AIBU to think Starmer shouldn’t be accepting freebies?se

[RedHotChilliPreppers]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8djply3z18o

Kier Starmer is in the news today because he has been accepting, and not properly declaring free things he has been given. This time it is clothing, a personal shopper, and alterations for his wife before and after the election.

Why on earth is it OK for our PM to accept freebies like this? Surely as PM he and his wife can buy nice clothes, to look the part, and claim it back as expenses, or get a clothing allowance? Why accept gifts like this off a Labour donor?

As a donor, what would you want to gain by donating money to a party and by showering his wife with nice clothes?

Why can’t Keir buy his own glasses, and say they are an essential expense for his job? Why does a donor need to buy them for him?

I just think this man is quite the hypocrite. He’s meant to be a socialist, and he has a strong ideology he is trying to enforce, but back home his dining room table looks like he’s just got married and it’s covered with gifts.

So, if you are middle income and you want to send your SEN DC to a private school, it’s a luxury and you should pay 20% tax, or if you are a pensioner, you don’t deserve to keep warm, but it’s ok for Starmer to accept FREE luxuries (clothes, glasses, football tickets, 20k worth of accomodation) and not pay tax on them. The tax he will have to pay, is when the person who bunged him those favours, comes knocking for what they want in return.

I say KS should be made to pay 20% tax on all the luxuries he has received in the last 2 years.

I can totally see why designers want to give freebies to someone who is going to be on news websites or newspapers wearing their products. Like the Royals - someone is spotted wearing a brand and prices soar.

But you either pay trade price for the item, or pay tax on the gift.

UNacceptable!!

When are you tories going to get over the fact that you lost?
Go away. You’re boring

No. You're the one who's predictably boring. If the boot was on the other foot and this was a Tory who'd failed to declare, I can imagine what your response would've been.

Not good and I voted for Labour and generally like Starmer. Makes him and his wife look greedy and shallow especially when pensioners are having fuel allowances taken away from them. Becoming more disillusioned with Labour politicians as I get older having always voted for them.

Politicians should not be allowed to accept freebies, but they all do it. I wish Starmer hadn't, though. The Tories demanding an inquiry is somewhat amusing.

All politicians cheat. It is why we elect them in the first place. We want them to bend the rules towards our political persuasion whether on a local level or on the international stage.

But it does not look good for the prime minister of one of the richest nations in the world to be bought clothes, glasses and household goods. Far more statesmanlike to buy them from M&S or within their own budget. It is not what someone looks like but what they do for us that matters.

I'm not a Tory, have always voted Labour and expected better from Starmer. Makes the Starmer's look as entitled as Boris and Carrie.

The old song Lloyd George knew my father says it all. I don't mind people getting stuff but eg Ticketmaster giving you tickets as a sweetener to influence you looking at pricing or a job as Editor of the Evening Standard when you failed to get a job there... George Osborne. Helicopters and planes from a Party donor? Just no!

From one extreme to another......

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493

I agree.
Really disappointing behaviour.

If you re going to stand there and say things like "Country not Party" "Hard choices" "Things are worse than we ever imagined" "We will do things differently"
Then its not unreasonable not to accept personal shoppers, designer cloths etc.

Its also a bit stupid, surely he knows that the 'right wing media will latch on to this like a dog to a bone?

@RedHotChilliPreppers "
Kier Starmer is in the news today because he has been accepting, and not properly declaring free things he has been given. This time it is clothing, a personal shopper, and alterations for his wife before and after the election."

When you say "been accepting" and "this time" what other incidents have there been?

I agree. It does not look good and I don't understand why he didn't realise that.

I don’t think any pms should be accepting freebies. They have enough money to buy their own clothes and glasses. It’s shameful that Starmer did this

Hypocrisy of the highest order. Labour are no better than the Tories, never have been. People need to wake up.

Na, Starmer's got a long way to go before he matches the grifting of the Johnsons. I just hope he now reads the room and stops accepting personal freebies.

lol - so nothing to say about Keir getting bribes? It’s not wrongdoing you are opposed to eh? It’s just the Tory party. One rule for me and another for thee

The problem is they aren’t freebies, it’s not free with no strings attached out of the goodness of the donors heart, it comes with an expectation of access and influence, it’s a transaction that’s blown off as a coincidence, oh sure they got a pass/influenced this policy but it’s nothing at all to do with all they donated. The man donating this got a pass to number 10, a total coincidence of course.
Our pms are happy to sell their access for clothes, wallpapers and other such nonsense. It should worry us all (labour/tories/lib dem/floating/other) that our politicians are so easily bought, trying to dismiss it as you’re all tories if you complain about this, is ridiculous. It’s shit when any of them do it, regardless of party. This should be discussed.

It doesn't stop there!

Hear Hear !!!

That's all MPs tho. Entitled to certain allowances. Let's not forget the one heating the stables. Rishi with his swimming pool. Bet we paid for that to be heated. And there are the subsidized meals in the HoC

It's staggeringly naïve to think that a politician will be honest just because he's in the Labour Party rather than any other.

I'm more surprised that anyone thought he wasn't just the same as all the other self serving hypocrites.

Everything should be declared in my opinion. Total transparency should be the only way.

There should also be a ban on employment / consultancy with any donor organisation for at least a year post leaving office.

20K on accommodation, glasses….these are the things we know about.