Home Secretary Yvette Cooper did go to a Taylor Swift concert at Wembley, a minister admitted on Thursday despite a Cabinet colleague denying just 24 hours earlier that she had.
As the freebies row swirling over the new Labour government grew, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds insisted that Ms Cooper had followed advice on whether she had to declare, or not, her ticket to The Shake It Off star’s London gig.
He told Sky News: “I understand the tickets were actually supplied to her partner (Ed Balls) and she did seek guidance and was advised as to the right way to do that..but as they were not given to her she followed the guidance that was given.”
Ms Cooper publicly declared the ticket on Wednesday amid the controversy over Swift being given a police escort through London and the role the Home Secretary and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan may have had in the decision to lay on this protection.
But her move inevitably left open the question why she had not made public earlier that she had benefited from the freebie.
“I understand she specifically sought guidance on this point. The tickets had gone to her partner, she was the plus one in this situation so she followed the advice that she was given in relation to that,” stressed Mr Reynolds.
“If you were not the recipient of the hospitality in this case, you would have had a very specific set of advice around that and I know she would have always approached that in the proper fashion.”
Ms Cooper is understood to have attended the gig with her husband, Mr Balls, a former Labour Cabinet minister and now Good Morning Britain presenter, who was offered free tickets by the chief executive of Universal Music.
But just 24 earlier, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy had stressed: “The Home Secretary did not attend the concert as far as I’m aware.”
Ms Nandy denied any wrongdoing by the Government or City Hall, insisting that the decision on a police escort had been made by Scotland Yard.
The Sun reported that police controllers on the Special Escort Group of motorcyclists were initially reluctant to agree to an escort for Swift.
But her team, it claimed, then threatened to axe the Wembley concerts if one was not provided.
Discussions were alleged to have taken place between the Home Office, City Hall, and Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley’s office, including over the potential economic damage from the cancellation of the concerts.
Ms Cooper is understood to have contacted parliamentary authorities in early September to register the tickets.
But she was reportedly told they would not be declarable because they did not meet the cost threshold, and because they were a gift to her husband, rather than her.
The tickets have instead been declared to the Home Office, and the declaration is expected to be published alongside other ministerial interests by the Cabinet Office in November.
Sir Keir Starmer, several Cabinet ministers and Mr Khan were among the other senior Labour figures given free tickets to Eras Tour shows, but the Culture Secretary said there was no link between the hospitality they received and the police protection for Swift.
A Met Police spokesman said the force was “operationally independent”, and that its decision making was “based on a thorough assessment of threat, risk and harm and the circumstances of each case”.
The Home Office said the popstar’s security had been an “operational decision for the police”.
The Prime Minister has paid back almost £3,400 for four Taylor Swift tickets donated by Universal Music Group and two from the Football Association.
