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.

@Mummyoflittledragon ". It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Starmer senior employed more than one person"

No. It is also not beyond the realms of possibility that he didn't. No proof either way-although the absence of evidence published by reputable sources suggests that it's unlikely.

@Dorisbonson Where did he lie about his education?

Sunak goes to the football and sits in the stands, not a box. He even sat in the stands when he was PM so the security issue thing is an excuse.

You say you don’t regret your vote and yet you feel the need to justify it.

Yeah, right.

Of we regular people pays for everything for ourselves, then he and any other MPs should too.

How can anyone defend this hypocrisy? He has a salary of £170k. He lives in a £2m house. He has gold plated pension provision. He is taking money off pensioners with £12k per year income, preaches to parents trying to do their best by paying for a decent education, whilst accepting large donations of clothes and hospitality for himself and his family. The Labour Party are banging on about the whole population having to share the burden of the financial state of the country and yet think it’s acceptable to accept expensive holidays and clothes whilst other families are struggling to make ends meet. Plenty of people on less income than him have to look smart for their job and find a way to pay for their own clothes.

@Another76543 you can’t defend it plus ruining pub trade by banning smoking all the hunts stoping losing farriers huntsmen estate workers jeez it just goes on this country will be unrecognisable is 5 years

He's entirely without shame and it isn't bringing me the savage pleasure I hoped it would to see people slowly waking up to just how lacking and unremarkable he is. It's just depressing.

DH and I both said 6 months ago, Labour will get in and be so crap that people will be left with no choice but to turn en masse to Reform.

Trilateral commission

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateral_Commission

@MrsElijahMikaelson1 thank you
who the hell fo these people think they are swanning off making policies that affect people with no backward glance

DH and I forecast similarly…

Of all the amazingly stupid or dishonest things that Starmer has said and done I can’t see that having attended this talking shop is one of them.

The sense I get is that suspicion of this Commission is all a bit swivel-eyed conspiracy theory, like the oddballs who go on about the Bilderberg group and the Illuminati.

Free Gear Keir has accepted over £100,000 in gifts/clothes/tickets/hospitality since 2019. That is unacceptable on any front. The fact that he had to go back and retrospectively change his expense received documents from “support” to “clothing” also rings alarming bells. As a qualified lawyer he would understand the legalities around language and documentation. And he’s clearly a clever chap; you’re not telling me that he shouldn’t have been aware of the optics of receiving £4000 tickets to see Taylor Swift from the Football League?

https://www.ft.com/content/ddb7600f-f417-4948-9e4b-8d666e15846f

It seems that everyone else either bought their own stuff or rented it. Even Carrie Johnson used to rent her clothes!

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/18/how-uk-leaders-spouses-have-negotiated-clothing-in-the-media-age

@TinkerTailor1 "You say you don’t regret your vote and yet you feel the need to justify it.

Yeah, right."

I don't feel the need to justify it. If you read justification in my OP, I suggest you read it again.

As an employer, I am not allowed to spend more that £150 per year on my employees (eg for the Christmas Party) before it becomes a taxable benefit. But these fuckers can accept literally tens of thousands worth of stuff, tax free??

Keir should not be at the football - he should not have time, he should be devoting his every waking minute to sorting the country - what he’s been voted in to do. His wife can just shop at Hobbs, like the rest of us have to. Get on with the job in hand Keir.

I don’t agree with that. Every PM needs leisure time. We’re all human!

If Starmer’s expensive habits, whether related to work or leisure, are paid for by donors, he should shut the fuck up about his opposing sleaze and grift though.

It’s Labour’s bogus ethical rectitude and ‘concern’ for the vulnerable that really pisses me off. None of Labour’s MPs, councillors or supporters are any more honest and decent than their opponents. As a political grouping they’re as dirty and unprincipled as any other.

When Rishi Sunak was PM he went to watch Southampton play football and always was just in the stands. He was sometimes picked out by TV camera when the match was televised so the notion Free Gear Keir absolutely must be in a hospitality box just makes him look ridiculous and snobby.

What tools did the company make?

Farage said he paid for his own glasses and clothing.

My husband simply said what kind of a man encourages another man to buy his own wife clothes? He's a millionaire yet can't buy his wife some dresses. She also works yet can't buy her own clothes?

It’s bloody weird, for sure.

I can actually remember Carrots Johnson saying she hired clothes when she went to that event in Cornwall with the Bidens' present. I was surprised at the time.

The TV presenter on GB news said "he should have gone to Specsavers like everyone else".

Yeah I know, I’m incredibly old fashioned thinking an mp’s loyalty should be primarily to his county rather than a global pressure group.

You don’t attend the Trilateral Commission btw, you’re either a member or you’re not and they normally have a convention that serving politicians can’t be members which was ignored for him.