> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.europeans.today/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Do the Starmers’ expensive donated clothes matter? Yes and no - URL: https://www.europeans.today/2024/09/22/do-the-starmers-expensive-donated-clothes-matter/ - Published: 2024-09-22T00:15:00.000Z - Updated: 2024-09-23T00:15:08.000Z - Description: Keir Starmer’s handling of undeclared gifts, including clothes for his wife, raises questions about Labour’s commitment to cleaning up British politics. The wider issue concerns wealth’s undue influence in politics. - Author: Dr Samuel Power - Tags: UK Politics, United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, Labour Party, UK Government, UK Prime Minister, Political Donations, Influence in Politics, Waheed Alli, Corruption, Sleaze **TL;DR | Highlights from this story** ● Keir Starmer faces criticism for failing to initially declare clothes gifted to his wife by a donor. ● Starmer has since declared other gifts, totaling over £100,000 since 2019, raising ethical concerns. ● This highlights the broader issue of wealthy donors’ influence on politicians through gifts and donations. ● Despite Starmer’s pledges to clean up politics, this controversy emphasizes persistent problems with political transparency. K eir Starmer’s commitment to putting an end to “[the chaos of sleaze](https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/politico-london-influence/good-day-to-talk-about-sleaze/?ref=europeans.today)” is already on the ropes, largely because of reports surrounding his wife’s clothes. The prime minister initially failed to declare clothes gifted to Victoria Starmer by Labour party donor Waheed Alli – although he has now done so. Other gifts and hospitality, including tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert, have been properly declared but their total value amounts to more than **£100,000** since December 2019 – a comparatively high sum. The whole farrago raises several questions, the most pertinent of which are: is it a bit weird that the prime minister and his wife get their clothes bought for them? And, what does this mean for Labour’s wider promise to clean up British politics? It is admittedly quite weird to hear that the Starmers are being dressed via donations. But we do have to keep a sense of proportion. Being a prime minister, or even a prominent politician, is a bit of a weird job. Being so rich that you can afford to buy the leader of the UK (and his wife) clothes is a bit of a weird place to be. And that is important when we think about wider issues of undue influence. When researching my book, [Party Funding and Corruption](https://amzn.to/4gy7HJi?ref=europeans.today), I interviewed lots of very rich party donors. Some were members of the [Leader’s Group](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/04/tories-leaders-group-donor-club-david-cameron-conservatives-dinners?ref=europeans.today) – an elite club with a **£50,000-a-year** entrance fee for which, in return, you got to go for dinner with Conservative ministers. I was amazed by the way in which they talked about these payments as if they were little more than Netflix subscriptions. I also remember going to meet [Stuart Wheeler](https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/stuart-wheeler-obituary-6xhlks2kn?ref=europeans.today), who at one point held the record for the [largest one-off donation in British politics](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk%5Fpolitics/1123036.stm?ref=europeans.today). I asked him why and his response was: “I suddenly became worth £90m … who cares if somebody is worth £90m or £85m … I’ll give them £5m.” To me, **£5m** seemed quite significant, but it wasn’t, frankly, to the only person that mattered. All of which goes to say, just because something seems like a lot of money – or a weird arrangement – it might not be to those involved. And although Starmer seems to take (or at least declare) more than most recent prime ministers, he’s by no means the only politician to accept gifts. Look at the [register of members’ interests](https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/240902/240902.pdf?ref=europeans.today) and you’ll see that Stuart Andrew (MP for Daventry) was given a couple of tickets to *An Audience with Kylie Minogue*, Polly Billiington (MP for East Thanet) got two for The Pet Shop Boys at the Royal Albert Hall, and Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, got two VIP tickets to the *Brit awards*. In fact, if you CTRL-F “tickets” in the register you’ll get **184** hits. And I guarantee I’ll be doing precisely the same exercise this time next year, CTRL-Fing “Oasis” to see who managed to nab one (“value of donation in kind: PRICELESS”). Not only that, I presume we do all remember Boris Johnson’s [wallpaper](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/property-home/article/no-11-wallpaper-wasnt-gold-says-carrie-johnsons-designer-69pl6jxb3?ref=europeans.today), and his [trip to Mustique](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/10/why-is-boris-johnsons-caribbean-holiday-under-scrutiny?ref=europeans.today). [CREDIT: FLICKR/NUMBER 10 —](https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/53846446424/?ref=europeans.today) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2024/09/b00000001.png) ###### — PM Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer as they board the plane to head to a NATO Summit in Washington. ### **38 holidays and a pile of Danish underpants** In the US, there were calls