Since Waheed Alli, a Labour donor, has endorsed Keir Starmer's lifestyle, he has claimed more free tickets and gifts than any other prominent party leader. His total now exceeds £100,000.

During his tenure as Labour leader, the prime minister has accepted around forty sets of complimentary tickets, primarily for football games, although he has also accepted £4,000 in hospitality at a Taylor Swift performance and £698 in Coldplay tickets in Manchester.

This week, he faced criticism for the magnitude of gifts bestowed upon him by Lord Alli, who covered the cost of work clothes valued at £12,000, lodging over £20,000, and glasses above £2,485. This was particularly concerning considering that the donor was granted a temporary pass to No 10 following the election.
On Times Radio on Tuesday, minister Angela Eagle found it difficult to justify the prime minister's choice to take so many freebies. When asked why, considering his pay, he shouldn't get his own glasses, Eagle replied, "I'm afraid."She added: “The prime minister has had his say on that … next time you interview him, you could ask him yourself. I don’t have an opinion.”

Starmer’s acceptance of freebies raised eyebrows after the FT reported during the election he had taken £76,000 worth of hospitality and gifts. Since then, he has declared another £4,000 in Taylor Swift tickets and £20,000 of accommodation from Alli.

This was mostly provided during the election campaign but also continued one week after he had become prime minister until 13 July.

The Labour party declined to answer when pressed on whether Alli had funded Starmer’s hotel accommodation during the election or loaned one of his own properties as a base.

Starmer has previously insisted his acceptance of hospitality is related to his security requirements of not being able to go into the stands, saying: “If I don’t accept a gift of hospitality, I can’t go to a game. You could say: ‘Well, bad luck.’ That’s why gifts have to be registered. But, you know, never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far.”

Other previous major party leaders have not declared so many free tickets and hospitality.

During his time as opposition party leader, David Cameron declared one set of Rugby World Cup tickets, and being hosted at the Conservative party’s Black and White ball, along with various gifts of hampers and other treats. He also registered £4,475 of discounted personal training sessions.

The value is difficult to quantify as the rules on declarations were only tightened after 2010 but the volume of his registered freebies is far lower than those accepted by Starmer.

During his time as Labour leader from 2010 to 2015, Ed Miliband declared BA upgrades on a flight to South Africa worth up to £5,866 and Paralympic tickets of unknown value. After leaving his job as opposition leader he declared tickets to see the Boston Red Sox baseball team worth £2,607 in 2019, and £480 to attend the Lunar festival.

Jeremy Corbyn revealed he took Glastonbury tickets worth about £450 two years in a row for a family member but he otherwise did not accept hospitality as Labour leader from 2015 to 2020 – aside from a first edition book donated to a museum. Since leaving the job, he has declared about £600,000 in donations to his legal fighting fund.

Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have less directly comparable declarations to Starmer as they all became prime minister as soon as they took over as party leader. Ministers are not forced to declare hospitality on their MP register that they receive in their official roles.

However, while he was prime minister, Johnson declared a £15,000 holiday from donor David Ross, and a £12,000 party paid for by Brown’s Hotel while he was party leader.

Johnson avoided declaring the value of a free holiday from former MP Zac Goldsmith on the basis that it was provided in a personal capacity.

After leaving office, Johnson ended up declaring more than £100,000 of free accommodation, mostly from Anthony and Carole Bamford. He also accepted a £4,000 second-hand bike from Nechirvan Idris Barzani, president of Kurdistan’s regional government.

In the months after resigning as foreign secretary in 2018, he took two tickets with hospitality to a Test match at the Oval, with a value of £1,800.

Sunak has declared no personal hospitality, apart from honorary membership of the Carlton Club worth £2,595. Truss had no hospitality as party leader, but before then, she declared just four events during her previous 10 years in parliament: a Norwich City football match attendance worth £2,000, Wimbledon tickets worth £340, opera tickets to Porgy and Bess with a value of £400 and £1,104 in tickets to Newmarket races.

As a shadow cabinet minister for the opposition, Theresa May accepted shoes from Russell & Bromley and was hosted at the Brit Awards and Henley Festival twice.

But the month she was replaced by Johnson in her position, she took two complimentary tickets to a Lords match provided by the England and Wales Cricket Board Limited.