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Cleverly slams Home Secretary over Taylor Swift’s special escort

(Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images)

Well, well well. The Labour lot are under the spotlight once again. It transpires, after the Sun newspaper’s splash this morning, that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper personally intervened to ensure that Taylor Swift received a police convoy to her Wembley shows. Priorities, priorities…

Cooper has come under fire after reporting revealed that London’s Metropolitan police were pressed by politicians over Swift’s security measures. Three of the US singer-songwriter’s Vienna shows were cancelled this year after a suicide bomb attempt was foiled by forces – and it has been claimed that the American pop icon’s mother and manager was threatening to cut the singer’s London shows unless top level police support was provided. Although police chiefs have been reported as being ‘reluctant’ to grant Swift ‘VVIP’ service, which usually reserved for senior royals and top politicians, Cooper and London mayor Sadiq Khan personally persuaded the force to provide additional protection for the singer and her entourage – at a cost to the public purse. So much for the ‘grown-ups‘ being back in charge, eh?

Now Tory leadership frontrunner James Cleverly has waded into the discussion. Penning a letter to the Home Secretary this morning, Cleverly quizzed Cooper on whether she had spoken to the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley about Swift’s security measures and if she had received any advice on the matter from the police chief. Turning to the ongoing freebie fiasco dogging Sir Keir Starmer’s party, Cleverly went on to question the Cabinet secretary about whether ‘other ministers received the offer of hospitality before or after decisions were made about Ms Swift’s protection’. Mr S would remind readers that Starmer himself accepted £4,000 worth of Taylor tickets – before the PM paid back the cost – and the list of other Labour figures who received Swiftie gifts is rather extensive. It includes, to name a few, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones, Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell, Sue Gray’s son and Labour MP Liam Conlon and Liverpool politician Kim Johnson. Crikey.

In a rather scathing sign off, Cleverly notes to Cooper:

The role of the Special Escort Group is to serve the state and provide professional mobile protection for royalty, senior government ministers and at times guests of government and state. It is not for use by private individuals or as traffic assistants for popstars.

Ouch. That’s her told…

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Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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