The prime minister said he’d paid back £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including Taylor Swift tickets and his wife’s rented clothingJohn McTernan, who was political secretary to Tony Blair when Blair was PM, was also on the Today programme this morning discussing Keir Starmer’s record with freebies, and he said he agreed with John Penrose (see 9.52am) that the problem was not rules being broken, but public perception. He explained:Politicians have to not only act by the rules, they have to act by community standards.There’s no doubt in my mind that voters are angry, the community’s angry, about about what they see as double standards.The backdrop to every single thing that the Labour party has done in government has been its first action to take them into fuel allowance away from 10 million pensioners. That has set the tone for everything, and it’s the backdrop for for how actions are seen.People see that you’ve taken this from 10 million people, and taking that for free from businesses.I think that the rules aren’t bad, although they need to be strengthened a bit …But this isn’t really about what the rules say. This is about whether or not we’ve got someone who’s not behaving like a lawyer, but rather behaving like politician who understands why people are upset. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2024/oct/03/keir-starmer-angela-rayner-donations-labour-conservatives-uk-politics-news-live
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2024-10-03 09:14:13
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Tories challenge other Labour ministers to follow Keir Starmer in paying back donations – UK politics live
