Sir Keir Starmer was last night warned by a Labour grandee that he is only making the row over his freebies worse as he tries to justify them.
Baroness Harman became the first senior party figure to publicly criticise the Prime Minister in the growing storm over his acceptance of more than £100,000 worth of gifts and hospitality in the past five years.
The former Cabinet minister – given a peerage earlier this year by Sir Keir – said the Labour leader was ‘doubling down’ and trying to justify a donor paying for thousands of pounds’ worth of clothes for himself and his wife.
Yet last night he again insisted he had done nothing wrong – and claimed a corporate box he has been gifted to watch his beloved Arsenal from was in fact saving taxpayers money, rather than sitting in the stands surrounded by security.
A minister also launched a defence of his leader by saying it was right that he attended ‘major cultural, sporting events’, such as a recent Taylor Swift concert at Wembley, and deserved some leisure time with his family.
Baroness Harman (pictured) became the first senior party figure to publicly criticise the Prime Minister in the growing storm over his acceptance of more than £100,000 worth of gifts
Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria, in the Royal Box on day eleven of the 2022 Wimbledon Championships
The storm began last month when it emerged that Labour peer and fundraising chief Lord Alli had been handed an access-all-areas security pass to Downing Street in the wake of the election victory, having given Sir Keir £16,200 for ‘work clothing’ followed by £2,485 for ‘multiple pairs of glasses’.
It then emerged last weekend that Lord Alli, a former boss of online fashion retailer Asos, had also given thousands of pounds’ worth of clothes to the PM’s wife Lady Starmer, while new calculations showed that Sir Keir had received more freebies than any other MP, receiving £107,145 in gifts, benefits and hospitality since December 2019.
Speaking on a Sky News podcast, Lady Harman said: ‘You can either double down on it and try and justify it or you can just say ‘it was probably a misstep, if I had my time again I wouldn’t do it and therefore I’m going to auction for charity or something’.
‘It was just a misstep, it’s not a hanging offence, but I think doubling down and trying to justify it is making things worse.
‘He’s not a sort of money-focused, greedy type of person. He is a person of public service. So this is slightly out of line. And he’ll be wanting to deal with it.’
Sir Keir Starmer celebrates the second Arsenal goal as he watches his beloved team Arsenal, at the Arsenal v Wolverhampton Wanderers EPL match
She went on: ‘I don’t think he should do sackcloth and ashes, I think that’s overdoing it. He just needs to say ‘right with hindsight I’m going do things differently and this is how I’m going to do it in future’ and everybody will move on to the things that really they care about.’
However, Sir Keir showed no signs of backing down, particularly when it comes to watching his favourite football team play.
He has long been a season ticket holder at Arsenal but has in recent seasons accepted invitations to watch matches from corporate hospitality boxes rather than from the stands.
Chris Martin of Coldplay performs during a concert at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester
He told the BBC in a round of regional interviews last night: ‘I’m a regular attender but now, for security reasons, I can’t go in the stands and therefore the club have made arrangements for me to watch from elsewhere, it’s as simple as that.
‘Frankly, I’d rather be in the stands, but I’m not going to ask the taxpayer to indulge me to be in the stands, when I could go and sit somewhere else.. That’s for me, a common sense situation.’
Asked by ITV if he was worried about being seen as ‘Parliament’s king of the freebies’ he said: ‘Now I’ve had the chance to explain to you the situation, I think most people would say that’s a pretty fair argument.’
Earlier, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was asked about the PM taking tickets to see Arsenal and Coldplay gigs and told Sky News: ‘These are major cultural, sporting events. I think it’s important people in public life have some connection to that.’
He also said the PM deserved some leisure time. In a separate interview with Times Radio, Mr Reynolds defended Sir Keir receiving hospitality from big businesses.
‘It’s not a perk of the job, it’s part of the job. People want to engage with decision makers. They want to ask you to be aware of what they are doing,’ he said.
