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

[LargeDeviation]

https://news.sky.com/story/starmer-faces-investigation-over-possible-breach-of-parliamentary-rules-after-labour-donor-pays-for-wifes-clothes-13215216

And Keir Starmer should have paid himself for his 'several pairs of glasses' and £19K worth of work clothes? On top of that there was £20K for accommodation for Sir Keir and another 'similar sum' on 'private office' costs.

Purely by coincidence, it seems the donor was given a Downing Street security pass allowing easy access to the corridors of power without any role in government.

And yes, Carrie and Boris Johnson should have paid for their wallpaper and hampers too, that is just as sleazy.

My point was either you truly are hard of understanding...or you know full well why this matters and seek to diminish its importance.

Genuinely I don’t give a crap about being given or lent free clothes or football match tickets.or getting a free holiday. As long as they’re all declared and Nolan is stuck to. Fine. Then we can decide on the record if they’re problematic perks or not.

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.

The journalists grilling Rachel reeves on Today yesterday on BBC admitted they had had free tickets with her to go to the Last night of the Proms together with her as guests of the BBC while saying it was all an outrageous perk that she should have gone and that the optics were bad. I really don’t want ministers or a chancellor who don’t get out much either.

Focus on the important stuff of actual undeclared hidden Tory corruption like around procurement. This isn’t it. This is not even ‘running through a field of wheat’ level of bad.

@CurrentHun there is no position of first lady in the U.K, we just elect a party and therefore a prime minister. There is absolutely no need to her to trail about after him, anything she goes to is purely voluntary and I think that on £200,000 or so a year between them they should be just about able to clothes themselves.

For any important evening occasions she could hire dresses.

As an aside, she must be using up her annual leave at a terrible rate, what do staff get, 6 weeks or so?

Being a PM’s wife or husband and then never going to events with the PM is absolutely not how the PM spouse role is done, sorry. Never has been. Everyone knows that it’s routinely expected that the PM’s wife or husband will appear with the PM together as a couple at key occasions.

And what’s your point with saying we don’t have a First Lady? What role do you think that is? You do know that First Ladies aren’t elected..? FL is just the American title for the wife of the President, because they’ve only ever elected men with wives so far, just the same as VS is the spouse of the UK PM.

And I don’t think anyone else is losing any sleep about VS annual leave status. She’s part time in her job as is well known

if politicians didn't lie they wouldn't be politicians. It's part of the job description.

I can just imagine trying to claim for my late wife's clothes as a perk for my job. I'd be crucified by HMRC.

Unfortunately they are all the same. Greedy

Yea. and the way they have treated Diane Abbott is a disgrace.

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.

Starmer paid tax on earnings of £404,030 in 2023, according to The Guardian - that's before he got a pay hike as PM. I think he can afford to pay for formal clothes for his family, if his job makes them necessary.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

Obviously, but that’s past now.

We need to look forward.

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!

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?

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

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…?

All declarations are public

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

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?

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

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

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.

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 ;)