Sensemaker Daily
Free tickets to Taylor Swift concerts have accounted for more than a fifth of all gifts and hospitality declared by Labour ministers since the UK’s general election was called in May. Yesterday the new education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said she didn’t know of a single cabinet colleague who had turned down an offer of the tickets.
So what? Weeks in and the story still won’t die. It has been catnip for right-leaning newspapers but it’s also a story of substance, about holding leaders to account. It has
- made Britain’s new cabinet look naive and foolish at best, and to many people grasping and hypocritical too;
- wrecked an historic opportunity for Labour to craft its own narrative of a fresh start;
- cast serious doubt on Keir Starmer’s judgement as a politician and chief executive.
How concerned should the public be? The numbers are not huge. Equally, they’re not small compared with their equivalent in the US, the world’s richest democracy, where strict rules bar most gifts to members of Congress worth more than $50.
Data from Tortoise’s Westminster Accounts show:
- Since the last parliament was dissolved, MPs have registered 183 gifts, benefits and hospitality, with a total value of £218,000.
- Labour MPs accounted for £99,000 of the total, of which £53,000 was declared by cabinet ministers. Starmer accepted the lion’s share, worth £38,000.
- Ministers have now declared Taylor Swift tickets valued at £11,664. On Wednesday Peter Kyle, the science and technology secretary, became the sixth Cabinet member to declare tickets.
- Over the same period, Tory MPs have declared gifts and hospitality worth £48,000.
Worse than the Tories? Yes and no. In the first 100 days after Boris Johnson’s win in 2019, cabinet ministers declared only £7,000 worth of gifts, broadly defined. But his MPs were just as keen on free tickets to the BRITS as Labour ministers have been on free tickets to Swift.
And not forgetting… As Labour has pointed out there were repeated instances throughout the last government of hospitality not being entered into the parliamentary register. Then-cabinet members including Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick registered items including opera tickets, sporting events and film premieres in the ministerial register rather than the MPs’ register. This meant that
- no value was recorded for these items, and
- they were declared quarterly, several months after being accepted.
A Starmer problem? He campaigned on a platform of cleaning up politics and became known in opposition as “Mr Rules”. He now accounts for more than a third of all gifts accepted by his party, by value. He accepted tickets, clothes, spectacles and the use of a luxury penthouse for his son to revise for his GCSEs.
Labour insiders bemoan his team’s failure to anticipate the sustained public backlash, especially in the context of cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel payments and pitch-rolling for what is expected to be a difficult first Budget.
Some have sought to blame his former chief of staff, Sue Gray, but ultimate responsibility has to lie with the individual who took the goods. One Labour MP told Tortoise it was a salutary lesson, and that his register would be “quiet from now on”.
Peak perks? Starmer declared more than £20,000 for his use of Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli’s £18 million penthouse during the campaign.
Not so fast. Five years ago Johnson made use of a £9.5 million townhouse owned by the then-Sky executive Andrew Griffith for several days during the contest to succeed Theresa May as leader. This was never declared on any register. A spokesperson for Johnson said the rules didn’t require Johnson to declare it and that “any ‘benefit’ from daytime meetings he did attend [at the house] would have been de minimis”. According to reports at the time, Johnson was spending up to 13 hours a day in the property over several days.
What’s more… In the subsequent election, Griffith was parachuted into the safe seat of Arundel and South Downs. He eventually became Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary before becoming a minister. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing – but there is at least an effort by Labour to force ministers to declare gifts on the MPs’ register as well as their own.
