Conservatives urge other Labor ministers to follow Keir Starmer’s lead and repay donations
good morning. Yesterday, Keir Starmer made the surprising announcement that he had repaid £6,000 worth of gifts and entertainment he had received since becoming Prime Minister, including tickets to Taylor Swift and costume rentals for his wife. This news overshadowed reports of what happened during a trip to Brussels to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (also important, this is our story) ), No. 10 is set out in the latest update to the Commons Register of Members’ Interests, published yesterday, which felt the need to break the news as all donations were revealed. Masu.
But as is often the case when politicians under pressure over ethics and transparency make concessions to critics, the media and public opinion, Mr Starmer has now exposed himself to an entirely new problem. The Conservative Party – which has extensive experience with donation scandals – is working on the case and released this statement last night.
More is being revealed every day about the scandal at the top of Keir Starmer’s government. This scandal became a complete distraction from the task of governing.
Starmer appears to only become invisible when his back is against a wall. This announcement today raises more questions than it answers. Why did Starmer accept these freebies in the first place? Why haven’t Angela Lyner and other senior party officials repaid the donations?
Mr Starmer yesterday said the government would set out new “principles” to cover political donations, but No. 10 Mr Starmer did not say it was always unacceptable for ministers to accept donations. suggested.
This article by Peter Walker highlights some of the other revelations in the Register of Members’ Interests, which was updated yesterday.
We may learn more about this as the days go by.
Congress was still in session, so not much was written in the diary. Boris Johnson’s memoir will be published today. The story has already been widely serialized in the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, but today journalists will have the chance to find out what the Mail didn’t want to highlight. There are statistics on homelessness. Foreign Secretary David Lammy will also visit Dublin, along with Nick Thomas-Symonds, Minister for Brexit.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on social media. I can’t read every message on BTL, but if you include “Andrew” in your message, I’ll search for posts containing that word, so it’s more likely to show up.
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Updated to EDT 05.14
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John McTernan, who was Tony Blair’s political secretary when he was prime minister, also appeared on the Today program this morning to discuss Keir Starmer’s giveaway record, saying the problem is not that the rules aren’t being followed. He said he agreed with John Penrose (see 9:52am) on that point. Broken, but public perception. He explained:
Politicians must not only act according to the rules, but also according to community standards.
There is no doubt in my mind that voters and communities are angry about what they see as a double standard.
And the absolute cardinal rule of politics is that voters are never wrong. One of the rules of politics is that your vote is never wrong. Rule 2, if you are angry because you think your vote is wrong, refer to rule 1.
Mr McTernan said people were angry because the topic of donations came at a time when the government had cut winter fuel payments to pensioners.
Behind everything Labor has done in government has been the first move to take away fuel allowances from 10 million pensioners. It sets the tone for everything and is the backdrop to how the action is seen.
People see that you’re taking this from 10 million people and you’re taking it for free from a company.
That’s the truth. There is anger and behavior must change.
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Speaking on the Today program this morning, former Conservative MP and government anti-corruption czar John Penrose said he thought the controversy over Keir Starmer’s acceptance of donations probably showed that rules needed to be tightened. said. But he also insisted that the issue was not about breaking rules, but about political perceptions. he said:
I don’t think the rules are bad, but they need to be strengthened a little more.
But this is not actually what the rules say. This depends on having someone who acts not like a lawyer, but like a politician who understands why people are angry.
And the rules don’t really cover the idea that “there might be a double standard between you and ministers, for example, while receiving money from pensioners.”
These aren’t really covered by any set of rules that you can imagine.
It’s a question of political judgment, political judgment, political understanding, and whether you’re in sync with what the rest of the country is actually thinking when you’re sitting in 10th place.
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Conservatives urge other Labor ministers to follow Keir Starmer’s lead and repay donations
good morning. Yesterday, Keir Starmer made the surprising announcement that he had repaid £6,000 worth of gifts and entertainment he had received since becoming Prime Minister, including tickets to Taylor Swift and costume rentals for his wife. This news overshadowed reports of what happened during a trip to Brussels to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (also important, this is our story) ), No. 10 is set out in the latest update to the Commons Register of Members’ Interests, published yesterday, which felt the need to break the news as all donations were revealed. Masu.
But as is often the case when politicians under pressure over ethics and transparency make concessions to critics, the media and public opinion, Mr Starmer has now exposed himself to an entirely new problem. The Conservative Party – which has extensive experience with donation scandals – is working on the case and released this statement last night.
More is being revealed every day about the scandal at the top of Keir Starmer’s government. This scandal became a complete distraction from the task of governing.
Starmer appears to only become invisible when his back is against a wall. This announcement today raises more questions than it answers. Why did Starmer accept these freebies in the first place? Why haven’t Angela Lyner and other senior party officials repaid the donations?
Mr Starmer yesterday said the government would set out new “principles” to cover political donations, but No. 10 Mr Starmer did not say it was always unacceptable for ministers to accept donations. suggested.
This article by Peter Walker highlights some of the other revelations in the Register of Members’ Interests, which was updated yesterday.
We may learn more about this as the days go by.
Congress was still in session, so not much was written in the diary. Boris Johnson’s memoir will be published today. The story has already been widely serialized in the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, but today journalists will have the chance to find out what the Mail didn’t want to highlight. There are statistics on homelessness. Foreign Secretary David Lammy will also visit Dublin, along with Nick Thomas-Symonds, Minister for Brexit.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on social media. I can’t read every message on BTL, but if you include “Andrew” in your message, I’ll search for posts containing that word, so it’s more likely to show up.
If you want to make an urgent report, social media is the best place to go. I’m still using X, but the one addressed to @AndrewSparrow will appear soon. I’ve also tried Bluesky (@andrewsparrowgdn) and Threads (@andrewsparrowtheguardian).
It helps a lot when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no mistakes are too small to be corrected). And I think your question is also very interesting. I can’t promise to reply to everything, but I’ll try to reply as much as I can, either on BTL or occasionally on my blog.
share
Updated to EDT 05.14
