Sir Keir Starmer has received substantially more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader, Sky News can reveal.

Government officials are worried the prime minister’s willingness to accept hospitality to go to football matches could amount to a conflict of interest given plans to overhaul the sport’s regulator which many clubs oppose.

The prime minister received two-and-a-half times more gifts and hospitality than the next MP, according to a league table compiled as part of Sky News’ Westminster Accounts project – which traces how money flows through our political system.

Minister dismisses concerns over free Swift tickets – live updates

Since December 2019, he received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.

The next highest in the league table is the Commons leader Lucy Powell on £40,289, while the prime minister received gifts roughly equivalent to the next five MPs combined.

The table does not account for those who received help with legal fees.

‘It’s nuts’

One member of the government called the situation “nuts” and said the freebies “should be banned”.

Sky News has also learnt that officials are warning the prime minister could be opening himself up to inappropriate lobbying by saying he will continue to accept football tickets.

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Ministers are usually told to avoid hospitality from any organisation connected to an ongoing government regulatory decision, and the future of a football regulator is under consideration at the moment.

The Premier League is one of the biggest donors of hospitality, and Sir Keir – a renowned Arsenal fan – has received almost £40,000 in tickets overall since December 2019.

The Premier League, which is lobbying against a football regulator, declared £12,588 of gifts to Sir Keir; including four Taylor Swift tickets during the election campaign worth £4,000; two Euros finals tickets costing £1,628; and numerous tickets spanning several Arsenal matches costing well over £6,000 in total.

How to explore the Westminster Accounts

PM defiant in face of criticism

Sky News can reveal the prime minister ignored warnings from some in his senior team while in opposition. They feared the issue could cause him political damage, but he justified it by saying it was within the rules.

Senior Labour figures are incandescent that the story about freebies for the Starmer family has dragged on for days, and ministers going out with different and often contradictory explanations.

They blame a lack of political grip on the operation, intensifying pressure on Sir Keir’s chief of staff Sue Gray, and sparking private calls for her to be side-lined or sacked.

Sir Keir defended his right to continue to take football freebies earlier this week, saying: “If I don’t accept a gift of hospitality, I can’t go to a game.”

“Never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far,” he added.

Sky News asked Number 10 whether football donations were a conflict of interest and about the pre-election discussions about the appropriateness of accepting hospitality.

We also asked for comment on the fact Sir Keir is top of the table for gifts and hospitality, excluding legal donations.

They did not comment.

Biggest donor refreshes PM’s wardrobe

Most of Sir Keir’s gifts and hospitality – £86,708 of the £107,145 – were accepted in the last parliament, but £20,437 was declared in this parliament for accommodation that straddles the two periods.

The biggest donor of gifts and hospitality is Labour peer Waheed Alli, who gave the equivalent of £39,122.

These donations included an unspecified donation of accommodation worth £20,437, “work clothing” worth £16,200, and multiple pairs of glasses equivalent to £2,485.

Starmer’s chief of staff under fire

This comes on a bleak day for Sir Keir after the BBC revealed his chief of staff Sue Gray is paid more than £170,000, which is higher than the prime minister.

Ms Gray was the last government’s ethics chief and even the prime minister’s allies are incandescent she has not put a stop to this practice.

This is embarrassing for Sir Keir after he previously criticised the scale of Dominic Cummings’s salary, who was Boris Johnson’s chief of staff.

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The government does not deny the salary level but insists she did not set the level of her salary herself – which is higher than her predecessor.

However, this has been challenged for figures familiar with the process. They said successive chiefs of staff who preceded Ms Gray had to agree recommendations on adviser pay and advise on the decisions made by ministers.

The rat man from the council has just turned up. He is back at James and Oscar’s home laying more poison that the rats keep eating.

“I woke up the other night at three in the morning and one was biting my nose,” James says.

It’s the stuff of nightmares but it has become James and Oscar’s everyday struggle. A nearby building has the words “rat city” daubed on one of the walls.

“There was a fire next door,” Oscar explains.

“The rats came out of there and now there’s problems with them in the drains.”

He showed us around their overgrown garden. “It’s like a rats’ playground” he says, thoroughly fed up with it all.

The pair are friends and neighbours – and invited us in to discuss the riots that erupted across the UK in early August, including in their home city of Hull.

They were there on the fringes of the trouble but not, they tell us, directly involved.

It was a “kick back”, James tells us, over the UK’s failed immigration policies.

When Keir Starmer described the riots as “far-right thuggery” James believes he failed to grasp what was happening.

“I have seen people crying in doorways… they are cold, and they are hungry…who is helping the English-born people?” has asks.

“What I am not is a racist person… I just look at the pain in people’s eyes sometimes and you think, ‘What the hell? What is going on?’

“Their (migrants’) problems are getting solved but nobody is solving the problem of the people who are living on the streets.”

Neither Oscar nor James work due to poor health and spend their days watching YouTube channels dedicated to investigating Britain’s immigration problems.

They are both angry about immigration, really angry.

While they ultimately blame the government they resent the way asylum seekers are put into hotels while their claims are processed.

