Back to Westminster, where the Prime Minister is facing some rather uncomfortable questions about freebies received from top Labour donor Lord Alli. Last month, it emerged that Alli received a No. 10 pass after funding the PM’s wardrobe – before the Sunday Times revealed at the weekend that Lady Starmer had also been a beneficiary of Alli’s donations, but had not declared these in line with parliamentary directives. Rules for thee, but not for me…
The Tories were quick to call for a ‘robust’ standards probe into the matter (which Downing Street announced yesterday would not be going ahead) but the ‘Frockgate’ saga continues to rumble on – in no small part thanks to numerous gaffes on the issue made by the PM’s own ministers. David Lammy was the first to bat for Starmer, suggesting to Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday morning that donors have funded clothing picks in the past, noting ‘there isn’t a budget for the Prime Minister’s clothes or his wife’s clothes’. Not that the, er, £166,000-a-year prime ministerial salary could contribute to this at all, eh? Then Yvette Cooper stumbled through a rather awkward interview with Sky’s Kay Burley on Monday – and today it’s the turn of Labour’s border security minister Angela Eagle…
Taking a more combative approach than the Home Secretary, Eagle made quite the appearance on Times Radio today. When quizzed on why the PM couldn’t use his six-figure salary to buy his own glasses by Times Radio’s Stig Abell, Eagle shot back: ‘Well, why don’t you ask him?’ Oo er. When Abell reiterated Labour’s rather strong criticism of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street wallpaper, Eagle replied crisply: ‘Okay, you’ve had your rant.’ Charming!
Behind the scenes, however, it seems like No. 10 are rather more concerned with who spread the story in the first place. Tensions are growing between Starmer’s team and the country’s most senior civil servant Simon Case, according to the Guardian, with aides getting angsty at the cabinet secretary for not getting on top of a series of leaks. While a Cabinet Office spokesperson insisted Case wasn’t involved in negative briefings, it doesn’t bode well for relations at the top of Sir Keir’s government. With some Labour MPs beginning to grumble about the bad publicity – one told the Mail that the whole mess ‘sticks in your throat when people are really struggling’ – Starmer will be hoping his clothing fiasco irons itself out soon…
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