Free hospitality gifted to MPs has come under the microscope after Prime Minister Keir Starmer accepted almost £40,000 worth of football tickets and other politicians bagged free entry to sold-out Taylor Swift concerts.

Now analysis of past records has shown that in the summer of 2022, a year after she was appointed Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves started to reap the benefits of being one of Britain’s most recognisable figures and snapped up invites to a host of sought-after events.

Performing live for the first time in five years, global superstar Adele was the hottest show that year and tickets for her Hyde Park gig in London sold out within minutes of being released.

However, Reeves and her boss Keir Starmer didn’t have to worry about hitting refresh on their internet browser because they both snagged tickets worth hundreds of pounds for free.

Records show the Shadow Chancellor attended the July 1 gig in Hyde Park with a guest courtesy of industry body UK Music who covered the £699.90 cost.

Two days later, Reeves enjoyed the hospitality at another exclusive establishment, Wimbledon, taking three guests to the All England Tennis Club in SW19 courtesy of the Lawn Tennis Association – with the tickets being valued at £580.

Just five weeks earlier Lloyds Bank had also spent £360 so Reeves and a guest could attend the Chelsea Flower Show.

This summer of fun had slipped off the most visible records of the Chancellor’s expenses due to a quirk in the way they are recorded. It was only after the Express’s data team started digging into the gifts handed to the senior Labour figure that they came to light.

This is because the gifts MPs receive and register are published on a rolling basis throughout the year using the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Appearing fortnightly on its website whilst Parliament is in session, any gift, trip or donation only remains on the Register “for 12 months after their date of registration, most recent update or end date, whichever is later”.

Novak Djokovic claimed the men’s title at Wimbledon in 2022 (Image: Getty)

Expenses that fall within the parliamentary session normally appear in the final pdf versions available at the top of each page, but those which come outside term time will be less visible.

So you can only find Reeves’s 2022 Adele, Wimbledon and Chelsea Flower Show expenses by carefully combing through the oldest parts of the archive for that year.

Changes have now been made to the way the gifts are published which should make future versions easier to navigate.

Reeves’s acceptance of a host of expensive freebies has come under particularly scrutiny given she is stripping millions of pensioners of their winter fuel payments, with worried campaigners warning it will leave many struggling OAPs having to choose between “heating or eating”.

Investigations by the Express into hospitality gifted to MPs revealed Channel 4 spent nearly £15,000 taking MPs involved in the debate over whether it should be privatised to BAFTA awards and that the Premier League believed it was ‘normal’ to splash £8,500 on a night out for politicians discussing its future at the BRITs.

Graphs compiled by the Express data team also show the staggering way in which Keir Starmer’s hospitality went through the roof after becoming Labour leader.

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Immigration is Labour’s bogeyman, and it’s not going away anytime soon

The Labour Party Conference took place this week, with the usual platitudes and feel-good anecdotes to inspire the party’s natural supporters. And who can blame them?

After a week of “freebie” scandals and a leak investigation into bad briefings, any good press for Labour right now is like finding an oasis in the desert.

Despite the constant talk of “joy”, “optimism” and “hope”, members of the British public are still wondering just how joyful, optimistic or hopeful Labour thinks most pensioners are feeling right now. Especially with the prospect of freezing to death this winter.

Keir Starmer acknowledged concerns about immigration were ‘legitimate’. (Image: Getty)

And what little talk there was of policy at the conference lacked any real substance. Even after a few days, I still cannot tell you what Labour plans to do for the country other than eventually “turn the corner”. OK? But, for most people, the priority was to see what Labour had to say about the country’s number one issue: immigration. And on that point, the Prime Minister deserves some credit.

He not only mentioned it (a very low bar indeed), but he also acknowledged concerns about immigration were “legitimate”. He committed his Government to not only reduce net migration but also lessen our economic dependency on it – and even went as far as to say that “there are plenty of examples of apprenticeships going down at the very same time that visa applications for the same skills are going up. And so, we will get tough on this”.

The key question, of course, is how? And what exactly does “getting tough” look like?

Sir Keir’s comments on immigration were predictable, vague and balanced – with just enough coverage to give the impression he’s not completely tone-deaf on the issue. For this, Labour HQ must be glad. However, his later comments, and those of his Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, highlighted just how far behind Labour truly is on this issue. In what turned out to be the most enthusiastically received part of his speech, the PM rejected “those who say that the only way to love your country is to hate your neighbour because they look different” – a very fair point.

Of course, we must reject violence and hatred. But who exactly is making the opposite case? Why allow the actions of a few thugs and racists to frame an essential debate about social integration, British values and national identity?

Would Sir Keir feel differently if people rejected their neighbours because they “acted” differently? Or, worse still, does he think the country would have jumped for joy if the person alleged to have murdered three little girls at a dance class in Southport happened to be white? Of course not. There are deep social divisions in this country that transcend the violence we saw in Southport. And Labour knows this.

Incredibly, while discussing the mass migration, Ms Cooper managed to miss the elephant in the room. How does she plan to make good on any of her promises without drastically cutting immigration numbers (both legal and illegal)? How on earth can Labour talk about house building, cheaper energy, encouraging domestic jobs, investing in our schools, reforming the NHS, and all the other things that the public is genuinely concerned about without first addressing immigration?

The latest figures put net migration into Britain for the last two years at 1.2 million people. That is 1.2 million more people using our roads, national health service, schools, water, and energy. Plus, more than 25,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year (so much for “smashing the gangs”).

How will the Government raise the money needed to accommodate hundreds of thousands of new immigrants every year, given the myriad of problems this country faces?

It is clear that for much of the Labour Party, immigration is not a top concern – even though it affects virtually all aspects of public life. That is how far the cognitive dissonance goes.

Unsurprisingly, Ms Cooper parroted the same line as the PM, arguing that “many people have legitimate concerns about immigration”. Except, she didn’t actually address them.

What exactly are those “legitimate” concerns as you understand them, Ms Cooper? And how are people expected to express those concerns without being maligned as callous racists? Immigration is clearly the bogeyman for Labour. But it’s not going away anytime soon.

Ms Cooper can call people “right-wing wreckers” as much as she wants. But the truth is nothing will change until we see immigration figures, both legal and illegal, fall substantially.