Starmer took donor’s gifts because there is no taxpayer funding for clothes

[MrsRobinsonsHandprints]

Mind-blowing

Easy to remember

Keir Starmer, Pensioner Harmer.

I really don't get the rationale for this - Keir can afford a couple of Jermyn St suits and some decent quality anodyne ties, some smart black shoes and a pair of cufflinks. Frankly that is all he needs to look well dressed so long as his shirts are properly ironed and he buys long enough black socks.

It is harder for Lady S but these days its easy and not expensive to do what Carrie J did and hire outfits from the likes of Hurr. It was harder in the past and I remember Cherie B being quite bitter at one point that there was a clothing allowance for the wives of diplomats but not the PM....

I recall reading that the female MPs have an informal cross party "hat pool" so that they can ring the changes when they need to wear them. I always thought that was a nice idea.

It’s so stupid. For less than £3k she could buy at least half a dozen me & em dresses, good shoes in eg in nude, black and burgundy, a couple of excellent non-designer leather bags, a decent coat or two and some M&S/Zara bits. Plus a style conscious size 8 professional woman on a good salary must have SOME decent clothes. For special dinners etc she can rent a designer dress. Apart from the day she met the king and moved in and the US trip we have hardly seen her so I don’t know what she needs all these free clothes for. It’s such an unforced error. An own goal. Makes her seem Marie Antoinette-ish. My mum is one of those poor pensioners facing having to sell her flat to survive who won’t get a winter fuel payment. Nobody’s giving her free clothes!

I have decided to refer to this fiasco as Starmani gate, from now on. It's quicker to say than Starmer, Starmer, pension harmer 😂

Maybe your Mum has that priceless thing that Starmer wants to tap in to - the broadest shoulders

Does she wear shoulder pads?

Maybe we should just scrap having unelected spouses tag along to these events at all if the clothes burden is too high

Most of her clothes are so ancient some of them probably do have shoulder pads!

I know that the Starmers are not the only people to do this but I never understand how politicians have the nerve to make cuts that affect the poorest people but then claim that they can't afford to buy their own glasses and clothes. If the elderly are being advised to wear layered jumpers and buy draught excluders then why aren't Mr and Mrs Starmer being advised to shop somewhere cheaper? Starmer is obviously as grabby, out of touch and callous as any other politician.

Perfect.

It is a terrible look for someone who said he wanted to clean up politics, especially as Alli was given a number 10 pass in return.

I really do think Starmer is a puppet of Blair and maybe he thinks that he should accrue the same type of wealth.

I can see your last line too

What Starmer paid for the land would be in addition to his capital gain. The land was sold for an estimated £400,000 although partly owned by his father's estate;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68322058

Keir Starmer paid £99,400 in UK tax on £404,000 income, Labour reveals

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/16/keir-starmer-paid-99400-in-uk-tax-on-404000-of-income-labour-reveals

Earlier tax years here:

The Labour leader's records show the total UK tax he paid was:
£51,547 on total earnings of £147,633 in 2020/21
£67,033 on total earnings of £212,087 in 2021/22

His earnings [for 2021/22] included more than £85,000 in capital gains from the sale of a home he had bought with his sister, which she and her children had lived in.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65052473

In addition, his parents' home was sold for £455,000 in October 2020 - he would have been entitled to a quarter share of that property.

Starmer’s entire pre tax income from his share of the sale of the field was £275k. What I’m seeing here is a man who came from
a poor background who tried to help his family as much as he good, buying his parents a field and his sister a house.

Starmer’s entire pre tax income from his share of the sale of the field was £275k

What he originally paid for the land is in addition to that sum - your post implied that it was not.

I would think he thought purchasing the land was a shrewd investment - whatever its purpose at the time.

AncientAndModern1
What I’m seeing here is a man who came from a poor background

I wouldn't say Starmer's family were 'poor' either. His parents owned their own house, the family holidayed in the Lake District every year in a rented cottage, they had occasional meals out in a pub, Starmer had music lessons and toured Malta one year with the local youth symphony orchestra... lower middle class but not 'poor'.

It's getting even better

Head of the civil service under pressure to quit amid ‘anger’ over leaks | Politics | The Guardian

Apparently the issue is with leaks, not the fact that Starmer accepted dubious donations and didn't declare them.

Always good when The Guardian gets in on the reporting

Not even the meany right wing media

I honestly think that this chocking of free speech is much worse than donations itself.

Oh deary, deary me. Even one unsympathetic civil servant - allegedly - is too much for Starmer.

Labour’s spent years harvesting leaks from civil servants.

The hypocrisy is now at nuclear blast zone levels with this appalling government.

I believe his father might have been a toolmaker…I’m not sure many people, are aware of that…?

The point is it’s a very long way from the ridiculous £10m that people are claiming the field (‘land’) was worth. Yes he is well off enough to buy some suits and dresses himself, but the vast sums he’s supposedly worth are a myth.

His wealth and income have absolutely noting to do with the issue. If you don't steal, you don't steal no matter what. If you don't lie, you don't lie.

This issue is not donation (no matter how humiliating it is ... someone's paying for your wife cloths and your glasses).

The issue is with not declaring and then trying to punish senior civil servant for suspected leak of the info which should have been in public domain in first place. The second bit is absolutely unforgivable and the worst then anything else.

He has now said he will continue to take ‘donations’ from Alli.

I don’t understand the entitlement and that someone like him cannot see that it looks hypocritical to say he wants to clean up politics but then says he will continue to freeload.

International politics isn’t a fashion show. He and his wife would get the same respect if they dressed themselves using their own (considerable) means.

It is sad as I did think that he might at least be principled, but given the advice he takes from Blair’s ‘think tank’, maybe I was naive.

Ugh. It really is Blair all over this

Optics, paid for fashion, flights and photo ops

More donations and forget the public