Starmer repays £6,000 for gifts and hospitality

Keir Starmer has paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including Taylor Swift tickets and rented clothing for his wife, after a row over his acceptance of freebies.

- Rowena Mason , Eleni Courea , Peter Walker

The prime minister made the payments for some tickets and gifts received since entering No 10 in July as he vowed to overhaul the rules on what ministers are allowed to accept.

He has previously said he will not accept any more free clothing after a row over his decision to accept £32,000 of work wear, multiple pairs of glasses worth £2,400 and the use of an £18m penthouse from the Labour donor and peer Waheed Alli.

However, his attempt to draw a decisive line under the row suffered a setback yesterday as the Lords standards watchdog launched an investigation into Lord Alli over whether he correctly declared his financial interests.

Speaking while visiting the European Commission in Brussels, Starmer said he was making the repayments before new rules on hospitality were put in place.

"We came in as a government of change," he said. "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. So, I took the position that until the principles are in place it was right for me to make those repayments."

No 10 sources said he was not setting a precedent that no ministers should ever be able to accept hospitality in future, but that paying back the sums was the right thing to do while the rules were drawn up.

Gifts now paid for by Starmer include four Taylor Swift tickets from Universal Music Group totalling £2,800, and two Taylor Swift tickets from the Football Association at a cost of £598. He also returned the cost of four tickets to Doncaster Races from Arena Racing Corporation at £1,939.

An £839 clothing rental agreement with Edeline Lee, the designer whose clothes were worn by Victoria Starmer to London fashion week, along with one hour of hair and makeup, was also covered by the prime minister.