Keir Starmer ‘out of touch’ with own voters as Britons deliver hammer blow verdict
Starmer came under fire for accepting up to £100,000 in free tickets and gifts
PA
A new poll by YouGov has found a majority of the public, including Labour voters, think it is unacceptable for MPs to accept “tickets to football matches and concert tickets” as gifts from donors or companies.
It comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer has come under fire for accepting £100,000 worth of tickets and gifts, which is more than any other recent party leader.
It came to light that Labour donor Waheed Alli had gifted Starmer work clothing worth £12,000, accommodation valued at more than £20,000 and glasses valued at £2,485.
The prime minister also accepted almost 40 sets of free tickets during his time as Labour leader, which were mostly to football matches but also £4,000 of hospitality at a Taylor Swift concert and £698 of Coldplay tickets.
Free Gear Kier claimed voters would say “fair do’s” to his freebies.
— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) September 24, 2024
He is out of touch with the majority his own voters, let alone everyone else.
He will be a one term PM. pic.twitter.com/9neb0wYiMx
The poll, conducted on September 23, found 64 per cent of all adults thought it was “somewhat” or “completely” unacceptable to accept tickets to football matches or concert tickets compared to 25 per cent who said it was acceptable.
Zia Yusuf, Chairman of Reform UK, posted on X: “Free Gear Kier claimed voters would say “fair do’s” to his freebies.
“He is out of touch with the majority of his own voters, let alone everyone else. He will be a one term PM.”
By political groups, Reform UK voters were the most critical of accepting gifts with 85 per cent of respondents citing it as unacceptable followed by 80 per cent of Conservative voters and 67 per cent of Lib Dems.
Interestingly, even within his own party, 53 per cent of Labour voters think it is unacceptable for MPs to accept freebies compared to 38 per cent who said it is acceptable.
The poll, which surveyed 4046 GB adults, also found responses differed by age as younger generations were less critical of MPs accepting gifts, although they were also more likely to be unsure.
Only 28 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds think it is unacceptable to accept gifts while 36 per cent say the opposite. But 35 per cent “don’t know” how acceptable or not it is.
In comparison, 79 per cent of those over 65 believe it is an unacceptable behaviour while only 18 per cent approve.
When asked whether the public believes donors make donations to individual politicians to support them and want their party to succeed or because they are trying to gain influence, a large majority voted for the latter.
Younger people are more likely to think it is acceptable for MPs to accept gifts than older generations
YouGov
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Some 60 per cent took the pessimistic view that donors give gifts to try and gain influence while only 6 per cent said it was to support the party.
It comes as Starmer defended accepting £20,000 worth of accommodation from Waheed Alli during the general election, saying it was important for his son to have a peaceful place to study.
The prime minister said: “I had promised him faithfully that I would give him an environment in which he could calmly get on, his one chance to do his GCSEs, and therefore we relocated somewhere else - a gift which we then allocated a sum of money to.
"Somebody then offered me accommodation where we could do that, and I took it up. And it was the right thing to do. It didn't cost the taxpayer a penny."