Keir Starmer has said he will not apologise for accepting thousands of pounds worth of free clothes, insisting “there [was] no breach of the rules”.
The prime minister has faced criticism after it emerged he had received clothing donations including suits and glasses from Lord Alli, a Labour peer.
Starmer has received — and disclosed — gifts from Lord Alli totalling £39,122, including an unspecified donation of accommodation worth £20,437, “work clothing” worth £16,200 and multiple pairs of glasses equivalent to £2,485.
Conservative MPs have condemned the prime minister for accepting gifts at all, after his government cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
Earlier this week, Starmer said he would no longer accept donations to pay for clothes, and neither would Reeves or deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
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While there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing, the row has proved an unwelcome distraction amid Labour’s first party conference in government in 15 years.
Asked on LBC News whether he had scored an “own goal” with the “freebies” row, the PM said: “Well, look, there [was] no breach of the rules or anything like that. We complied with everything.”
He added: “I’m not going to apologise for not doing anything wrong. But I am going to recognise that you’re asking me questions, and people have asked us, and I do understand that.”
On top of donations of clothing, Starmer has accepted almost 40 sets of free tickets during his time as Labour leader, according to recent reports, mostly to football matches that involve the football team he passionately supports, Arsenal.
He has declared £12,588 of gifts from the Premier League, numerous hospitality tickets to Arsenal matches costing well over £10,000 in total, plus two Euros finals tickets costing £1,628 and thousands of pounds worth of tickets from other Premier League clubs.
The row surrounding the donations threatened to overshadow the prime minister’s keynote address to Labour Party conference on Tuesday, which also came against the backdrop of hostile briefings about his chief of staff, Sue Gray.
Addressing activists yesterday amid growing consternation in some corners of the party, Starmer reiterated that “country first, party second” is the foundation of his project in government, describing it as “a pact with working people that we must fulfil.”
He also spoke of his desire to unite the country in Labour’s mission of creating “a Britain built to last, built with respect and built with pride.”
Starmer said: “The politics of national renewal are collective. They involve a shared struggle. A project that says, to everyone, this will be tough in the short-term, but in the long-term — it’s the right thing to do for our country. And we all benefit from that.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.
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