‘I’ve never taken any gig tickets’: Rachel Reeves’ fellow Cabinet minister brutally cuts her adrift over Sabrina Carpenter tickets… amid mounting anger at Labour’s freebie-loving, growth-killing Chancellor_nhy
A Cabinet minister brutally cut Rachel Reeves adrift over her Sabrina Carpenter freebie today.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander gave the Chancellor less than full-hearted backing after she admitted accepting gig tickets worth £600.
Touring broadcast studios this morning, Ms Alexander said she did not have ‘anything further to add’ to Ms Reeves explanation that she needed the perk for ‘security’ reasons.
Asked on Times Radio if the freebie ‘felt right’, Ms Alexander said: ‘I haven’t taken any tickets to be honest since I was elected back in June as a new member of parliament and going straight into the Ministry of Justice and then coming straight into the Department for Transport.
‘I actually sadly haven’t been to see any concerts at all over the last nine months, partly because I’ve been very very busy.’
Pressed on whether she would ever take tickets, Ms Alexander said: ‘I have never, as a member of parliament, I have never accepted tickets to any concerts or anything like that.’
Downing Street also gave a lukewarm endorsement saying the PM ‘supports all of his ministers making their own judgments’ over hospitality.
The concert tickets revelation came as Ms Reeves confirmed she will cut Whitehall running costs by 15 per cent, which could result in the loss of 10,000 civil service jobs.
It risks reviving the anger that erupted last year when it emerged the Prime Minister and his Cabinet were enjoying lavish freebies including clothing and concert tickets.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said accepting the freebie at the O2 Arena for her and a ‘family member’ was the right thing to do’
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander gave the Chancellor less than full-hearted backing this morning after she admitted accepting gig tickets worth £600
Ms Reeves was last year forced to vow not to accept any clothing as Chancellor after it was revealed she had taken £7,500 for outfits while in opposition.
Sir Keir Starmer, who received £32,000 for clothes from Labour donor Lord Alli, had to pay back thousands of pounds in gifts, including tickets to see Taylor Swift.
Ms Reeves yesterday defended taking the VIP tickets at the O2 in London on security grounds, claiming she could not sit with other fans because she requires close protection as a senior minister.
‘I do now have security which means it’s not as easy as it would’ve been in the past to just sit in a concert, although that would probably be a lot easier for everyone concerned,’ Ms Reeves told the BBC.
Asked if she paid for the tickets, she replied: ‘Obviously I’ll declare the value of them, but they weren’t tickets that you were able to buy.’
However, she faced a backlash – including from within her own party – at a time when she is also being accused of ushering in a new era of austerity in order to balance the books.
Ms Reeves accepted free tickets to watch pop star Sabrina Carpenter – who opened for Taylor Swift in the US leg of the Eras Tour – in a corporate box
The box used by Ms Reeves for the gig earlier this month is believed to belong to AEG, which also owns the long-term lease for the O2 Arena (pictured)
Mish Rahman, a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee until last year, called the Chancellor ‘Scrounger Reeves’, asking how she could justify her free tickets as her fiscal rules hit ‘the most vulnerable’.
The damaging row broke out at the start of a crucial week for Ms Reeves – recently voted the least popular Cabinet member in a survey of Labour Party members – as she prepares to deliver her Spring Statement on Wednesday.
Dubbed an ’emergency Budget’ by the Tories, it will see the Chancellor set out her response to a new economic forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility watchdog that is expected to halve its growth projection for the coming year.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell told the Mail it was ‘indefensible’ that Ms Reeves – who is paid about £160,000 a year – accepted the free tickets.
She said: ‘Those who live in poverty will rightly question, as they struggle to get by, why those who are cutting their lifeline are in receipt of handouts. Not to recognise the inequity in this goes to the heart of the problem.’
Labour peer Lord Sikka added: ‘Cleansing British politics is a necessary condition for building a good society. That requires criminalising the receiving and giving of all political donations in any form.’
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood said: ‘It is shocking that Rachel Reeves has been partying in a VIP box at a pop concert, as families across the country suffer the consequences of her economically illiterate decisions.
‘Keir Starmer told the country that his Government’s addiction to freebies was over, and now his Chancellor is having to defend taking yet another freebie.
‘Reeves should be focusing on undoing the damage she’s done to the economy ahead of her emergency Budget rather than living it up in a VIP box.’
Ms Reeves denied that her proposed civil service cuts represented a return to austerity.
But Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Fran Heathcote warned: ‘After 15 years of underfunding, any cuts will have an impact on front-line services. You can’t cut your way to growth.’
And Dave Penman of the FDA, which represents senior mandarins, said increased use of technology such as artificial intelligence was ‘not going to deliver the sort of savings that are being cut here’.
Sir Keir was also among a slew of top politicians to receive free tickets and hospitality to Taylor Swift‘s gigs in London last summer.
He later paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and vowed – together with Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Ms Reeves – not to accept any further donations for clothing.
Asked about the Sabrina Carpenter concert on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Reeves – who earns around £160,000 as Chancellor – said: ‘I went with a member of my family to see a concert a couple of weeks ago.
PM Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria attended a Taylor Swift gig at Wembley Stadium last June
‘I do now have security, which means it’s not as easy as it would have been in the past to just sit in a concert, although that would probably be a lot easier for everyone concerned.
‘So, look, I took those tickets to go with a member of my family. I thought that was the right thing to do from a security perspective.’
The Chancellor added: ‘These weren’t tickets that you could pay for, so there wasn’t a price for those tickets.
‘Obviously, I’ll declare the value of them but they weren’t tickets that you were able to buy.’
It is understood the declared value of the hospitality will be around £600, although similar tickets for the gig were said to be changing hands for higher prices.
It has been claimed that Ms Reeves received security advice that she could not attend the gig in the general admission areas of the venue.
Sir Keir has continued to accept box tickets to Arsenal football games after being told he can’t sit in the stands with regular fans due to security concerns.
The PM has been a long-time season ticket holder at the north London club.
