Sir Keir’s frockgate scandal is only gathering pace, it appears, after a rather calamitous week for the Prime Minister. Donations received by both Starmer and his wife have been heavily scrutinised after it emerged at the weekend that Lady Starmer’s gifts were not declared in line with parliamentary protocol. Rules for thee, but not for me!
The PM received some rather, er, ineffectual backing from a variety of government ministers on the airwaves this week – including David Lammy, Yvette Cooper and Angela Eagle – but with the way the tide is turning, Starmer may soon long to be surrounded by his sympathetic, if gaffe-prone, supporters. For the outrage about the PM’s donations is no longer being kept behind closed doors – and a number of irritated parliamentarians are now urging Sir Keir to just stop accepting gifts. Oh dear…
Labour peer Harriet Harman blasted Starmer’s handling of the freebie fiasco on a Sky podcast this week, saying that the Labour leader should stop trying to ‘justify’ the gifts as it is ‘making things worse’. Jess Phillips then told LBC’s Nick Ferrari this morning that it was not a ‘good look’ for the PM to be receiving so many gifts. And now – rather ironically given Starmer’s frustration over a series of Sue Gray leaks – the bad briefings against the Prime Minister himself have begun.
One lefty backbencher told the Telegraph: ‘He should stop taking freebies immediately. It gives the impression that he’s more interested in himself than he is about the difficult situation facing the poorest in our country who we are supposed to represent. They added: ‘I don’t know of anyone who thinks this is a good idea. Friends and colleagues are mortified.’ Eek. Another Labour MP was sceptical about the PM’s excuses over private boxes at the footie, fuming:
He keeps saying he has to go in the posh seats to be protected, ultimately saving money for all of us. But we know that most of these freebies were when he was Leader of the Opposition, so is he saying he needed more protection then (when he was relatively unknown) than the Prime Minister who sat in the stands?
They went on:
Loads of us (senior Labour backbenchers) are livid. This is what hypocrisy looks like – and most of us have been fighting the ‘they’re all the same’ rhetoric for our whole careers, Keir’s double standards just prove it’s entirely accurate.
Burn…
It’s hardly what Starmer will be hoping to hear on the eve of his big conference. Talk about trouble in paradise…
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