Keir Starmer has defended his gift taking insisting that it is transparency that matters in two eve of conference interviews.
But the prime minister is facing new questions about he and his controversial chief of staff Sue Gray attending a football match in hospitality arranged by a former aide to Boris Johnson.
Starmer was pictured at the game with lobbyist Katie Perrior, who ran Boris Johnson’s publicity campaign when he became London Mayor in 2008.
Johnson has praised Perrior and her Inhouse PR firm business partner Jo Tanner as “the Fortnum and Mason of Communications. They deliver, and they deliver quality. Without them, I simply would not have been made Mayor.”
When Johnson was accused of racism Perrior said of him: “The Boris I know is liberal and respectful of all different communities. He loves the great melting point that is London and recognises what diverse cultures bring to our capital city.”
Starmer has also admitted that squabbling among his senior staff and rows surrounding Sue Gray are damaging his government after less than three months in office.
The prime minister has also sought to see off a row with unions and the left at the party conference in Liverpool by insisting there will be no new austerity as he and chancellor Rachel Reeves seek to get a control on public finances.
After taking £107,000 in gifts since 2019, more than two and a half times more than any other MP, the Labour leader was challenged on whether he was being hypocritical after criticising Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak for the same.
He responded: “Rules matter. Transparency matters.”
“My criticism was actually more about Johnson than Sunak, because I don’t think [Sunak] needs to take donations.”
He said: “I’ve reiterated that this side of the election people are entitled to see whether you’ve taken gifts, and if so, what are they for?”
He has recently accepted the donation of a box at Arsenal so he can watch matches there without security concerns and remains unrepentant.
“Now that is a gift but I think accepting that is more understandable. If I insisted on going in the stands, that would cost the taxpayer more money through extra security.”
The prime minister said “people will judge me on delivery” not gifts.
But it came amid more allegations about gifts in the Mail on Sunday, which pointed out that hours after the row about Lord Alli paying £5,000 for his wife Victoria’s clothes broke, he enjoyed a freebie at a Spurs match with chief of staff Sue Gray.
The prime minister made it clear to the Observer that he wants to root out leakers from his operation who he feels are damaging it in its early stages.
He said: “It is my job to do something about that and I accept that responsibility. And that just damages everybody.”
But with the biggest row set to be over his plans to cut winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners to help fix a £22 billion black hole in public finances, he has promised to not usher in a new wave of austerity.
The prime minister was keen to counter suggestions he had only offered doom and gloom since coming to power, instead stressing Labour would deliver for voters.
“I want to answer the ‘why’ question as well as the ‘what’ question.
“We do need to say why and explain and set out and describe the better Britain that this ladders up to,” he told the Observer.
