The Irony.. PM's donation was for ‘son to study for GCSEs’

[JustSpeechless]

PM suggests £20,000 donation was for ‘son to study for GCSEs’ | The Independent

Sorry if there are other threads, but I did search and nothing came up.

“My boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs. I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life – I promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying.

So its OK for the PM to be worried about his child's "one chance" GCSE year being disturbed ...but he's not so worried about other people's children feeling stressed during their GCSEs by introducing the private school VAT during an academic school year.

I don't have a child in private school doing their GCSEs. And I know that there are lots of people who support the VAT and those who don't.

But I think there is a midline where lots of people on both sides of the fence agree making this change during an academic year is not fair on the kids in key exam years...and I am one of them because not all parents have a Lord Alli to step in to ensure their child's "one chance" GCSE year is not being disturbed.

For Voting:

Unreasonable - I am with Keir and I am not really bothered with other people's children's "one chance" school year being interrupted.

Not Unreasonable - I agree Labour should not interrupt the academic school year and introduce the VAT in September 2025.

Couldn’t agree more. Absolute shower.

Christ, what a shameless fucking grifter. ‘My boy’ indeed. The same one who absolutely must be allowed a seat in a, to anyone else, £8,750.00 box at Arsenal. Woe betide anyone bringing Keith and Victoria Sponger’s kids in to any arguments in future, no doubt, that would be unfair and unconscionable but Keith can use them when it suits, obvs.

Not uneasonsble.
The irony!

They're utter pigs. What about all the sen kids who will have to leave their private schools and wouldn't cope in mainstream due to bullying? They won't get an education at all. Their parents will be frantic.

Starmer is an utter hypocritical pig at the trough. Despicable.

I don’t recall Boris Johnson standing for election on a promise to clear up sleaze in politics. I guess that’s why people are pretty upset when they see Keir Starmer taking anything he can get, far more than any other politician. Didn’t he realise he’d be caught out? For me it just raises questions about his common sense, quite apart from his moral compass. Saying ‘it’s alright for Keir because Boris did it’ rather misses the point doesn’t it?

It's all about judgement and common sense. If you are going to berate the opposing party for similar things, it's best to not be guilty of doing exactly the same thing you are complaining about in the first instance.

I don't have a problem with the football box, due to security and that's just been offered by the club in exchange almost to him being a season ticket holder.

I do have a problem with how they have carped on previously about others accepting donations, when it's clear they do exactly the same themselves.

They stayed in the penthouse for over a month after the last GCSE exam so it clearly wasn’t for this reason. Why are they all bringing their kids into their excuses now?

Kier wanted a nice place away from the press to be during the election campaign - this is a much less weird excuse imho!

Same. I could have written that.

Exactly.
'The Tories were worse' is becoming the go-to excuse to justify behaviour no poster would justify if Starmer were a Tory.
The absolute bare-face cheek of Angela Rayner demanding answers about Tory donations then justifying the very same thing in her own party.
You couldn't make it up.
Still, it's not as bad as the Tories and I am sure AR would have been absolutely fine about Boris accepting free clothes and glasses and would not have mentioned it at all 🙄

Someone lent him a flat (albeit a very posh one)- they didn’t give him 20k.

I have a daughter in private education, I don’t object to paying VAT, I do object to the way it’s been done and the false claim it will actually make any significant improvement to the state system it won’t. However I’m not sure the equivalence is false in a broad sense. Labour have said your choice to go private if you can’t afford the stretch because of your adult choice your children will have to suck it up and deal with being yanked out of school. Kier chose to run for PM, he chose to continue to do it this year, and like everyone else’s children affected by their parents choices and his policies, he and his son should have just sucked it up. It’s one rule for you and another for me. And yes the conservatives were bad, but “they did so I can” is hardly a new world order of politics it’s actually just more of the same. People do not gift/donate/lend for free they expect something back, it’s bribery and if they were a business it is for very good reason illegal.. And as for Bridget Phillipson “oh but just think of my child” and her Taylor Swift tickets.. don’t get me started.. If she can’t even say no to a concert to her child what she is asking others to say to their child (no to their schooling) is just hypocrisy of the highest order. All parties are full of corruption just wrapped up in different bows… Kier gave the impression he would at least own it.. I’m not surprised they’re being called out on it so hard.

