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.

I thought they were meant to be different from the Tories.

Bless! I would suggest you look into some of the Labour politicians during the 60s and even later! The reason that more is made of what the Conservatives do/did is that the left wing media make sure which lot get the most publicity. All the negative publicity about 'partygate' was immense where as 'beergate', ie Labour doing exactly the same, was brushed under the carpet.

Freebies for influencers/Youtubers from their fans are very different to freebies from political donors, especially if they are not declared correctly or declared late. Donors have the ability to use their preferential access to press for favours. How exactly did the donor get his security pass to Number 10 - who approved it, and why?

Yes. There is a difference between donations to a political party, and donations to personal politicians. Both are quite dodgy, but the former are much easier to scrutinise. Personal donations are far more open to abuse.

Where did you see this? I sincerely hope that his legal advice isn't funded by the taxpayer.

As Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir earned around £144K per year.

Even ignoring Lady Victoria's salary entirely, do you really think that a household earning £144K per year cannot afford to buy nice clothes?

Yes, if the Tories gave out security passes to donors (as I'm sure they did) they need to be held to account too.

It doesn't mean it's OK for Starmer - especially as he painted himself as Sir Clean Hands KC, the man who (correctly) excoriated Boris Johnson for having donors pay for his wallpaper, and who called on Rishi Sunak to resign for bringing a birthday cake to the office.

Haha, a brilliant take on it.

Lammy's response is priceless - Starmer was essentially 'forced' to take donor's gifts because there's no taxpayer funding for clothes. How in hell does he think the 95% of the population not on Starmer's astronomical salary manage to clothe themselves. Unbelievably out of touch with reality.

It seems Lammy misled the nation in his answers too. He said that, in contrast to the UK, the US First Lady gets public money for clothing.

Apparently not:

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2014/06/02/first-ladys-clothes-cost-how-much/77297460/

I am very happy to accept that Mr Lammy was badly briefed or was genuinely mistaken.

I'm not sure Lammy deserves that extra grace and understanding

This made me laugh though

YANBU. Those “with the broadest shoulders” should buy their own fucking clothes!l
Kier Starmer is going to deliver a god awful budget in a few weeks and he’s going to do it wearing glasses and clothes that someone else paid for? If he cannot fathom how utterly hypocritical that is, he has no business trying to run the country.
All of them are a shower of self absorbed, self serving twats. I despair!!!

When you’re talking about dresses costing several thousand pounds for state occasions then, yes, anyone who didn’t inherit their wealth would struggle.

Sam Cam has her own business. It makes clothes for people in public life and senior jobs. Not everyone wears a Tesco polo shirt to work.

If you read the USA today article linked it says of Michelle Obama, ‘She doesn't borrow gowns from designers but sometimes accepts them as gifts to the nation, as she did the dramatic blue Carolina Herrera gown she wore in February to the state dinner for France.’ It also says that no taxpayer’s money is used for her clothes but says nothing about political donations.

NI doesn't have the council tax system of GB.
It has domestic rates based on the property value. The rates applied to the property value comprise a regional rate that is set by Stormont each year and a district rate that is set by each local council each year.

Thanks, that is interesting to know.

They are lying scumbags and I can't believe anyone was daft enough to think that Labour would act any differently to the Tory Party they (and most of MN) have been slagging off all these years. It applies to almost all politicians I should think.

Ok, but David Lammy said that substantial sums are paid by the US for the President’s and First Lady’s clothes, so their clothes can’t be “challenged”, whatever that means.

He was justifying private donation to the Starmers by contrast to public payment in the US.

On the day after the election there was a whole thread on here about how she had got herself a reasonably priced dress because she's only on NHS salary.

Actually they didn’t. Cherie Bliar made big fuss about having to spend thousands of her own money on clothes when accompanying her husband, and Samantha Cameron hired designer outfits on many occasions rather than buy, or beg from party donors. Starmers £76odd thousand of gifts accepted is the highest of all MPs.

What was he thinking?

'Difficult decisions', 'pain', 'broadest shoulders'

And that expense

Well, it sort of was. Mandleson had to resign twice!!

@Birdscratch well then perhaps they should do what the rest of us do and literally and figuratively “cut our cloth”.
I’ve been looking for a new winter coat this weekend. A lovely one popped up on my FB feed. But it was £10k and a Valentino. Since I have no value to lord whathisface, I’m fairly certain no one is going to be buying that for me. And nor should they.
The Starmers should buy what THEY can afford, like the rest of us do. And, let’s face it, they aren’t skint!
That hypocrital asshole is going to batter so many of us with tax rises. And the attitude of so many is well “ you can afford it”. And the Starmers can’t? The only difference is the Starmers can and clearly are happy to offset the hit HIS family might take, with freebies for the all the nice shit from wealthy donors. He needs to have a think about how broad his own shoulders are!

Disappointed Labour voter here. Don't know why politicians need to accept gifts like this.

He was thinking what all left of centre types in power think; “the rules don’t apply to me. We are always right - don’t question us. We know best. You don’t understand” 🤣🤣🤣

I don't know either. My DH works in financial services and he can't accept anything. He is offered loads of great days out but has to turn them all down.