It was “very sensible” for Sir Keir Starmer to take football tickets costing thousands of pounds, according to Lisa Nandy, who made the statement.
The minister for culture, media, and sport stated that she had never accepted free clothing from a contributor.
The Member of Parliament for Wigan made the following statement at the beginning of today’s Labour Party conference: “The problem that has arisen since [Sir Keir] became leader of the opposition and then prime minister is that for him to sit in the stands would require a huge security detail, would be disruptive for other people, and would cost the taxpayer a lot of money.”
“So I believe that he has made a very reasonable judgement that is not the correct and acceptable thing to do, and it is appropriate for him to acknowledge that he needs to move and sit in a different place.
“But I know that he’d much rather be sitting in the stands cheering people on with the usual crowd that he’s been going to the football with for years.”
Ms. Nandy also stated that she does not “make any judgements about what other members of parliament do,” despite the fact that she has not received free clothes. She made this statement in jest before saying, “I think you can probably see that I choose my own clothes happily.”
She gave the following statement: “The only judgement I would make is if they are breaking the rules, and as a result, they are attempting to conceal what they are doing.” Problems start to appear at that point.
“Because the point of being open and transparent is that people can see where the relationships are, and they can then judge for themselves whether there’s been any undue influence.”
She insisted that there had not been an excessive amount of influence on the gifts that prominent Labour figures had accepted and added, “We do not want conversations about clothes to dominate the news and the commentary.”
According to my understanding, we have a mechanism in place that does not need the public to pay for these items. There is no claim that we make on their expenses. Therefore, members of parliament will always accept donations and will always accept presents in kind.
“MPs of all political parties have historically done that, and that is the system that we have.”
She went on to say, “I do not believe that there is any indication that Keir Starmer has violated any rules regarding this matter.” In my opinion, there is no evidence to imply that he has committed any kind of wrongdoing.
We expect our politicians to be properly dressed; we expect them to be people who go out and represent us at various events, and we expect them to represent the country at various events. We also expect them to be appropriately attired.
“But the point is that when we accept donations for that or for anything else, that we declare them and we’re open and transparent about them.”