I am a Labour voter, a Labour supporter and I do not regret my vote.

[CurlewKate]

However, I think that Starmer has been incredibly stupid and/or very badly advised over this expenses issue. He has done nothing wrong, but his behaviour is not what he led us to believe he would do, and I am incredibly exasperated and disappointed.

In my opinion, he should admit that he made a massive misjudgement, and agree to take no more freebies from now on.

Apart from anything else anything which allows people to say "They are all as bad as each other" (they aren't) is a distraction from the real issues the country faces. He should be laser focussed on repairing the damage caused by 14 years of Tory misrule. Not scrambling around dealing with peripheral stuff.
Starmer-say sorry. Don't do it again. And get back to work.

So what your saying is the WC cannot go and do post grad study at Oxford? following a law degree at Leeds Uni, cannot better themselves and work their way up through a career? and heaven forbid have a nice house...

But all ok to go to Eton or Winchester and lord it over us all.

How bitter & what a sad state of affairs that the 'right wing want to keep the working classes where they "belong"

It really doesn't matter whether he's working class, middle class or upper class. The problem is that a man on a good salary isn't capable of buying his own clothes when, presumably he's already got a wardrobe full of suits anyway. It makes him look ridiculous, and incapable of making appropriate decisions.

As a PP said, Labour didn't win the election the Tories lost it.

“Musical” can mean all sorts of things. A colliery brass band to Glyndebourne. Training at a conservatoire is, generally, fiercely middle class.

Does anyone know which conservatoire he attended and for how long? He couldn’t have been an older student at a music school if he went to a Surrey grammar.

I think the point is whether he’s misrepresenting his background, not whether being from one class or another matters.

Rishi sunak went to the football and sat in the stands with the fans. Starmer said he had to be in a box for security reasons. That sunak a few months ago was fine to sit in the stands with normal fans suggests Keir Starmer is lying about the security issue. It's difficult to draw any other conclusion than Keir Starmer is a liar.

I don't vote Tory (have done though).

I didn't say they can't be musical did I? I said Keir was a member of a highly prestigious conservatoire, which is not normally flooded with WC kids purely on the basis of cost!

Exactly

@CurlewKate - totally agree with your opening post. But not about the football. Ridiculous to suggest he could sit in 'the stalls'. It would be way too much of a security risk. So it's reasonable for him and his security team to be in a box. I don't really see why he should pay for this himself and effectively be financially penalised because of his job. Or why he should not have to go to football at all because of his job. So. As long as he's not putting it on expenses, I think it's fine for him to accept the hospitality. Raises his profile etc.

What I can't swallow is the glasses and clothes. First because it shows such naivety and political ineptitude - he put the info out there (as he should but as the Tories never did). Did he really not think about the optics? And second, because public servants generally aren't allowed to accept gifts, so why should mps be? Whether or not it's within parliamentary rules - it's just plain wrong.

Sunak sat in a segregated section of the stands, surrounded by security, press, his aides and equally rich friends, it was a PR stunt as Sunak isn't a football fan and rarely goes.

Do you think he sat alongside "fans" singing racist chants or insulting slogans?

Actually it does matter if you are publicly presenting yourself as a certain class and part of that is campaigning for "change". It isn't his class that's the issue, it's the hypocrisy. And before I get accused of being a Tory, no I'm not.

How did KS misrepresent his background? i'm at a loss on that one.

State primary/grammar school, which then went private but his parents didn't have to pay, Leeds Uni, post grad at Oxford.

Mum a nurse, who had Stills Disease & he helped care for her, dad worked in a factory, then became a self employed metal worker.

My cousin ended up with her own Chambers in London, went to Grammar school, mum and dad were agri workers, her mum couldn't read or write, they wanted better for their children

Why can't the WC better themselves?

Whatever. It's clearly a lie though when Starmer says he couldn't sit in the stand for security reasons. Whoever was around him, Sunak was in the stand where Starmer said he couldn't be. However you cut it Starmer lied.

A lawyer knows the difference between truth and a lie and he decided to tell a lie.

Whatever in deed!!! You were wrong, he didn't sit with ordinary people and that matters a great deal.

Starmer has said the cost to public purse for him to be in the stands would be v expensive NOT that he couldn't.

Now i wouldn't accuse someone of lying but you seem to be misguided in your accusations.

From a Google it seems that Starmer went as a scholar to the Guildhall School of Music. Though it’s not clear what ‘scholar’ means.

