Well, well, well. It transpires that a number of left-wing MPs enjoyed some time away from their constituencies at this year’s Glastonbury festival, soaking up the sun, music and, of course, the pleasure of being there for free. Former Labour MP Zarah Sultana – who may or may not have patched things up with Jeremy Corbyn following a rather botched party launch announcement – was gifted two tickets by Glastonbury Festival Events Ltd worth £630 after attending as a guest speaker. Green MP Ellie Chowns also registered a single ticket for speaking at the festival, costing £390, while Labour’s Clive Lewis accepted a ticket, after being invited to speak, at the same price.
While the matter of speaking at public events is hardly something to complain about, Mr S is a little more interested in the hypocrisy displayed by the holier-than-thou lefties. They have been vocal about politicians accepting freebies in the past, with Sultana taking a pop at her former colleague, Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves, for being out of touch by accepting donated gifts. Speaking in March, the MP for Coventry South made a pointed dig as she fumed: ‘I ask the Chancellor – who earns over £150,000 annually, has accepted £7,500 worth of free clothing and recently took freebie tickets to see Sabrina Carpenter – does she think austerity 2.0 is the change people really voted for?’ She makes a good point – so why then did Sultana, who receives at least £93,904 a year, accept her own pair of complimentary passes?
Lewis is a Glasto regular – enjoying the music festival so much in 2016 that he stayed long enough to miss his debut appearance in the Commons as Corbyn’s shadow defence secretary. And Chowns may wish to eat her words on gifting, after having pledged to her local constituency paper in October that she will both give away half her annual salary to various charities and, er, refuse freebies. ‘My policy,’ the Green MP declared, ‘is to politely decline gifts.’ How’s that working out, eh?
Sultana didn’t take too kindly to having her double standards pointed out by Steerpike, however. After Mr S got in touch, the Independent MP took to social media to rage: ‘By all means, run your story. It’ll end up in the same gutter as the rest.’
See you in the gutter comrade!
Comments