Keir Starmer has suggested he will continue to accept gifts from the Labour peer Lord Alli, as he rejected accusations that he had not followed parliamentary rules relating to gifts of clothes to his wife.
The prime minister said there was a “massive difference between declarations and corruption”, and said he did not accept the notion that taxpayers should fund clothes for senior politicians and their spouses.
MPs are required to register gifts and donations within 28 days. However, the Sunday Times reported that donations from the Labour peer covered the cost of a personal shopper, clothes and alterations for the prime minister’s wife, Victoria, before and after Labour’s election win in July.
The Conservatives have sought to capitalise on this, demanding a full investigation of Starmer’s links with Lord Alli. On Monday evening, however, the parliamentary commissioner said there would be no investigation of Starmer over the donations.
Starmer said on Monday in Rome that it would be “pushing it a bit far” for him to be barred from receiving hospitality gifts.
Starmer reflected on his acceptance of football tickets, saying: “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, you know, never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far.”
When asked whether taxpayers should pay for MPs’ clothes, he responded: “All MPs get gifts. The rules then say, over a certain value, you’ve got to declare the gifts, so everybody can see what it was, how much it was, who it came from, and so that you and others can ask questions about it. That’s a good framework. It’s the right framework.
“That’s why I asked my team to make sure we’re complying with the framework, which is why they reached out for advice on what to do in this situation. When they got further advice, they made the declaration. I think it’s really important everybody else follows the rules.”
No 10 has said it sought advice from the authorities on the issue of declarations and believed its conduct had been compliant. “However, after further interrogation this month, we have declared further items”.
Starmer also expressed his anger after seeing prisoners freed under his government’s early release scheme welcomed by crowds popping champagne bottles.
The prime minister blamed his predecessor Rishi Sunak for failing to take action on the prison overcrowding crisis, allowing the situation to worsen, which left him with some “pretty hard questions”.
Speaking to reporters in Rome, Starmer said: “I spent five years prosecuting and putting people in prison and being forced to release people who should be in prison makes me angry.
“But the choice was pretty simple. We’d got to the point where prisons were so full we had the choice between releasing people in the way that we’ve done it, or not being able to arrest people and put them in prison.”
Asked what he made of the images of people celebrating early release, he said: “So, angry is what I feel. As I did when I was in Cobra, literally having to plot how many prison places we had, in order to assess whether we could contain the disorder. No prime minister should be in that position.”
