Keir Starmer gave a sassy response to a Sky News presenter as she probed him over donations.
When grilled by presenter Beth Rigby on the freebies row, the Prime Minister turned the question back on her to point out that Sky News also offered him freebies. “Beth, I might just gently say, Sky invites us to quite a lot of hospitality events,” he said. “Your summer party is a great party costing thousands of pounds and you invite me every year. Presumably you want politicians to continue to come.”
The Prime Minister has been under fire for accepting freebies, including cash for clothes and hospitality tickets to Arsenal football matches. The latest row was over Mr Starmer’s acceptance of £20,000 in donations for accommodation – claiming his son needed somewhere to revise for his GCSEs.
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He said that the £20,000 he had declared from Lord Alli for unspecified accommodation was for his teenage son to study for exams in a “peaceful” atmosphere. He defended the decision to accept it and said his house was besieged by journalists and protestors during the election and that he promised his children he would “protect them”.
MPs from other parties defended the donation, with Lib Dem MP Tim Farron saying: “This is getting silly now. Leave his kids out of it, and stop blowing things out of proportion. There is bad behaviour amongst some politicians, but this constant pearl clutching at everything undermines trust to an unjustified and dangerous extent. Try reporting some news.”
Mr Starmer has received more lavish gifts and hospitality than any other MP since December 2019. This includes £6,000 on tickets for Arsenal matches, glasses and clothes, and £4,000 on Taylor Swift tickets during the General Election campaign.
Last week he defended his decision to accept corporate hospitality, saying he cannot go in the stands at Arsenal for security reasons. Mr Starmer, who has been an Arsenal season ticket holder for years, added: “The club have made arrangements for me to watch from elsewhere, it’s as simple as that.”
Former footballer Gary Neville defended the PM at a Labour Party conference fringe event. “I’m struggling with the free football tickets one quite a bit, to be honest with you, when I look at the absolute corruption we’ve seen in the last five, six, seven, eight years with people getting billions of pounds worth of contracts in VIP lanes,” he said.
“Keir Starmer’s paid for his season ticket to go with his family to watch Arsenal all his life and he’s now being told he can’t go to that same seat, when I’m sure he would – you know he would, everybody knows he would – he’s been told he’s got to go in a hospitality box, a private box.”