to believe Lady Starmer should pay for her own clothes and personal stylists?

Only the clothes or all of it?

Yawn.

At least he's put a stop to what EVERY government has been doing for years now that the public have shown their distaste.

I don't agree that a 'spouse' is 'part of the package'. Maybe for occasional state dinners and the like, but nobody really expects to see the PM's partner on a regular basis. Certainly they would not expect this of a male partner,

That being said, a modest allowance for clothes for the PM's wife spouse is reasonable enough. Getting 'gifts' of clothes before you are even the PM's wife is not.

Apologies… my post was unclear. I meant in terms of how Starmer meant his ‘won’t go private’ statement to be interpreted :)

Laughing at the posters trying to paint VS as a hard up NHS worker struggling to afford clothes. And that without her gifted gowns she might have been reduced to going out in her NHS uniform.
It's given me a good chortle!

In Wales we are already paying £350 a month council tax for standard 270k 4 beds. And our bins are only collected every 6 weeks.

It is, sadly, expected these days that when a person is elected to a public office such a Prime Minister that their spouse comes as a part of the package, irrespective of whether they want to or not. If that person is representing the UK when accompanying their spouse it isn't unreasonable to make some financial allowance for their appearance, I certainly like Carrie Johnson's idea of renting clothes for highly public occasions. If the PM and spouse are hosting official dinners, do we expect them to pay for the Lidl delivery or is that paid for by the state whereas their regular beans are their own responsibility?
Nancy Reagan complained that when they lived in the White House they were billed monthly for everything, even loo rolls!

Facts do not agree with you
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/opticians/nhs-voucher-values-for-glasses-and-lenses/
https://ineedspex.co.uk/collections/nhs-glasses

There are NHS frames to go with the lenses you can get NHS vouchers for

Not going private doesn’t extend to opticians. Or, I suspect, dentists…!! And for security reasons I am sure if he did end up in an NHS hospital it’d be in a private room. Or may be Lord Alli would pick up the bill ;)

Just so long as they own up to the freebies that’s fine. But all this we are holier than the other lot mud-slinging has to end.

Rishi has the money to dress himself and was panned for it. The Starmers can’t afford it despite a wealth estimate of £7.7 million and an estimated salary of £170k plus whatever Lady Starmer earns.

That's right
Selling honours, changing laws on sport advertising in return for £1m, and aa huge illegal war is far more in Labour's line
But of course 'Lord' Alli bought his honour under Bliar

'Politics is treated like football in this country now'
With freebie tickets for Starmer and pals

Also, given their supposed support of the NHS - he recently said he'd rather wait than go private - what's wrong with NHS frames that are all that lots of people can afford?

All declarations are public

Scameron and spouse never received any gifts of clothes, glasses, or personal stylist services

But Blair, Brown, Major, Cameron, Johnson, May and even Truss managed to dress themselves and their spouses without £30odd thousand pounds of other people’s money. What makes Sir Kier Starmer and his wife different? Is it just that she’s already a Lady…?

The problem is Starmer didn't declare it at all to start, the falsely declared it as 'office expenses', then falsely declared as a political donation, before coming clean

Do people really care about the spouse of a PM and what she's wearing?

If they do, maybe this would be an opportunity for her to 'showcase' sustainable fashion? Perhaps by rewearing clothes as the rest of us who don't have rich 'donors' have to do? Or even by wearing borrowed outfits?

Just completely out of whack that people are making a big deal out of this when Liz Truss caused the country to lose £30 billion in her mini budget!

She’d have been better off saving freebie money and hiring, and paying.

Obviously, but that’s past now.

We need to look forward.

Well I’d say those brownie points went down the drain looking at public feedback via polls

She’d have been better off saving freebie money and hiring, and paying

Did Philip May have a collection of expensive outfits 'gifted' to him?

Probably not. Because society has different expectations of women and men’s presentation.
Lady Starmer will be expected to look well-dressed, and will get brownie points if she showcases British designers.

As the wife of the PM?

What about as the husband of the PM?

Did Philip May have a collection of expensive outfits 'gifted' to him?

As the wife of the PM you are automatically invited to quite a few annual events where you are representing the UK and have to wear very formal attire where a dress from M&S would not be appropriate; Trooping the Colour, meeting and greeting Heads of State, State banquets, Armistice day and many more. It’s different if you are just representing yourself privately, but if you are representing the UK on a global stage, you need to have the right kegs.

Somebody somewhere made the point that if the money had been donated to the Labour Party they could have used it for “presentation” in the run up to the election and I agree with that. We do expect our politicians to look smart.

The problem is that it was given directly by Lord Alli to Keir Starmer. It would be helpful to hear Lord Alli’s reasoning on this.

Victoria Starmer should take a leaf out of Sarah Brown and Carrie Johnson’s books and borrow or rent when she needs to look nicely turned out.

I doubt any NHS occupational health professionals, which is Victoria Starmer’s job part time I believe, are on any fraction of a salary that allows them to buy formal clothes for public events potentially multiple times a day every day of the week. Like if they go on a visit to another place as PM wife.

People are being ridiculous about this, I mean is she meant to be rocking up to events in an NHS tabard? I’d very much rather these things were paid for by a rich Labour donor than by the public purse. The ridiculous fuss about just puts smart people off going into politics.

She may not earn a huge amount from her own job, but her husband has been a very high level lawyer for years. Are you honestly saying they don't have enough money, between the pair of them, to pay for presentable outfits on the relatively few occasions she appears in public? Come on!

She's not a model or a 'first lady'. We don't have that sexist role here. She's a part time NHS worker who happens to be married to the PM. She rarely attends formal events and even if she does, who cares if her outfit was bought on the high street or she wears the same thing more than once?