Starmer’s Political Rally Disrupted by Fresh Questions on Gifts
(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Keir Starmer saw new questions over donations and gifts overshadow the start of his Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool, with top officials spending more time denying rule-breaking than touting the new UK government’s policy plans.
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Starmer’s deputy, Angela Rayner, was forced to use to what was meant to be a tone-setting appearance on the BBC to defend her handling of a New Year’s Eve holiday in New York subsided by a donor. Rayner said she had been “over-transparent” in her declarations of donations to parliamentary authorities, after the Sunday Times reported she and a friend had stayed in accommodation paid for by Waheed Alli, a TV mogul and Labour peer in the House of Lords.
“I had the use of the apartment and I disclosed that I had the use of the apartment,” Rayner said on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show. Donations are “a feature of our politics,” she said.
The interview underscored how the UK’s new Labour government has become distracted by the media scrutiny of donations accepted by the party. Most of the questions were about the row, rather than Labour’s plans for a convention that just weeks ago appeared to be an opportunity for the party to celebrate its landslide general election victory and set out its plans for office.
Instead, Starmer and his top team have struggled to shake off sustained media coverage of Alli and the £575,000 he has given to Labour politicians since 2020, including paying for clothing for Starmer, his wife and government ministers.
After the election, the Labour peer was given a pass to Downing Street, allowed to attend some political meetings, and advised on public appointments, raising questions over whether Starmer had accepted donations in exchange for access.
Though they are barely two months in office and nearly five years out from the next general election, the row is still dangerous for Labour, who are being accused of hypocrisy by the opposition Conservatives after Starmer and Rayner campaigned against Tory sleaze under previous administrations.
“I get that people are angry, I get that people are upset,” Rayner told the BBC. She suggested there could be a “national debate about how we fund poltitics,” but added: “We have a system at the moment that says if you get donations, that has to be declared and the rules have to apply to everybody.”
The problem for Starmer and Labour is that they built an election campaign around “change” and a promise to do politics differently. The premier has repeatedly said that the challenge of fixing Britain — including sorting out problems in the National Health Service — are a decade-long challenge that would require Labour to win again in five years.
But Labour is struggling to get its message across. At the conference on Sunday, Rayner announced a policy package aimed at improving the quality of housing for Britons, including consulting on a new standard for homes and tougher regulations to prevent low quality accommodation.
She also told the BBC she would publish legislation on workers’ rights next month. However, those policies have been unveiled to little fanfare as stories about donations dominate the news agenda.
Another Cabinet member, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, also said she benefitted from donations from Alli. Speaking earlier on Sunday on Sky News, Phillipson confirmed the donor had paid for her 40th birthday celebrations, which was first reported by Bloomberg.
Phillipson said the event, though linked to her birthday, was a work event attended by journalists and people in the education sector.
“It is frustrating to be having this conversation with you this morning, not talking about the wider agenda that we’re setting up here in Liverpool, because we have delivered an awful lot in the very short space of time that we have been in government,” Phillipson said, adding: “Of course, this is a distraction.”
On the BBC, Rayner was also asked about another story which has been the focus of attention among senior aides in Downing Street: accusations that Labour staff are unhappy about the role of Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray.
Bloomberg reported Saturday that some Labour aides wanted Gray to leave her post after the conference. Asked if she thought Gray would still be in her job by Christmas, Rayner said she thought she would.
“Sue Gray has been doing an incredible job and she’s got a huge amount of respect amongst the Cabinet,” Rayner said. “I don’t accept that Sue Gray is part of a problem at all.”
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