Sir Jake Berry has questioned how much sway Labour peer Lord Alli has over newly elected MPs after it emerged someone who had worked for him was heavily involved in candidate selection.
Speaking on GB News, Sir Jake said: “Clearly someone who works for [Lord Alli] has been in a very important role of selecting Labour MPs just before a general election.
“Let's just put this into context. What happens if a surprise general election is called, as it was, suddenly, lots of safe seats come available, either in the Conservative Party or the Labour Party. And the person who basically picks the candidate to go into those safe seats is very, very powerful.
“And we learned today that that was someone on secondment, I believe, from Lord Alli's office.
“It certainly looks bad. He's obviously a very, very influential person within the Labour Party. Not only does he now have Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner, lots of people in the cabinet who have been the beneficiary of the largesse from his giving, but also now probably dozens of newly elected Labour MPs, probably in some of their safest seats.
“These people will be in parliament for decades who probably owe him one. It’s very, very fishy.
“I’ve been Chairman of a political party and nothing is more sensitive than who is selecting your candidates. No other political party that I'm aware of has put a donor in the position of sending someone over from his office, who knows whether instructions were given, I simply don't know.
“But no other political party has basically said to someone from a donor's office, you choose the next generation of MPs.
“That is not normal. That is not part of the normal political to and fro in this country. It is very, very odd.
“Cash for cronies, isn’t it? This Labour government, 11 weeks in, is dripping with sleaze and freebies. The British public can see it.
“Even on their own figures, 4,000 pensioners could potentially die this year because they've taken the winter fuel payment from them.
“It may not be correct, it's a Labour press release. So it probably is nonsense, but it is their own press release.
“At the same time that they're taking Taylor Swift tickets and going, ‘oh, it's okay, because my kids wanted them.’
“I thought the grown-ups were in charge. Apparently, it's the children now of Labour ministers who decide what donations they take. This is sleazy beyond belief and the British public can see it.”
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