Adele for free. See? Even her sleaze is dull. Couldn’t she have had an affair like John Major? The only vaguely interesting thing she’s done in politics is forcing the taxpayer to pay for her heating then snatching the Winter Fuel Payment from 10million pensioners. You have to admit, the self-serving avarice of that is darkly comic.
For now at least, the future is not bright. The future is Labour.
