Minister says she’s unsure how Keir Starmer can justify Coldplay freebie

A Government minister has said she isn’t sure if it’s possible to justify Keir Starmer accepting Coldplay tickets as a freebie.

Dame Angela Eagle was confronted over the Prime Minister declaring he’d accepted thousands of pounds worth of freebies. The Home Office minister was told the now-PM had declared £76,000 worth of hospitality since 2019, including concert and Arsenal football tickets.

In an awkward exchange with Sky News host Kay Burley, Dame Angela said: “You’ll have to ask him to explain the Arsenal visit, I’m not sure whether Coldplay is possible to have an explanation.”

It comes after the PM was dragged into a row after it emerged Labour donor Lord Alli had paid for outfits for his wife Victoria which weren’t declared within 28 days. Mr Starmer said this came to light because he and his team are sticklers for the rules.

But Ms Burley questioned how accepting thousands of pounds of freebies looked to voters, asking: “Do you accept that the optics are not good?” Dame Angela retorted: “I think we’ve done a lot of good in the first couple of months, including dealing with the rail franchise fiasco, looking to see what we can do to extend bus travel, seeing what we can do in terms of creating a better business environment for some investment.”

In June last year, Mr Starmer accepted four hospitality tickets worth £698 to see Coldplay at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester. He also accepted hospitality to see Arsenal play numerous times, but in the past has said this is due to security concerns as he has held a season ticket to see the Gunners for several years. Analysis by the Financial Times from the Commons register of interests suggested the PM had accepted £76,000 of hospitality since 2019, including 20 football matches.

Referencing the decision to cut Winter Fuel Payments for around 10million pensioners, Ms Burley said: “It’s all adding up to a party that set odds with working people.” Dame Angela responded that the triple lock has been protected, meaning pensioners will be around £1,000 better off by the end of the current Parliament.

Responding to Mr Starmer accepting football tickets, Dame Angela said: “We only know about this because these things have been registered as appropriate. And I think the Prime Minister had his say on that yesterday when he was in Italy.”

The PM was accused of breaking Commons rules by failing to declare donations of clothes and a personal shopper for his wife Victoria during the election campaign by Labour donor Lord Alli. MPs are required to report gifts within 28 days under Parliament’s rules.

No10 sought fresh advice last week and made a late declaration on the gifts to the PM’s wife. The Conservatives have written to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner calling for an investigation after the gifts were not initially declared in the register of MPs’ interests. But a senior No10 source said: “The parliamentary commissioner for standards has confirmed there won’t be an investigation into late declarations.”

Mr Starmer defended himself, saying he’s a stickler for the rules, and the matter had come to light after his team clarified what he should be declaring. And he told reporters in Rome: “I certainly don’t think we should have a budget for it at taxpayers’ expense.”