As the government struggles to get over the ongoing freebies row, pressure is mounting on the prime minister. Sir Tony Blair has urged Sir Keir Starmer to ‘rise above’ the controversies, while the former Labour chair Harriet Harman has demanded an emergency COBRA meeting.
Sir Keir has come under scrutiny for accepting £107,145 worth of gifts since 2019, making him the MP who has received the highest value of freebies and hospitality.
Yesterday, Keir Starmer paid back £6,000 worth of gifts, including six Taylor Swift tickets, four admissions to the races, and a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer for his wife, Victoria. However, this move was overshadowed by The Telegraph reporting Angela Rayner’s already controversial trip to Ibiza was a £836 partial gift.
Former prime minister Tony Blair has urged Keir Starmer to ‘rise above’ the backlash and ‘get used to’ the attacks.
He told a Politico podcast: “Dealing with politics at this level when you come under attack, which is, you know, it’s just the way it is. You’re going to have to get used to it.
“It’s going to be like that. But the single most important thing is always to have a driving purpose as a government.
“That is constantly rising above that because it will be, it is just part of modern politics today… It doesn’t worry me in, in terms of whether it can displace the overall [mission] of the government. But I agree you’ve got to deal with it and they’re trying to deal with it so, let them deal with it.”
While the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman, told Sky News the prime minister should hold an emergency COBRA meeting with senior cabinet ministers and civil servants who are involved in the controversy.
“I think they ought to have something like a COBRA where you get everybody in the same room, everybody who’s involved, you know, the senior civil servants in the Cabinet Office, the cabinet members who are involved. And you all decide.”
She added: “It’s a bit like when the global financial crisis hit, we were like, we’re not going to wait for the next bank to collapse or the next one. We’re going to jump over and in front of it and actually stabilise the situation.
“And I think that what they need to do is jump over and above this and work it, stabilise it and sort it out rather than respond to each story day by day.”
However, industry minister Sarah Jones has defended Starmer’s decision to accept gifts and hospitality, telling Times Radio that there is a difference between accepting gifts in opposition than in government, as the former requires you to build new relationships.
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.”
