Keir Starmer refuses to say sorry three times over freebies row as he insists he 'didn't do anything wrong'
25 September 2024, 08:11
Nick Ferrari is joined by Sir Keir Starmer | Watch the full interview
Keir Starmer has refused to say sorry three times over the freebies row, insisting he "didn't do anything wrong".
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Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Sir Keir said that there had been no breach of the rules and so he found it unnecessary to apologise.
It comes after it was revealed that the PM has received over £100,000 of gifts and hospitality since 2019.
Sir Keir came under fire after accepting work clothing donations worth £16,200, and multiple pairs of glasses, to the value of £2,485 from prominent Labour donor Lord Alli.
"I'm on the road, I'm focused on what I'm doing, people come forward and say 'I can help' and make a donation," the PM told Nick.
"In this particular case, it was a Labour peer so he’s got nothing to gain. He just wanted us to win the election. That’s why he did it."
The PM has since confirmed that he and his top team will no longer accept donations to pay for clothing.
"Let me be really clear," he told Nick. "That was in opposition, we’re now in government and therefore you won’t be seeing any declarations from me in relation to clothing now we’re in government. We’ve turned a page."
The row has cast a shadow over this year's party conference, but Sir Keir has refused to apologise.
When asked to by Nick, he said: "There was no breach of the rules or anything like that - we complied with everything."
Asked to apologise for a second time, he said: "I’m not going to apologise for not doing anything wrong."
The third time, the PM said: "There’s nothing that’s been done wrong."
Sir Keir also addressed donations to him in relation to football.
"I’ve got two season tickets for Arsenal – I go with my son – we've had them for a long time," he told Nick.
"Because of the security arrangements now, it simply isn’t possible for me to sit in the stands with my son.
"Therefore, the club said 'why don’t you be our guests in the directors' box?'
"People said 'why don’t you pay for that?' but you can't pay for a ticket in the directors' box.
"So the figure that’s declared is a figure that’s... no money changes hands it’s just the amount."
Natasha Clark and Shelagh Fogarty on Keir Starmer's gifts
It comes after Deputy PM Angela Rayner spoke to LBC's Andrew Marr about the gifts row on Tuesday.
She said Sir Keir did not apologise during his speech at the conference as his focus was on delivery.
"We haven’t been focused on clothes and everything else – we've been focused on delivery," she said.
Ms Rayner went on to say: "MPs do get donations. They do get gifts, all MPs.
"People can see that we've always talked about transparency in the system, but for me, it's about making sure that people can see that what we're trying to do is deliver for the people on the ground.
"Nobody’s getting multi-million pound contracts because they’ve bought Rachel a frock.
"This is not the way our government is operating, we are absolutely driven to deliver on our missions and for the British people."
