Sir Keir Starmer has said he doesn’t “need any new specs for a long time” after his premiership was rocked by a damaging row over donations and freebies.
Sir Keir Starmer and senior Labour colleagues have faced criticised over donations (Image: PA )
Sir Keir, 62, and fellow Cabinet Ministers Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves, have been engulfed by a furious public debate over whether or not they should have accepted in some cases thousands of pounds worth of clothes as gifts.
In the Prime Minister’s case, the wardrobe perks also extended to multiple pairs of glasses and dresses for his wife Victoria, all donated by prominent Labour supporter Lord Alli.
Sir Keir also came under pressure for his acceptance of corporate hospitality to watch his beloved Arsenal FC, which he defended by saying he can’t use his previous seats at the Premiership football club because of security concerns.
Since December 2019, Sir Keir has accepted £107,145 worth of gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a category listed in Parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.
Sir Keir Starmer received a pair of glasses as part of a raft of donations (Image: PA )
Sir Keir, along with Ms Rayner and the Chancellor, have all said they will no longer accept clothing donations, but speaking to The Guardian the Prime Minister refused to back down on some of things he’s accepted.
He told the paper: “Well look, I mean, am I going to now say I won’t go to another Arsenal game? Then, no.”
But when asked about any more pairs of designer spectacles he revealed: “I don’t need any new specs for a long time.”
During the election campaign, Sir Keir declared £12,588 in gifts ranging from four Taylor Swift tickets worth £4,000, to Euros final tickets valued at £1,628, and several Arsenal match tickets exceeding £6,000 in total.
It has also emerged that the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Sue Gray, is being paid £3,000 more than him, with a wage of £170,000.
Life-long Labour support Lord Alli has made a number of donations to the PM (Image: PA )
Speaking to Sky News, Conservative leadership hopeful James Cleverly said: “What we have got to recognise is Keir Starmer and Sue Gray (his chief of staff) have been very, very critical of Conservatives over exactly this – now if your position is that, well, ‘these things happen’ and we should be thoughtful and flexible in our response, that’s fine.
“But if, like Keir Starmer, you have been really aggressive in your criticism of Conservatives for this, then you’ve got to make sure that you are totally above reproach, and he’s failed to do that.
“So I think it’s absolutely legitimate that we point out the hypocrisy of someone who basically got his job by criticising others for what he’s now doing.”
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Nigel Farage hails ‘most joyous gathering’ in modern politics at Reform conference
Nigel Farage described the Reform conference as ‘joyous’ (Image: Getty)
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage yesterday told cheering activists that his decision to “give up the good life” and “come out of semi-retirement” was “worth it”.
He wrapped up the party’s conference in Birmingham by telling the audience this was the “most joyous gathering of a political party” that has “ever happened in this country in modern history”.
Reform won five MPs and more than four million votes in the July election, and it now plans to hold events in Wales, Scotland and the English regions as prepares for future election battles.
Mr Farage mocked the new PM, saying: “Look at what we’re up against. I didn’t agree with Blair but at least he said things can only get better – Starmer says things can only get worse.”
He derided the Conservatives as “a variety of misfits who are split down the middle and stand now for precisely nothing”.
In contrast, he said, the Reform audience consisted of “real people” who “however tough things are, laugh, smile, sing, dance, have a drink, have fun”.
Describing how they had convinced him he made the right choice to re-enter full-time politics, he said: “That momentous decision to give up the good life, to come out of semi-retirement, to throw myself back into the front lines, to take all the abuse that has and will be heaped upon me, what you’ve made me realise is that it was all worth it.”
