Politics LIVE: Wes Streeting used Lord Alli's £18m penthouse for Labour fundraiser that included Sir Ian McKellen
Wes Streeting has admitted to using Lord Alli’s home, saying he hosted a fundraising event there attended by Sir Ian McKellen.
The Health Secretary was joined by Labour MP for Spen Valley Kim Leadbeater at the event with 20 to 30 guests at the reception in March 2022, which raised £20,000 in donations for the party.
The reception hosted by Streeting at the Covent Garden flat prompted speculation in circles within the party that he was preparing for a leadership bid in case Sir Keir stood down for any reason.
Leadbetter split the money raised at the event equally with Streeting. A spokesman for the MP told The Telegraph: "It was all declared at the time and it was perfectly legitimate." GB News has approached Streeting for a comment.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer has defended using a house owned by Lord Alli for a video urging people to work from home during the Covid pandemic.
Sir Keir Starmer said the idea it was his home was "farcical" despite there being photos of his family and Christmas cards behind him during the recording, made in December 2021 during the Omicron variant wave. Instead of it being recorded at his home in north London, it was filmed at Lord Alli’s flat in Covent Garden, central London.
Speaking to journalists in New York during a visit to the United Nations, Sir Keir said: "Anybody who thinks that I was pretending it was my own home, the idea that I’ve got Union Jacks by my fireplace at home or that I would invite a bunch of you lot into my living room to have a look around… the idea that I was trying to pretend that it was my home is pretty farcical.
"And no, I’m not going to be inviting you in to film me in front of my fireplace. I’m very sorry, that’s about the last thing I’d do."
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Scottish Tories announce Russell Findlay as new leader
Russell Findlay after being announced as new Scottish Conservatives leader, at the Radisson Hotel in Edinburgh
PA
Russell Findlay has been elected Scottish Conservatives leader, winning a majority of votes in the first round.
The new leader won 2,565 votes, the party’s returning officer Leonard Wallace announced on Friday, with Murdo Fraser coming second with 1,187 votes and Meghan Gallacher in third with 403 votes.
The turnout was 60 per cent, with Wallace announcing the party has just shy of 7,000 members, 4,155 of whom voted in the leadership contest.
Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Emily Thornberry says Israeli ground invasion into Lebanon may favour Hezbollah
Former shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry
PA
Asked about escalating conflict in the Middle East, she told the BBC: “I think that we need to be aware that we have perhaps more clout than we have done recently, and I think we’re in a fairly unique position, so… we are in a position to be able to pull people together.
“I think that the UN General Assembly meeting at this time means that I think that many other nations can be pulled behind the declaration that has been made, and that will make it stronger.
“We don’t know whether or not Israel is bluffing about a ground war. We do know that in 2006 that they got very bogged down, that at the moment they may be ahead because they’re using air power and surprise, but a ground war may well be different.
“And actually, the poor Lebanese, who you know many of whom do not want Hezbollah in the bottom of their country, certainly don’t want to have the Israelis. And Hezbollah may well end up with more legitimacy as a result of that ground invasion.”
Parents of toddlers as young as three years old will be taxed under Labour's private school plans
Despite ministers promising it would exempt nursery children, the legislation means the parents of three and four year olds will be dragged into paying 20 per cent VAT from January if their children are in "mixed-age" classes.
Labour previously vowed all nursery provision, even if part of a private school, would be exempt from its tax raid.
However, The Telegraph reports that buried in the Government’s draft legislation, a nursery class is defined as being "composed wholly of children who are under compulsory school age (five years old) and would not be expected to attain that age while in that class."
Reeves to consider abandoning crackdown on non-doms
Rachel Reeves GettyLabour included a pledge to end the tax perk for wealthy residents who are domiciled overseas in its manifesto, hoping the policy would raise £1 billion a year.
However, treasury officials are concerned that the move will force so many wealthy foreigners to leave that the measure will backfire.
Government officials said they would consider changing the details of the policy to make it less punishing to non-doms, with reducing the amount of inheritance tax they would have to pay thought to be one of the options under consideration.