for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign last year (not the first time his position on the court has been [questioned](https://www.npr.org/2021/09/28/1040911313/anita-hill-belonging-sexual-harassment-conversation?ref=europeans.today)) after gifts of 38 holidays and tickets to sporting events went undeclared. And, [as the *BBC* reported](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn8yyy0r7epo?ref=europeans.today), Brigitte Macron, wife of French president Emmanuel, has been loaned clothes from Louis Vuitton. In Germany, ministers were criticised for spending **€450,000** on hairdressers, make-up artists and photographers. My personal favourite is a [2014 scandal from Denmark](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-37580-5?ref=europeans.today) that I dubbed “pantsgate”. This involved the then-PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen coming under fire for spending **£20,000** worth of state funds on clothes, including some quite natty underwear. His defence, I suggested, was legally sound because the funds were for “political purposes”. And, well, you really are quite unlikely to win an election if you campaign naked. ### **Why freebies matter** On balance, this situation is probably fairly serious. No one realistically thinks that gifting Keir Starmer tickets to see Taylor Swift or loaning his wife clothes is going to sway him on key government policy, but these stories do speak to a [general sense of unfairness](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B?ref=europeans.today) – that the very rich have a proximity to power that others simply don’t. Easing the path to access for some and not others shrinks the deliberative space. It means that the same kinds of voices get heard by prime ministers and people in government over and again. Their views and their priorities come to occupy an outsized place in the discussion. It is, as political scientist Holly Ann Garnett [wrote](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096262982400026X?ref=europeans.today): “the most exclusionary form of political participation since it is overwhelmingly a function of a donor’s income.” I will [always maintain](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41309-023-00189-0?ref=europeans.today) that very simple quid-pro-quo arrangements are incredibly rare in British politics. That, as a member of the Leader’s Group told me years ago, they can “no more sway party policy than fly to the moon.” But these kinds of less direct arrangements still risk anchoring decision-makers to certain types of policy favoured by those that get this privileged access. And we do know for sure that donors [get preferential access](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1065912918771745?ref=europeans.today) to politicians and that their policy preferences are [more often represented](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B?ref=europeans.today) than those of normal citizens. Without wanting to sound cynical, all politicians with significant power will find themselves in ethical hot water sooner or later. It comes with the territory. The [inevitable accusations of hypocrisy](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/17/keir-starmer-hypocrisy-on-sleaze-exposed/?ref=europeans.today) shouldn’t put anyone off trying to improve the system. And Starmer did promise to do so before these controversies flared up. There are [things that can be done](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/18/donors-and-starmers-suits-thats-just-a-dress-rehearsal-without-new-probity-rules-worse-will-follow?ref=europeans.today). The UK’s system of political financing and lobbying could do with either a light tune up, or a complete rethink (depending how radical you are feeling). Likewise, there are problems with parliamentary standards – and just who is in charge, and who is overseeing what. All of these can be relatively quick, and relatively easy, wins. Many of the problems, and solutions, have been [covered](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60e460b1d3bf7f56801f3bf6/CSPL%5FRegulating%5FElection%5FFinance%5FReview%5FFinal%5FWeb.pdf?ref=europeans.today) in numerous [reports](https://lawcom.gov.uk/document/electoral-law-a-final-report/?ref=europeans.today) and [parliamentary inquiries](https://committees.parliament.uk/work/375/the-work-of-the-electoral-commission/publications/?ref=europeans.today). In fact, they are so ready that you might even call them “off the peg”. Anyone for shopping? ![PUBLIC SQUARE UK](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2021/09/end-flat-1.png "PUBLIC SQUARE UK") ### **GOING FURTHER** - ###### [Party Funding and Corruption](https://amzn.to/4gy7HJi?ref=europeans.today) | PALGRAVE MACMILLAN ### --- ### **Sources:** ##### ▪ This piece was originally published in [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/do-the-starmers-expensive-donated-clothes-matter-yes-and-no-239334?ref=europeans.today) and re-published in PUBLIC SQUARE UK on 22 September 2024\. | The author writes in a personal capacity. ##### ▪ **Cover:** Flickr/[Number 10](https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/53836682401/?ref=europeans.today). (Licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/?ref=europeans.today).) ![Creative Commons License](https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/4.0/88x31.png "Cover photograph license") --- ![The Conversation](https://counter.theconversation.com/content/239334/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic)