Even some Labour MPs say Starmer’s free glasses aren’t a good look
Prime minister’s gifts from Waheed Alli are causing disquiet among a party that prided itself on being different from the Tories
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“Restore service and respect to politics.”
These were the words of a triumphant Keir Starmer as he stood on the steps of No 10 Downing Street in July, having won a huge landslide. Billing this as a new dawn for Britain, the prime minister promised change, after years of lambasting his Tory predecessors for a series of rule-breaking scandals and allegations of sleaze and cronyism.
Starmer did this while wearing a new pair of glasses. On the face of it, this sounds rather trivial. Why would the prime minister’s choice of a £240 pair of Garrett Leight Hampton 1001s during such a historic moment matter?
The issue that has emerged with these particular glasses in recent days is that they were not bought out of Starmer’s own pocket. He received a donation in May — while still in opposition — to the tune of £2,485 from Waheed Alli, a businessman and Labour peer, for “multiple pairs of glasses”. It has since been revealed that Victoria Starmer, the prime minister’s wife, was also gifted £5,000 by the Labour donor for a personal shopper, clothes and alterations. The donation was not initially declared, though now has been, something Starmer’s team has insisted was no more than an error.
While there is now no suggestion of any rule-breaking, all this has opened the door for the Tories to accuse Labour of cronyism. Lord Alli, who has long been a Labour donor, was given a temporary Downing Street security pass after the election, despite having no formal role within the government. It has now been returned but, as one Tory source put it to me: “If this was the other way round, I am not sure if Labour would have ever stopped talking about it.” Even a Labour MP told me this week that the donation of Starmer’s glasses “does not look particularly great”. Not a comment, I believe, on the glasses themselves.
In opposition, Labour had been red hot at attacking the Tories on anything they viewed as lowering moral standards, whether that was jobs for mates, partygate, or Covid contracts. Unfortunately, that now means anything like this is uncomfortable territory for a government telling the public it is different from what came before.
Labour’s defence lines have been wide ranging, from “there are no transparency issues” to (I paraphrase) “this is completely the norm”. They are right — a lot of politicians do get gifts, and these are often tailored to what they enjoy. Starmer, a huge Arsenal fan, has been given hospitality tickets to watch the football a fair few times. His defence is that, if he doesn’t accept the hospitality gift, he can’t go to games for security reasons. Many, though, will wonder why a man currently earning £160,000 per year can’t pay for those tickets himself.
Another of Labour’s defences came from the foreign secretary, David Lammy, who argued that the donations were needed for the Starmers to look their best while they represented the country on the international scene. There is no additional clothing budget for Starmer as prime minister, but other world leaders do get an allowance – the US president, for instance, gets $50,000 on top of their $400,000 annual salary. Interestingly the US first lady does not get such an allowance and often relies on donations, which are viewed much less controversially on the other side of the Atlantic compared to here.
There is a reasonable argument to be made about what extra allowances should be given to those who lead the country — but, while there is a cost of living crisis, pensioners are having their winter fuel payments cut and many are struggling, I suspect it is one that there is not a huge appetite for.
Starmer, who has been spending his time travelling the globe meeting world leaders in the past few weeks, will be hoping the discussions about his clothes can come to a swift end. He is fast approaching his first Labour party conference as prime minister and he will want the focus to be on his big speech. The truth is he can rest easy knowing that scandals or major issues at the start of any government’s time in office are often long forgotten by the time of an election. I am willing to bet good money no one will be talking about Starmer’s glasses when they’re choosing who to vote for in 2029.
But for a government that is repeatedly selling itself as being different from others, stories like these do slowly chip away at public perceptions of those in power. Starmer may want to think more carefully about accepting gifts, especially given that his declaration of interests will now be under intense scrutiny.
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