Keir Starmer, Sinking in Freebie Scandal, Says He’ll Pay Back Some Gifts — but Is It Too Late?

Politicians with an appetite for extravagance, beware the bittersweet dessert named Dame Joan Collins. The 91-year-old thespian and columnist lobbed a barb at Sir Keir Starmer that is proving prescient. Speaking on the British talk show “Loose Women” last week, Ms. Collins recalled her years with a starring role on “Dynasty” when she was assigned a personal shopper. “You would go to Saks or Neiman Marcus and say, ‘I’ll have that, and that, and that, and that — a bit like our prime minister,” she said.Ms. Collins’s timely analogy had the audience in stitches, but for Sir Keir the row his Labor government is engulfed in on account of so-called Freebiegate is no laughing matter. He has been found to have accepted more tha two-and-a-half times more donations than any other British parliamentarian since December 2019.Having accepted the equivalent of more than $130,000 in free gifts, he says that now will pay back the equivalent of about $7,800. According to British press reports, that sum will cover the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets, four tickets to races, and a clothing rental agreement with a luxury clothing designer used by his wife, Lady Victoria. If that appears on its face to be too little, it is almost certainly too late — the prime minister’s popularity ratings are tumbling to new lows.This is all the more alarming for a politician who when campaigning vowed to “clean up” British politics. As it turns out, Sir Keir may need a bigger vacuum cleaner. Now one of his chief donors, the Labor peer Lord Waheed Alli, is being investigated for “alleged non-registration of interests,” which could be a breach of the members’ code of conduct. Those are rules relating to making clear what the interests are that might have a bearing on members’ parliamentary actions. Lord Alli is not only one of the Labor party’s biggest donors, but has also given the most to Sir Keir since December 2019. Since he became the Labor leader, Lord Alli has showered Sir Keir with thousands of pounds’ worth of gifts and hospitality, gaining special access to 10 Downing Street in the process. The luxury eyeglasses alone that Lord Alli has bestowed on Sir Keir have been valued at well more than $3,000.What Fleet Street initially dubbed Wardrobegate has morphed into Freebiegate, and it has touched the Labor party from the top down. On Thursday it emerged that the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, took a trip to visit a nightclub at Ibiza in August — notably, after the election — courtesy of a music management company to the tune of the equivalent of about $1,100.Ms. Rayner has described DJ Fisher, who manned the DJ booth at the 5,000-capacity club in question, as “a really great guy.”The pervasive tone-deafness of the Labor party will not be easily offset by the perfunctory and partial payback of free goods received. This week a Downing Street representative said that “the prime minister has commissioned a new set of principles on gifts and hospitality to be published as part of the updated ministerial code,” adding: “Ahead of the publication of the new code, the prime minister has paid for several entries on his own register.”Sir Keir told reporters this week that “until now, politicians have used their best individual judgment on a case-by-case basis,” but given the public’s uproar over the extent of the free gifts and other perks, “it’s clear we need some principles” on donations. He added: “Until those are in place, it was right for me to make those repayments.When asked if his decision amounted to an admission that he was wrong to accept the many free gifts, he refused to answer.There are signs that members of his own party are starting to break ranks with him. On Thursday a veteran Labor backbencher and Mother of the House, Diane Abbott, said that Sir Keir’s paying back some of the gifts was tantamount to “an admission he was doing a wrong thing.” Ms. Abbott has accused Mr. Starmer of failing to understand “how taking freebies looks to ordinary people.”As prime minister, Sir Keir earns a comfortable six-figure salary. He has not said if we would repay another donation valued at more than $26,000 for the use of a private apartment in the runup to his election.

Keir Starmer, Sinking in Freebie Scandal, Says He’ll Pay Back Some Gifts — but Is It Too Late?

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