Keir Starmer built much of his image as a serious, responsible and honest politician through daily contrast and comparison with a rival like the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Therefore, the slightest suspicion of a lack of honesty or transparency, once inside Downing Street, can cause multiplied political damage. The newspaper The Sunday TimesThe prime minister revealed on Sunday that parliament is investigating gifts of designer clothing that the prime minister’s wife received from a donor to the Labour Party, the Asian-born billionaire Waheed Alli.
Creator of reality shows as popular as Survivor(Survivors, in Spain) and a senior manager of prominent television production companies, Alli has a significant personal fortune, has been a donor to the Labour Party for years (except in the Jeremy Corbyn era) and was appointed member of the House of Lords —Lord Alli— by Tony Blair. He is the first openly gay Muslim in the Upper House.
The paper’s exclusive reveals that the businessman personally paid for a personal shopping assistant, dresses and tailoring for Starmer’s wife, which the prime minister did not include in his declaration of interests in the House of Commons register.
Although some of these gifts predate Starmer’s election as Prime Minister on 5 July, it was not until last Tuesday that his team contacted the chairman of the House of Commons Standards and Ethics Committee to confirm whether it was mandatory to report gifts received by the wife.
Although this is a somewhat cloudy and ambiguous area, MPs are allowed to accept gifts and support from donors and supporters, provided they respect the limits on amounts set out in the Parliament’s Code of Conduct, and are transparent.
The diary Financial Times The report has already revealed that, from 2019 until 1 July, Starmer received clothes, tickets to shows and other free perks worth £76,000 (around €90,000), an amount far higher than that of any other MP.
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Lord Alli has given the Prime Minister (and until 4 July, leader of the opposition) around 22,000 euros worth of suits and some of the glasses he wears every day, as well as almost 24,000 euros in accommodation expenses during the last election campaign.
The businessman became the centre of controversy shortly after Starmer became prime minister, when he was granted a permanent pass to Downing Street that allowed him to hold a fundraising party for the Labour Party, which brought together around 50 donors to the political party in the gardens of the official residence.
The permit was later revoked by Starmer, who explained that Alli had helped with the government’s transition tasks.
“There have been several prime ministers – unless you are a billionaire, like the previous one. [Rishi Sunak]”They have had to rely on political donations to maintain their image as good as possible,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy defended the whole affair on the BBC on Sunday. He too has received donations from Lord Alli.
Consultations with Parliament
Starmer’s team is presenting everything that happened as a mistake in the interpretation of parliamentary rules. “We sought advice from the authorities [de la Cámara de los Comunes] “We were convinced that we had complied with the regulations, but after further consultation over the last month, new donations have been declared,” a Downing Street spokesman said.
“The Prime Minister declared at the time the funds received from Lord Alli. He has since re-engaged with the Chairman of the Standards and Ethics Commission to review the details of some of those funds, which ended up being received by his wife,” Minister Lammy attempted to explain. “He has done all this in accordance with the current rules. This is not a question of [falta] transparency, because what we have tried to do is to be transparent at all times,” he said.
According to the explanation given to Parliament, several firms have recently offered Victoria Starmer free dresses, make-up or jewellery. Following these proposals, Downing Street asked parliamentary authorities whether these possible benefits should also be included in the register of the MP and Prime Minister Starmer’s interests. The answer was yes, and that led to the revelation of Alli’s previous gifts.
Victoria Starmer works in the Health and Safety Department of the National Health Service (NHS) and has not wanted to project a political and public image of herself during this time. Her appearance in a red dress by the firm Me+Em, when she entered the Downing Street residence with her husband on 5 July, after the Labour election victory, received endless praise for her elegance.
But it is not at all common for all prime ministers and their spouses to have a free wardrobe to project, as Starmer’s entourage claims, a good image of the country and its government. This was not the case with the two previous Labour prime ministers. Cherie Blair regularly complained about the amount of her own money she had to spend on clothes to attend official events. Sarah Brown (wife of Gordon Brown) rented the dresses she wore on such occasions from labels.
Starmer receives a double annual salary (MP and PM) of almost 200,000 euros. His wife, as an NHS worker, has a salary of around 60,000 euros.
