There were “no rules” to stop Labour giving donor Lord Waheed Alli a Downing Street pass, the party’s chair has told Sky News.

Lord Alli, who is a Labour member of the House of Lords, has given more than £500,000 to the party over two decades.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Ellie Reeves – who is also a Cabinet Office minister – was asked if it was right to give Lord Alli a pass despite him not having a formal job in government.

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She claimed the peer only had access to Downing Street for “a period of a few weeks” – and the “proper processes” were followed.

Pushed on whether it was reasonable for someone who donated large sums of money to be given access to the seat of power in the UK, Ms Reeves said: “There are no rules that prevent someone who has made a donation or had a political job in the past… having a role.

“There are rules that have to be followed, there are processes that have to be followed – and it’s important that those rules are respected.”

It is still unclear why Lord Alli had a pass to get access to Downing Street.

Ms Reeves said the peer and donor was “not involved in policy” – but could not provide further clarity on why he was in Downing Street.

Labour previously said he attended a small number of political meetings with no civil servants, and said he gave back his pass at the end of July.

Lord Alli was ennobled by Tony Blair in 1998. He also worked as the party’s chief fundraiser for the general election, having been hired by Sir Keir in 2022.

And he also donated £100,000 to Sir Keir for his leadership campaign in 2020, according to the Sky News Westminster Account project.

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John Glen, the Conservative shadow paymaster general, said over the weekend: “Starmer’s sleaze is engulfing this new government and it’s time Labour came clean on all the people they’ve parachuted into top civil service jobs and the donors they’ve returned favours to so the independence and integrity of the civil service is maintained.”

Ms Reeves was also asked if the cabinet is fully behind the government’s decision to means test the winter fuel payment for pensioners.

She said: “This is an incredibly tough decision and not one that the chancellor wanted to be taking.

“But it’s because of the economic mess that we’ve inherited from the previous government.

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“We got into government and found that there was a £22bn black hole in the country’s finances, and that requires tough choices.”

She added that the “cabinet are behind the chancellor” after being asked several times if there was unity on the decision in government.