This sounds like a Daily Fail journo trying to make a story up instead of doing some real journalism.

Labour policy: all animals are equal, some are more equal than others.

Ah the old adage, all children are equal, some are more equal than others..

Hes a self entitled that and he could have arranged for his family to stay with friends/relatives for free, if his family income didn't stretch to an AIRBNB.

Entitled two-faced twats. Never though I'd say it but Boris is starting to look quite honest in comparison.

Other children of MPs managed OK. Didn't need to stay at a £18M penthouse.

If people send their children private with no savings cushion to weather financial pressures then that's on them, not the govt, not anyone else.
If you can't afford the price hike for one year then it was irresponsible to send your child

@JustSpeechless He didn't have a donation though of £20 k. During the campaigning the reporters, and media were camped outside of his house.

The Labour peer, Lord Ali offered him the use of one of his apartments to use. KS moved his family there. No money changed hands.

Once parliament was back KS had to register it. He based the rent on what someone would pay on an open market.

The fact is Lord Ali who was made a peer by Tony Blair in 1998, and is a longterm member of the Labour party offered his empty apartment to KS to use.

There is nothing wrong with that

@GripeOfTheDay KS has done nothing illegal whether you like it or not.

Lord Ali is a Labour peer/friend and a member of the Labour Party. Lord Ali was made a Lord in 1998 by Tony Blair

No money exchanged hands. KS simply registered the interest and what it would cost if he had to pay rent for it. The apartment was empty during that time.

Are you for real? Boris lied to the country over Brexit, illegally perogued parliament, lied and covered up all the way through Covid, tried to get away without registering gifts, got gifted £160 thousand pound of wallpaper, his 6 million pound wedding paid for by a donor and investigated by the police, given a fine and much more

You have to be trolling cos you can't be serious

I would

They don't call him 'Two Tier Kier' for nothing!

On the subject of private schooling I benefited from a bursary which allowed me to be educated in a small private school in Oxfordshire. The irony of it was that the private school fees were cheaper than those for being accomdated 'in care' (as I had previously been and was for a while once i left school). I gather that some have argued that the VAT impost will mean that parents of private pupils will end up placing them in the 'better' state schools. These schools, they say, will delight in grabbing the 'best' children so as to have as many high-performing pupils as possible so that they achieve a high rating with OFSTED. Pupils from poorer backgrounds will be more likely, so the argument runs, to be dumped in middling or failing schools. Sounds plausible, but we'll have to wait to see the effect of the policy once applied. It doesn't seem so far fetched that a piece of legislation designed to promote equality might end up bringing about quite the opposite.

No money changed hands. He borrowed a mates flat for a quiet place away from journalist.

his 6 million pound wedding paid for by a donor

£6 million wedding?

The wedding cost £23,000

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/08/boris-johnson-given-23000-tory-donor-lavish-wedding-party/

got gifted £160 thousand pound of wallpaper

The 'gold' wallpaper cost £2,250 - less than Lady Starmer's frocks.

Not all of the suggested works were taken up, and in the end the project cost £112,549 inclusive of VAT.

The PM eventually settled all the costs himself including those paid for by the 57-year-old peer.

https://metro.co.uk/2022/07/08/leaked-200000-list-reveals-2250-gold-wallpaper-in-boris-refurb-plans-16966070/

I absolutely agree with @JustSpeechless OP and strongly suggest that anyone else who also agrees writes to their MP about Keir’s apparent hypocrisy.

Nope, not trolling. Just identifying fact that KS suffers from double standards just as Boris did.

No point in putting a super hero cape on KS, and his cronies are clearly as corrupt as Tories ever qere.

Ps I always voted Labour, but won't be doing anything as foolish as next time.

Their double standards appall me.

And Keir wasn't backward in coming forward to criticise him - if.you set yourself up as virtuous and full of integrity- whilst questioning the integrity of others - then you fucking pay for your own clothes, any other material goods and your own child's schooling - and to have done this whilst taking from people on the basis that they have some sort of level of perceived privilege (through increased taxes and removed benefits) - then he is no better than Boris.