Treasury Minister Darren Jones has defended Chancellor Rachel Reeves for accepting funding for clothing from a party donor and declaring it as office expenses.
He told GB News: “Parties in opposition, as the Conservative Party will now find out, rely on political donations to fund their activities. That's the way it works.
“In this country, we don't fund opposition parties beyond some funding for their parliamentary duties. And Rachel Reeves, for example, the Chancellor, took a donation from a close friend of hers because she was on the road away from home for long periods of time during the election campaign, doing multiple stops a day.
“Her friend helped contribute to the cost of doing that, and she's been very clear this morning and previously that was an election campaign cost.
“She doesn't need that now that now we're in government and that she's in the day job as Chancellor of the Exchequer, which is why that's not going forward.
“Let's just be very clear, this is not funded by parliamentary budgets. It's not funded by ministerial budgets.
“This was a donation from a friend to the Chancellor to help cover the costs that she incurred performing her duties as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer during the election campaign, when she was on the road around the country.
“This happens all the time for parties in opposition, that's how they fund their activities, and it was declared in the proper way. That's why you can see it.
“That's why it was transparently reported, which I might say is very different to the undercover work that journalists had to do to reveal the parties in Number 10 under the last government and these crony contracts that were given out during the Covid period to friends and donors of the Conservative Party.”
He added: “Office costs in opposition are around the running of the office, for example, my boss, the Shadow Chancellor. There are lots of costs involved in that.
“You might hire staff, you might commission research, you might print publications. You might have travel costs when you go around the country.
“And in these circumstances, as I say, when Rachel was away from home for a long period of time, that included the clothing that she had on the campaign trail.
“But the important point is, all of that was declared in line with the rules. There's no suggestion that this is a breach of the rules. It's perfectly transparent in the way it's been declared.
“Now that the election campaign has finished and we are in office, we're focusing on delivering the change that we promised at this election, getting a grip of the public finances, and investing in the future.
“And as you would imagine Rachel's gone back to normal practice because she's not on the election trail anymore.”
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