Despite being in office less than three months, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has already raised eyebrows for accepting donations in the form of clothes and other gifts from a wealthy businessman.
The Labour Party leader, who won power in a landslide victory on a promise to restore trust in politics, has denied any wrongdoing over thousands of pounds worth of clothes and eyeglasses paid for by Waheed Alli, a media entrepreneur and longtime donor to the party.
The headache for Starmer was compounded after a BBC report disclosed his chief of staff, Sue Gray, is paid 170,000 pounds, or $225,000, a year, which is about 3,000 pounds more than the prime minister’s salary.
A former senior civil servant, Gray is best known for leading an investigation into lockdown-breaching parties in government buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer listens to the speech of Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, England, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Gray’s findings helped take down Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and her subsequent move to work for Starmer led the Conservatives to claim the “partygate” probe was politically biased – something Gray has denied.
The Labour Party, meanwhile, has accused the Conservatives of whipping up a controversy to tarnish the government.
Lawmakers can accept gifts but must declare donations and extra-parliamentary income within 28 days — a deadline Starmer missed. He blamed the delay on his staff seeking advice on exactly what needed to be declared.
“I’m very consistent with following the rules,” Starmer said this week, rejecting suggestions that prime ministers should get a wardrobe budget.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers’ Questions session in parliament in London, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Starmer dismissed claims of dissent among his staff about Gray and her salary, insisting he’s “completely in control.”
“I’m focused and every day the message from me to the team is exactly the same, which is we have to deliver,” he told the BBC on Thursday. “We were elected on a big mandate to deliver change, I am determined that we are going to do that.”
The scale of the freebies accepted by Starmer and his wife, Victoria, has perplexed even his supporters. Sky News reported that Starmer has declared “gifts, benefits and hospitality” worth more than 100,000 pounds since December 2019, more than any other lawmaker.
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The donations include thousands of pounds’ worth of tickets for Premier League games involving the prime minister’s beloved soccer team, Arsenal.
After controversy erupted, the Labour Party said Starmer won’t accept any more free outfits.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, second right, during a meeting with President Biden, centre left, in the Blue Room at the White House in Washington, Friday Sept. 13, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP)
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who also accepted donations to pay for clothing, told the BBC: “I get that people are angry [but] donations for gifts and hospitality and monetary donations have been a feature of our politics for a very long time.”
“People can look it up and see what people have had donations for, and the transparency is really important,” Rayner said.
Labour leaders are hoping that an annual four-day conference, which started on Sunday, will inject some badly needed morale for the party.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to 10 Downing St. and Alli for further comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
