Chancellor Rachel Reeves said accepting the freebie at the O2 Arena for her and a ‘family member’ was the right thing to do’

Ms Reeves accepted free tickets to watch US pop star Sabrina Carpenter 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)

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.

‘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.

PM Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria attended a Taylor Swift gig at Wembley Stadium last June

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.

In her interviews this morning, the Chancellor tried to play down Labour fears of ‘austerity’ despite admitting ‘hard’ decisions are coming in the Spring Statement.

She was forced to deny crushing economic activity since the election by hiking taxes and talking down the country’s prospects.

She also rejected warnings from a think-tank that living standards are set to fall over this Parliament – potentially smashing another of Keir Starmer‘s pledges.

Ms Reeves confirmed that the Civil Service will be asked to find more than £2billion in cuts to admin budgets, saying that likely means 10,000 jobs going.

However, the Treasury is thought to need far bigger savings to offset tumbling growth forecasts.

The hole in the public finances could be as much as £15billion, even after proposals were unveiled to cut £5billion off benefits.

Challenged on Sky News over the sluggish economic performance, Ms Reeves said: ‘We do need to do more. Growth is the number one mission of this government. We’re turning things around, but it takes hard work and there are no shortcuts to get there.’

Ms Reeves was asked about reports that the Office for Budget Responsibility could slash the growth forecast by as much as half and how seriously her fiscal headroom had been hit.

‘I’m not going to pre-empt the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast, but the world has changed,’ the Chancellor told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips

‘We can all see that before our eyes and governments are not inactive in that – we’ll respond to the change and continue to meet our fiscal rules.

‘But we’re also shaping the new world, whether that’s in the defence and security realm, or indeed on the economy.

‘I promised at the general election to bring stability back to the economy.’

Borrowing figures on Friday showed £132billion was racked up in the year to February – £20.4billion more than the Treasury’s OBR forecast as recently as October

Pressed on a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation predicting a huge drop in living standards by the end of this parliament, Ms Reeves said: ‘I reject that and the Office for Budget Responsibility will set out their forecast this week.

‘Living standards in the last parliament were the worst ever on record.

‘I’m confident that we will see living standards increase during the course of this Parliament, what we’ve already seen in these last few months of the Labour Government is a sustained increase in living standards.’

Ms Reeves pointed to cuts in interest rates, saying ‘wages are rising faster than inflation’.

‘That was not the case in the previous parliament, which was the worst on record for living standards, but are you saying ‘do we need to do more to grow the economy, to address the cost-of-living crisis?’ she said.

‘Absolutely we do. That is why we are reducing bureaucracy and regulation, it’s why we are reforming the pension system to bring more money into the economy and so much more.’