CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has claimed she accepted free tickets to see US pop star Sabrina Carpenter because she was not allowed to pay for them.
The Chancellor told the BBC that she and a family member went to a concert “a couple of weeks ago” with tickets that “weren’t tickets that you could pay for”.
Asked about the Espresso singer’s show on the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Reeves pledged to declare the value of her tickets – and said accepting them was “the right thing to do from a security perspective”.
Her visit to London’s O2 Arena, first reported in the i newspaper earlier this month, followed a row over ministers accepting freebies – and a change to the Ministerial Code with new guiding principles on when gifts and hospitality are acceptable.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year received several gifts from prominent Labour donor Lord Alli, including “multiple pairs of glasses” to the value of £2485, “work clothing” worth £16,200, and accommodation worth £20,437.28.
The Labour leader later paid back more than £6000 worth of gifts which he received after entering Number 10 last year, including four Taylor Swift tickets from record label Universal Music Group totalling £2800, two from the Football Association at a cost of £598, and four to Doncaster races from Arena Racing Corporation at £1939.
Challenged on why these had been returned but her going to see Carpenter was acceptable, Reeves said: “I went with a member of my family to see a concert a couple of weeks ago.
“I do now have security, which means it’s not as easy as it would have been in the past to just sit in a concert, although that would probably be a lot easier for everyone concerned.
“So, look, I took those tickets to go with a member of my family. I thought that was the right thing to do from a security perspective.”
The Chancellor later added: “These weren’t tickets that you could pay for, so there wasn’t a price for those tickets.
“Obviously, I’ll declare the value of them but they weren’t tickets that you were able to buy.”
Facing questions about clothing donations last year, Reeves told the BBC that while she accepted the gifts in opposition, it was not something she “planned to do as a Government minister”.
The Ministerial Code allows ministers to accept tickets but they should “attend functions and events in a ministerial capacity, including those where hospitality may be offered”.
This is “primarily a matter of judgment for ministers who are personally responsible for deciding how to act and conduct themselves”.
Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride also faced questions about gifts on Sunday after the party’s shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith accepted tickets for him and his wife to attend the Bafta awards in February worth £4000, from NBCUniversal International.
Griffith also accepted ski passes and guiding for two people in Davos, Switzerland, worth £973, according to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards’ register of members’ financial interests.
He took part in the 69th annual British-Swiss Parliamentary ski week alongside other MPs, the document suggests, and accepted hospitality worth an additional £324.
“I paid all other costs,” he added.
Stride said he did not know “the specific details” of the gifts which Griffith and Reeves had accepted.
“I think it’s for them to justify what they do,” he said, later adding: “I don’t know the details, so I don’t think I’m in a position to comment specifically on that.”
