Gary Neville, the Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United footballer, can’t help himself when it comes to tedious political rants. His latest comes in the form of a one-eyed defence of the Prime Minister’s right to accept freebies, including tickets to Premier League matches. Neville, a prominent Labour supporter, believes Sir Keir Starmer has ‘not done anything wrong’ by accepting thousands of pounds worth of football freebies, and that watching Arsenal with his family was ‘his only release’.
'Given the absolute corruption of the past eight years… it's absolutely incredible people are angry about @Keir_Starmer getting free @Arsenal tickets'@GNev2 responds to the freebies furore while speaking at the @UKLabour party conference https://t.co/EElqczzT1K pic.twitter.com/V2hEW47Ibo
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) September 23, 2024
Neville said it was ‘bizarre’ how much focus had been put on the story, telling a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool:
‘Keir Starmer’s paid for his season ticket to go with his family to watch Arsenal all his life and he’s now being told he can’t go to that same seat, when I’m sure he would – you know he would, everybody knows he would – he’s been told he’s got to go in a hospitality box, a private box. To be fair, a lot of the people complaining about him will end up in those types of boxes themselves, including myself at times.’
Neville didn’t just defend Starmer – he also went on the attack, taking a pop at the record of the previous Conservative government and Rishi Sunak’s use of a helicopter and VIP lanes for suppliers during Covid. ‘That didn’t get anywhere near the same level of scrutiny,’ he claimed.
Perhaps Neville would be better off sticking to football punditry rather than venturing into political analysis?
The Prime Minister has also been quick to defend his decision to accept corporate hospitality from Arsenal football club, arguing he can no longer use his normal seats now that he is leader of the country. He said last week that it would be ‘pretty self-indulgent’ to stay in the stands when it would cost the taxpayer more to provide him with security:
‘Frankly, I’d rather be in the stands, but I’m not going to ask the taxpayer to indulge me to be in the stands, when I could go and sit somewhere else.’
It is an odd position to take for someone who is always banging on about government being all about public service. Would it really be that onerous to watch the matches on television like the majority of football fans?
Neville said it was ‘bizarre’ how much focus had been put on the story
The suspicion remains that turning down freebies is proving a tough ask for Labour bigwigs. Starmer is believed to have received £12,458 of hospitality and freebies from Premier League clubs, and £ 35,792 worth of football tickets during the last parliament. A large chunk of his free tickets have come from Premier League football clubs, many of whom are lobbying against the introduction of a new football regulator first suggested under a fan-led review. The new body could have the power to stop teams joining breakaway leagues and block investments from controversial regimes. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that Starmer’s acceptance of free tickets leads to legitimate fears that he will be lobbied by football chiefs and that this risks creating a major conflict of interest.
More broadly, Starmer continues to face questions and close scrutiny over his links to the millionaire Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli. The businessman, who was handed a Downing Street pass shortly after Labour won power, has donated thousands of pounds’ worth of suits and glasses to Sir Keir. Lord Alli has also funded expensive clothing for Starmer’s wife, Victoria, as well as a personal shopper and alterations, which her husband initially failed to declare.
Alli allowed Deputy PM Angela Rayner to stay in his New York penthouse apartment during a holiday. Rayner and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, also received donations for clothing. On Friday, a Downing Street source confirmed they would no longer accept clothing donations. Even so there is a sense that the government remains in denial about the scale of public anger and the political damage caused by the donations fiasco. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, is just the latest senior minister to offer a somewhat tin-eared explanation of the decision to accept free hospitality and other donations, telling BBC Newsnight: ‘I’m really proud of people who want to contribute… their money to our politics. It is a noble pursuit.’ Really? It is the sort of political idiocy that only the likes of Gary Neville will be cheering on. Pretty much everyone else will see it for what it is: a defence of the indefensible.
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