“Get rid of them, I just think it is wrong,” Oscar says.

“I ain’t got a problem with being in other people’s countries and I haven’t got a problem with them being in mine.

“But when it’s taking away all our necessary needs – hospitals, dentists, hotels… housing. It is just pfft…” He throws his arms up in the air in despair.

The pair watched as rioters surrounded a hotel next to the station in Hull on 3 August.

It’s currently home to dozens of predominantly young men waiting to hear if they will be allowed to stay.

James acknowledges there was appalling racism that day and says he has sympathy for genuine asylum seekers.

“I don’t think everybody thinks like me and goes, ‘God bless them, they’ve got problems too’,” he says.

“They have been through hell, they have been through warzones but… people felt a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, like, you know, people living on the streets, who are not getting looked after.“

Oscar later takes us to meet Donna – who sits outside a nearby shop with a sign that reads “JOB WANTED”.

She used to run her own cleaning business but after the death of her daughter in a car accident her life fell apart. Last November she also lost her partner.

For the past two and half years, Donna has been homeless. She purposefully hides herself away under a road bridge most nights so nobody can attack her.

“Where I am it’s so dark that nobody is going to be able to see me,” she says.

“Every time you think you are getting back up… there is something or someone who kicks you back down again.

“England is the place that has got a big sign for people that says ‘Freebies’, come in and we’ll get you in a hotel – that is the way it comes across to people.”

“They (the government) want to sort their own problems out first and this is one of them,” says Donna, gesturing to the gloomy underpass she calls her bedroom.

It’s a problem they see most days at a community interest company called Adapt Resettlement further along Anlaby Road.

Every day, Danny and Lisa lead a small team dedicated to trying to get a roof over people’s heads.

“If you’ve got drug problems, mental health problems, even just living on the street, it’s a war every day for them,” says Danny.

“They can pitch up somewhere when a gang of kids will go and kick the tents, will kick their head in, it is a war daily for them.

“So, I get what they’re saying, that they (asylum seekers) are fleeing wars, but ours are fighting in a daily war,” adds Danny.

“Not everybody was in that riot for the same reason. There will have been people in that riot because they are homeless, they haven’t had help.

“But that doesn’t make them racist. They just wanted to get their point across.”

Danny has served time for violent offences in the past – and has also been homeless himself. He pins the blame for the riots squarely at the door of politicians.

“The government laid the bomb. And it’s just exploded,” he says.

“It is down to the government to sort it… The only way that they will do it, in my eyes, is that they give them equal opportunities.

“If they’re going to allow them in then so be it. But please look after ours as well. Otherwise, it’ll just continue, and it will.”

Read more:
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We joined Danny’s final home visit of the day, where we meet Carl.

He’s trying to stabilise his life, improve his health and eat better, but needs ongoing support.

He’s finally got a roof over his head thanks to the project.

“You can shout so loud can’t you and they don’t listen,” Carl tells us.

“It is just one of those things it boils over sometimes.

“There’s a lot of tension in the air, there is a lot of aggression and a lot of animosity.”

The police and courts have clamped down hard on those who were involved in the riots on 3 August. Earlier this month the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “There is no place for such appalling, senseless violence on our streets, and this government is determined to stamp out the scourge of serious violence wherever it is found.”

Meanwhile, the anger, animosity, and jealousy that helped fuel them still exists.

The roots of the riots run deep.

The Princess of Wales has returned to work with a private meeting at Windsor Castle, according to an entry on the court circular.

The post from Tuesday reads: “The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron, The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, this afternoon held an Early Years meeting at Windsor Castle.”

The court circular documents the engagements of the Royal Family, whether they are in public or behind palace walls.

The palace has not issued any pictures of the meeting or shared specific details of what was discussed.

Last week it was confirmed the princess was going to start doing some work behind the scenes after her cancer diagnosis earlier in the year.

In an incredibly personal video, the princess confirmed she had finished her preventative chemotherapy but that her focus was to “stay cancer free”.

She said: “Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes.

“I am however looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”

It is understood members of Kate’s team from the royal household attended Tuesday’s meeting, along with representatives from the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.

Focusing on the importance of nurturing zero to five-year-olds, and supporting their parents, has long been a cornerstone of the princess’s charitable work.

The last time she attended a private meeting at Windsor Castle for the Royal Foundation was on 6 December 2023.

Her only other engagements on the court circular this year are her attendance at Trooping the Colour and her appearance at Wimbledon.

Kate on ‘light duties’

The palace suggested last week that the princess is only likely to return to “light duties” for now, attending a handful of public engagements before the end of the year.

It is understood that Kate’s intention is to join other members of the Royal Family at the Cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday in November, with her engagements being scheduled when she feels able to carry them out.

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Prince William also attended a private engagement on Tuesday with a visit to meet members of the SAS, according to another entry on the court circular.

It reads: “The Prince of Wales carried out a private visit to 22 Special Air Service Regiment, to meet individuals who have been deployed on recent operations.”

Due to the top secret nature of their work, the palace never shares further details of these kind of visits.