Double what he had previously said, Sir Keir Starmer has now acknowledged that Lord Alli handed him £32,000 to pay for clothes. According to a statement from his office on Friday, the prime minister received donations of apparel totaling £6,000 in February 2024 and £10,000 in October 2023. The donations have been "re-categorized" after first being disclosed as funds for his private office. The £16,000 additional sum is on top of the £16,200 that was previously stated.His disclosure will raise more questions over how close Sir Keir is to the Labour peer.
Sir Keir also received £2,400 from Lord Alli for glasses, and the use of an £18 million penthouse during the election campaign and on other occasions. Members of his frontbench team have also declared large donations from the peer.Because the most recent donations were designated as being "for the private office of the Leader of the Opposition," they were previously unknown.The registrar of MPs' interests is believed to have advised Sir Keir regarding the two donations; as a result, they will now be classified as "donations in kind" of clothing. The initial gifts were promptly declared.Sir Keir said last week he would no longer accept money for clothes while in office, as did Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, and Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister.
Lord Alli gave Ms Rayner a donation for work clothing in June. It was declared as a donation in kind worth £3,550, without explaining that it was for outfits.Labour has claimed that all opposition parties invest in the presentation of candidates, including speech and media training, as well as photography and clothing.
It emerged this month that the parliamentary standards watchdog would not investigate another instance in which Sir Keir initially failed to declare clothes donated to his wife, Lady Starmer, also by Lord Alli.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister defended the use of the peer’s Covent Garden apartment. He said he took the offer so that his son would have a place to study for his GCSEs without having to walk past journalists and protesters outside their family home. The exams finished in mid-June, about a month before the family moved out.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, also used the property to host a fundraising event. Ms Rayner has used another of Lord Alli’s properties, a flat in New York, for a holiday.
The London flat was also used by Lord Alli to host Sir Tony Blair and Sue Gray to discuss the future of the Labour party, months after she became Sir Keir’s chief of staff.
The former prime minister was seated next to Ms Gray during the summit at the flat at the beginning of the year.
It emerged yesterday that the peer also held a number of meetings with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, and warned against military intervention in the country.
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