Has a secret Conservative supporter managed to infiltrate the communications team at 10 Downing Street?
It is one of the more plausible explanations for the absolute shit fest of a time the new government has had, and continues to have, over what is now commonly known as ‘freebie-gate’.
This story of donated clothes, donated specs, donated holidays, and donated flats has now rumbled on for a month. And instead of killing it dead and moving on from the fluff and nonsense, the Prime Minister has given this sorry saga extra oxygen by saying this week that he will now pay for Taylor Swift tickets that were gifted to him.
If No 10 thinks this kills freebie-gate, then they are in for a nasty surprise. Here are just some of the questions that pop into my non-journalistic head on the back of the PMs announcement.
How is it more principled to take free clothes from an individual than it is to take concert tickets from an international entertainment company?
Is the Deputy Prime Minister going to pay for the free holidays she has been gifted – or does the PM have higher principles than his deputy?
What about the education minister – is she going to pay for her Taylor Swift tickets now too?
And on, and on, it goes.
The lack of political instinct around this story from Labour is the most worrying aspect of this matter. Few people beyond the readership of the Dail Mail much care about politicians getting invited to concerts, football matches, or a corporate party. It is seen as part of their job – a perk on occasion, but I can tell you from experience – more often a pain. (I lost count of the number of times I was out ‘enjoying’ corporate hospitality as a politician when I would have much rather have been home with the family watching Coronation Street).
There was also nothing wrong with Starmer and his family using a donors flat to create some security and privacy for his family, as witnessed by how quick that aspect of this ‘scandal’ fizzled out.
Clothes and holidays donated by an individual however – that strikes people as odd. Why would anyone -even as wealthy an individual as the guy at the centre of this controversy Lord Ally – want to gift Keir Starmer and his wife clothes? Why would the Deputy Prime Minister be taking clobber and holidays from him? It was these things – which were the starting point of this storm a month ago– that the PM and his DPM should have immediately agreed to pay for, and killed the story dead at the outset.
There is no evidence that Lord Ally was expecting anything in return for his gifts. But people reasonably ask, why didn’t he just donate the money to Labour, and they could have contributed towards the party leaderships clothing allowance – just as the Tory Party does for its leaders.
A minor political error has been allowed to spiral out of control and into a controversy that has made the new government look unprepared, unprofessional, and underwhelming.
Labour is squandering political capital on nonsense. Starmer needs to get a grip of his top team in Downing Street – and by the looks of things hire some communications advisors who know what they are doing.
The first piece of advice they would probably give him. When you’re in a hole, stop digging!
