Would you not find is suspicious if said friend, was also buying you clothes, glasses, lending his properties and giving gifts for your work colleagues.
I am a bit confused. Was it just the son that went? Or was it the whole family? Bit unusual for a 16 year old to move out and go stay with a ‘family friend’ all alone. Further away from the school he needs to travel to for his exams. I am guessing it would be further away from his school. Was the starmers home surrounded by the media even when he was travelling for the election? What about his daughter? Was she fine to put up with the media outside?
What about his wife? Was she spending time between their house with their daughter and the flat with their son AND working full time?
Besides which, politicians aren’t normal people. The point is that Labour and KS specifically has spent years banging on about all the freebies and back handers the Tories got. Then do exactly the same.
In my job we deal with government contracts. There’s really strict rules about gifts to and from clients. Not a chance would we be allowed to gift clients clothes, glasses, places to stay and so on. I have to declare all gifts before I accept them. Even down to Christmas gifts they drop at the office, which could be 10 boxes of quality streets for the office. Personal gifts are a no no. There would be huge concern if someone was directly gifting me clothes, use of their properties and the. Doing the same for my colleagues and my teams.
Theres all sorts of tax rules around benefit in kind. KS got use of that flat directly, because of his job. I bet no one would have been lending him the flat if he was leader of the opposition.
If you are in politics there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Donations to a political party are fine. Gifts and favours to an individual are not. And if anyone believes all these gifts, including letting your child have use of a property, doesn’t have strings attached then they are incredibly naive. Politicians should be eager to make sure they always appear impartial.
Was it for the son or for the whole family? And if KS felt he needed to relocate his family, why didn’t he do the right thing and pay for it himself so no one could accuse him of being a hypocrite? Or accuse him of taking favours to further someone’s else agenda?
It’s not ok when the Tories do it. It’s not ok when Labour do it either.