Keir Starmer freebies row: Labour minister insists ‘no rules broken’ as PM pays back £6,000

He is covering the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets, four to the races and a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer favoured by his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer.

With questions lingering over long-standing Labour backer Lord Waheed Alli’s influence on the party, Business Minister Sarah Jones insisted there is nothing to be concerned about.

Speaking on GB News, she said: “The first thing to say, which is really important, is that no rules have been broken here. Nobody is suggesting they have.

“The issue in the previous government was lack of transparency, people not declaring things, and then nobody quite knowing where money was coming from and what it was for…

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“There's a difference between opposition and government. No rules have been broken here, but 12 weeks in, we're saying, ‘okay, let's look at these rules around hospitality and gifts, and what are the principles around it?’

“So many politicians, many journalists, many businesspeople are invited to events.

“Most politicians will turn most things down most of the time, but they go to build relationships, to talk to business, and it's perfectly reasonable for them to do.”

The Prime Minister has committed to overhauling hospitality rules for ministers to ensure better transparency about what is provided following the backlash.

On Wednesday, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister has commissioned a new set of principles on gifts and hospitality to be published as part of the updated ministerial code.

“Ahead of the publication of the new code, the Prime Minister has paid for several entries on his own register. This will appear in the next register of members’ interests.”

It emerged on Wednesday that Alli was under investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog over an alleged failure to register interests.

According to Jones, the Labour backer will “fully cooperate” with the investigation.

She told GB News: “He will completely cooperate with the investigation, of course, and he's confident he's registered everything in the way that he should have done. We need to let that investigation run its course.

“He's been a lord for decades, and he's been very involved in trying to deliver a Labour government for a very long time. That's why he made the donations.

“He did because he wanted to deliver a Labour government. He was helping us do that. He had a [Downing St] pass for a very short period of time, and he doesn't have one anymore.

“I don’t think there's any question that he was trying to influence anything other than to deliver a Labour government.

“He had a pass for a very short period of time. It was a temporary pass. He doesn't have it now, and that, I think, is the end of that.

“He has been involved in the Labour Party for decades. I can remember in 1997 he was involved in getting a Labour government.

“Back then, when he was much younger, he has made significant donations to the Labour Party, which we're very grateful for, to help us get a Labour government.

“But that is the end of it. He is not influencing any policy at all.”