Politics

Starmer to no longer accept donations to pay for clothes, Sky News understands

Published

2 hours ago

September 20, 2024

admin

Sir Keir Starmer will no longer accept donations in the future to pay for clothes, Sky News understands.

Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner also announced they would take the same approach moving forward.

The decision by the prime minister, chancellor and deputy prime minister follows scrutiny of Sir Keir Starmer and his wife for accepting donations.

The prime minister has accepted work clothing donations worth £16,200, and multiple pairs of glasses, to the value of £2,485.

According to the MP register of interests, Ms Rayner has accepted clothing donations too, to the value of £2,230.

Sky News understands that in June, the deputy prime minister also received a donation by Lord Waheed Alli, a television executive who has donated to Labour over the last 20 years, of £3,550.

The donation was registered but its nature, now understood to be work clothing, was not published.

Sky News understands that since the backlash over the freebies, the registrar was contacted to ensure the donation was published with all the necessary details.

The chancellor has not accepted any such donations, according to the MPs’ register of interests.

Follow the latest on politics

It’s a strategic move from the newbie government

The amount of political chatter over freebies and hospitality for the Prime Minister was starting to look both indulgent and frivolous and it appears as if Number 10 have finally had enough.

I was told Sir Keir Starmer will no longer accept donations in the future to pay for clothes, and neither will Rachel Reeves or Angela Rayner in an apparent attempt to stop this story spiraling through this week and into the Labour conference this weekend.

It’s a strategic move from the newbie government, who had let the story run on perhaps longer than even colleagues in their own party had wanted.

Baroness Harriet Harman spoke out about number 10 trying to justify these free gifts, stating it was just making things worse.

Ministers had also been defending the Prime Minister’s decision to accept donations for days – the latest was Jess Philips, saying accepting Arsenal season tickets was ‘not important.’

Seven hours later though, it appears they’ve decided some of it is important – and have declared a commitment to not accept any more clothing in the future.

Questions still remain over the other hospitality gifts and it’s not entirely clear yet whether this will stem the bleed of bad news before conference weekend, or whether this tacit admittance of a misstep opens another can of worms.

Sky News revealed the scale of Sir Keir’s donations this week as part of our Westminster Accounts investigation.

Sir Keir was found to have received substantially more gifts and freebies than any other MP as his total in gifts, benefits, and hospitality topped £100,000 since December 2019.

This had all been declared as per the rules but backbench MPs had been expressing concern that the government’s rhetoric of tough decisions on the economy jars with the image of a prime minister accepting freebies.

The row started over the weekend with controversy over Sir Keir’s wife’s clothes.

Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said earlier today she is “satisfied” with the prime minister’s explanation of why he has taken the freebies.

She said if he “wasn’t doing a good job in our country” then she “would be more concerned”.

Ms Phillips went on to say it’s not that she doesn’t think it’s important, but added: “I haven’t had a single email about it.

“I have had lots of emails about people not being able to get on a housing list.”

Challenged on the fact that it looks bad having just taken away the winter fuel allowance from pensioners, Ms Phillips said these are “completely separate things”.

“And had he never been to watch the Arsenal, there would still be a £22bn black hole that had to be paid for,” she added.

She said: “All I can say is I’m absolutely knackered trying to make things better.”

What has the PM said in response to criticism?

Speaking to journalists this week, the prime minister said “all MPs get gifts” and he thinks the need to declare them is “a good framework”.

“Wherever there are gifts from anyone, I’m going to comply with the rules,” he said.

“It’s very important to me that the rules are followed. I’ve always said that. I said that before the election. I reinforced it after the election.”

On his acceptance of Arsenal tickets, he added: “I’m a massive Arsenal fan. I can’t go into the stands because of security reasons. Therefore, if I don’t accept a gift of hospitality, I can’t go to a game. You could say: ‘Well, bad luck.’

“That’s why gifts have to be registered. But… never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far.”

Politics

Ann Widdecombe says Reform would put migrants in ‘secure reception centres’

Published

26 mins ago

September 20, 2024

admin

Ann Widdecombe says Reform would put migrants in 'secure reception centres'

Ann Widdecombe, the former Tory minister turned Reform UK spokesperson, has said the party would house illegal immigrants in “secure reception centres” instead of hotels so they would know they would be “sent back” quickly.

Reform’s conference kicked off on Friday with a range of speakers, including Ms Widdecombe and TV personality Ant Middleton.

Ms Widdecombe, the party’s immigration spokeswoman, told the audience in Birmingham people who arrive “unlawfully” in the UK on small boats would be housed “in secure reception centres” if Reform was in government.

“We are not going to house the people who come in on those boats in hotels, at the cost of billions a day to the British taxpayer,” Ms Widdecombe said.

“We will instead house them in secure reception centres.

“And then the message goes out if you arrive unlawfully in this country from a perfectly safe country then you will be refused, you will be dealt with quickly and you will be sent back.”

A long-time Eurosceptic, Ms Widdecombe was prisons minister under Conservative prime minister John Major before stepping down as an MP in 2010 and appearing on several TV programmes, including Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.

She re-entered politics in 2019 as an MEP for the Brexit Party for a year before it became Reform UK.

Also speaking at Reform’s conference was Ant Middleton, known for Channel 4 show SAS: Who Dares Wins, who said the UK is on the brink of “civil unrest” unless action is taken to strengthen British culture and identity

He said “we haven’t got a secure camp”, adding that British identity is British culture, and British culture is British history.

“So why is that being eradicated? Why is that being trampled all over? Why aren’t we allowed to be the umbrella culture of this country?” Mr Middleton said.

Mr Middleton, highlighting the role of Christianity in the UK’s history, said the moment “we lose our identity” we lose “our purpose, our focus, our direction”.

“What happens when we don’t have an identity? We get confused,” he added.

And he said when people are confused they get frustrated, which turns to “anger, violence”.

He continued: “We are at a very, very important and crucial stage before it teeters into civil unrest, which we want to avoid at all costs, but it’s coming. We’re on that edge where violence has hit the streets, we’ve all seen it.”

Ms Widdecombe also spoke about overcrowded prisons and said when she was prisons minister in the 1990s she suggested taking over a “disused holiday camp”.

She said it would just need a secure perimeter and “lo, you’ve got a low-security prison”.

“Of course, you do take away the cinema and the swimming pool before you do that,” she added.