Sir Keir Starmer hasn’t been in office three months yet and already the Labour government is mired in cronyism controversies. One of the issues currently dogging the Prime Minister involves a rather wealthy donor Lord Alli and, er, Starmer’s wife. Last month, it emerged that Alli received a No. 10 pass after funding the PM’s wardrobe. On Sunday, it transpired that Lady Starmer had been a beneficiary of Alli’s donations too – but these had not been declared in line with parliamentary rules. Dear oh dear…
While the PM may now face an investigation into the issue, the media skills of his ministers aren’t doing him any favours. As Mr S wrote on Sunday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy appeared to suggest that outfits worn by the First Lady of the United States are paid for with taxpayer dollars, proclaiming to Sky News that ‘in some countries, there’s a substantial budget’ for ministerial clothes. Goodness. Is Lammy really suggesting taxpayers should fund Lady Starmer’s wardrobe? Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stumbled her way through a rather uncomfortable interview with Sky’s Kay Burley in trying to dig her government out of that hole this morning…
KB: Do you think the taxpayer should pay for Lady Starmer’s clothes?
YC: No, of course not. That’s not the way that we do things in this country. This is a political donation and, um, I think, I don’t know the details of the donation but donations are always declared in the proper way.
KB: So the Foreign Secretary misspoke when he said that?
YC: Well, I think he was talking about arrangements in the US – I don’t think there’s any difference…
KB: No, he was suggesting that it should be considered for the UK taxpayer to potentially pay for her clothing, as is similarly done in the US.
YC: Um, well, no. We are a very different country to the US and I think that’s something that we all recognise. There are huge differences between different countries and arrangements that we have and I think it’s probably a very good thing, I think sometimes, that our politics is very different from the US politics too.
Crikey. It’s all becoming a rather awkward mess for Sir Keir’s Labour lot…
Watch the clip here:
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