Sir Keir Starmer is facing mounting questions over his use of a peer’s £18million penthouse.
The freebies row engulfing his premiership intensified as he tried to justify £20,000-worth of stays in the flat of Labour donor Lord Alli.
He was later accused of ‘hoodwinking’ the public after it emerged he used the same Covent Garden flat, dressed to look like his own home, to record a video urging the public to stay at home during the Covid pandemic.
And it has now emerged that the Prime Minister’s sombre tribute to the late Queen, in which he described her as a ‘symbol of the best of us’, following her death in 2022, was also filmed in Lord Alli’s London flat.
Under scrutiny over his acceptance of gifts, Sir Keir on Wednesday said a seven-week stay at Lord Alli’s home around the time of the election was necessary to help his son revise for his GCSEs ‘in peace’, with journalists and protesters gathering outside his north London townhouse.
Pictured: Lord Alli’s luxury penthouse is in this Covent Garden block
Sir Keir Starmer addresses the nation in a video urging people to stay at home during the pandemic
Pictured: Lord Alli attends the launch of new exhibition ‘Filling In The Pieces In Black’ on October 30 last year
But that led to the PM being branded a ‘hypocrite’ for using freebies to aid his son’s education while slapping tax increases on private school fees from January.
From January, the Government will impose 20 per cent VAT on the cost of private education, making it too expensive for many aspirational families.
Critics also cast doubt over the Prime Minister’s story, pointing out that he and his family continued living at Lord Alli’s property for nearly a month after the GCSE exams season finished.
Sir Keir watched the exit polls come in on election night in the flat, surrounded by members of his team, before heading for Labour’s victory party.
On Wednesday former Home Secretary James Cleverly, a Tory leadership contender, said: ‘Keir Starmer needs to urgently clarify his explanation.
‘It is the most blatant hypocrisy. This is a man who is in power having spent years criticising the Conservatives for accepting donations. Now, he has accepted thousands of pounds worth of donations for accommodation so that his son can study in peace, while hiking taxes on private schools to hurt aspirational parents.
‘Double-standards-Keir is finding his previous piety coming back to bite him.’
Sir Keir has received more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader, receiving £107,145-worth of gifts since 2019, including tickets for dozens of football matches and concerts.
Last month it emerged that Lord Alli, his biggest personal donor, was given a rare Downing Street security pass to attend meetings in No 10 after the election.
It was also from Lord Alli’s flat, it was revealed yesterday, that Sir Keir, in December 2021, attacked former PM Boris Johnson for the Government’s pandemic response and urged people to work from home, as per the guidance at the time as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 raged.
A picture of what appears to be his family in the background and other paraphernalia on shelves behind him also make it appear as if the video was shot in his family home.
But No 10 sources on Wednesday confirmed he wasn’t living at Lord Alli’s flat at the time, raising questions about why he was urging people to work from home when he was not doing so himself. They insisted that no social distancing guidance in place at the time was breached.
Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who is also running to be Tory leader, said: ‘It looks like Mr Rules was trying to hoodwink the country all along.’
Fellow leadership contender Kemi Badenoch said: ‘Keir Starmer spent years preaching about his high standards. His team attacked Conservatives for taking donations. Now we see it was all hypocrisy.
‘Lord Alli isn’t just any donor – Starmer has handed him a Downing Street pass and allegedly organised a donor party in No10.’
Keir Starmer speaks during a media interview while attending the 79th United Nations General Assembly on September 25
Sir Keir has received more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader, including tickets for dozens of football matches and concerts (pictured at The Eras tour)
The twin rows threatened to overshadow the PM’s trip to New York, where he will today address the United Nations General Assembly amid the Middle East being on the brink of all-out war.
Sir Keir’s entry in the MPs’ register of interests says he accepted £20,437.28-worth of stays in Lord Alli’s flat between May 29 and July 13. No 10 sources confirmed his family moved into the penthouse for the duration of this period.
In interviews yesterday, the PM insisted he accepted the gift so that his son could study for his GCSE exams ‘in peace’ after former premier Rishi Sunak called the election on May 22.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today: ‘My boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs. I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed.
‘So I said, we’re going to get you out of here and get you somewhere where you can just study. And that’s when someone said, well, in which case I can make this flat available to you. It’s safe, secure. No money exchanged hands… any parent would have made the same decision.’
He rejected suggestions that he was a hypocrite.
No 10 refused to say whether the PM asked Lord Alli to use the flat or if the peer offered it to him. But sources said the family decided to remain in it until after the election to maintain their privacy.