He’s quoted as saying “Then I realised at the age of 17-18 that the other people at the Guildhall were hugely talented, whereas I just practised hard.” He played piano, flute and recorder, apparently.

So I’d guess he was a longish-term weekend student at Guildhall. That doesn’t necessarily make him middle class, but it’s a pretty strong marker of it.

I actually find it refreshing that a PM learnt music at a conservatoire. I just wish he wouldn’t pretend to wear the figurative flat cap and daisy roots.

He deliberately hid that he went to a fee paying school and disguised his father's business as though he was an employee rather than an employer.

He deliberately attempted to mislead people. There is nothing wrong with the school he went to or what his father did. The problem is that he tried hide those things to look more working class.

He is just another lying untrustworthy politician.

As a Labour voter- this is not what I voted for.
After the last 14 years of Tory misrule, corruption, money grabbing cronyism I expected better.

Obviously the country is in a mess- wherever you look things are falling apart. Only the stupid think it will be easy to fix.
So what do they do? Chase the missing billions in tax from the super rich and multinationals such as Amazon? A windfall tax on the profiteering in the energy industry? Little things like cutting the huge wine cellar in the HoC?
No.
They take the WFA from pensioners.

And make themselves look sleazy by accepting £££££ for new clothes, glasses, football tickets ect ect.

Do better Labour.

I don't know anything at all about Keir Starmer's background or family and I've got no idea whether he presents himself as WC. I do think that politicians shouldn't accept freebies though especially if the donor is trying to buy influence (as most will be).

Could you explain this? What is ‘segregated’? And why wouldn’t a PM have security with him?

I don’t believe for a moment that Starmer doesn’t have security present when he’s in a private box at Arsenal.

If Starmer has now come out to say the cost of sitting in the stands is more expensive than a box thats laughable! Its also means he has changed his story, the first story was that he couldnt sit in the crowd for security reasons. I guess since that lie was found out, he changed his story.

Another lying politician.

I don't think it now matters much whether he spun his "working class" background or not now. I think he's shown everyone what he really is. He won't recover from this.

And his potential replacement hasn't covered herself in glory either.

And all in a matter of weeks. Quite remarkable and quite depressing.

@Dorisbonson
"He deliberately hid that he went to a fee paying school and disguised his father's business as though he was an employee rather than an employer."

Where did he "hide" what school he went to?

His father was not an employer.

I don’t give a shit about his or any politicians background. I care about how they behave now. And for a party who ran on a platform of integrity, honesty and an understanding of the needs and challenges of “working people” they have failed spectacularly to demonstrate any of that. The average salary in this country is around £36k. They all earn a fuck ton more than that so the whining around how hard they have it is embarrassing. If they cannot see the optics of accepting many thousands worth of freebies whilst simultaneously removing the WFA, they shouldn’t be in power.
At best, it’s utterly naive, at worst it’s a sign that they are in fact just like all the other politicians we’ve had.
And honestly, I am more worried about their policies. Give more power back to Councils? Oh god, please don’t! Get the private sector to build all these houses? The major house builders are already moth balling sites. They simply will not build houses that do not sell. That is happening now and will only get worse after the “difficult” budget we’ve been promised. We will end up in recession, Labour will then scramble to reverse the shit decisions they’ve made, lose all credibility and get booted at the next election. And there currently is no viable opposition. It’s a shit show of epic proportions.

How do you know he wasn’t an employer?

One thing though. I have to say I am heartened at the decent proportion of Labour supporters who rather than the usual tribal attitude of not condemning Labour for anything they do wrong because "the evil Tories..etc" have actually acknowledged that there is something wrong with this Starmer government's approach regarding freebies, particularly when compared to things like the winter fuel payment. It's refreshing and a good development.

I think we all hoped for something better, no matter how we voted. Decent, honest government of any stripe would be welcome where MPs are not out for what they can get. They never seem to learn.

But you re doing it, You are making out his parents paid for his schooling, where as the fact is, they didn't.

Plenty of working class self employed might employ people but as far as i can see, his dad worked in a factory.

Are you saying his Mum wasn't a nurse? but in fact a leading private consultant?

But back to the OP, i voted Labour to get rid of the the Tory MP we've had, under a PR system, i'd have voted LD Green.

ATM there seems to be a distinct lack of policy announcements on the things that really matter, NHS, Dentists, Roads.

they just seem to be sinking into a pit of their own making, v disappointing.