KING OF FREEBIES: British PM Starmer Is Forced To Pay back Thousands in Gifts and Hospitality – Just a Tiny Fraction of What He Has Accepted From Shady Labour Donor Lord Alli
The United Kingdom continues to sink into lawlessness, chaos and corruption under the leftist premiership of Labour’s Keir Starmer, who now means to quash a corruption scandal by paying back a tiny fraction of the shady gifts and benefits he has received.
Just for an interesting comparison: in a serious and prosperous country like Singapore, Subramaniam Iswaran, a senior cabinet minister, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison in a high-profile bribery trial: he pleaded guilty to accepting gifts worth more than S$403,000 over a number of years while in public office.
But in the Lawless Kingdom of Britain, the powerful get away without so much as a slap on the wrist: Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday it is ‘right’ that he has to pay back 6,000 pounds ($8,000) worth of gifts and hospitality.
This amount is nowhere near the real size of what he has accepted, with at least tens of thousands of pounds NOT paid back.
Since he took office, his dysfunctional government has faced relentless criticism over the scale of the donations – that include clothes, eyeglasses, and tickets to soccer games – that he received over recent years.
In Singapore he would probably be behind bars.
From 2019 to 2024, Starmer received at least $131,000 worth of donations, much more than any other member of parliament – he is the ‘King of freebies’, as we see.
The row with the donations has sent Starmer’s popularity ratings into a death spiral.
Associated Press reported:
“According to officials at his 10 Downing Street offices, Starmer has covered the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets at London’s Wembley Stadium, four to a horse racing event and a clothing rental agreement with a high-end designer favored by his wife, Victoria Starmer.
‘We are now going to bring forward principles for donations, because, until now, politicians have used their best individual judgment on a case-by-case basis. I think we need some principles of general application’, he said while on a visit to Brussels. ‘So, I took the position that until the principles are in place it was right for me to make those repayments’.”
In an effort to stop the scandal from spreading, Starmer determined that the ministerial code will be updated to include ‘a new set of principles on gifts and hospitality’.
BBC reported:
“The freebies have come to light after the role of Lord Alli – who has donated clothes and accommodation to Labour MPs and was given a temporary Downing Street security pass – came under scrutiny.
The Labour peer donated more than £32,000 worth of clothing and spectacles to Sir Keir when he was leader of the opposition, which he has not paid back.”
Let’s pay attention: the $42,000 amount is just from one lobbyist – how many other are there?
‘Sir Keir’ insists no rules have been broken – but has said that NOW – after the scandal – he will not accept donations of clothing as prime minister.
These donations that Starmer paid back were received in a single month.
“All of the gifts were received between the 17 August and 15 September, since Sir Keir became prime minister. […] But Sir Keir is not paying back the cost of four tickets for a Taylor Swift concert he attended during the general election campaign in June.
[…] Sir Keir has also accepted a further £6,134 in ‘clothing and personal support’ for Lady Starmer in June, from Lord Alli.”
Needless to say, none of that is ‘free’ – Lord Alli will want ‘something’ in return.
Meanwhile, Lord Alli is being investigated over allegedly failing to register business interests, after a complaint was made last week about the Labour donor.
“A Conservative Party spokesperson said Sir Keir ‘will only be transparent when his back’s against the wall’. The party said Wednesday’s announcement did not explain why the prime minister accepted the donations in the first place and questioned why other senior party members had not paid back their gifts and hospitality.”
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