This reminds me of something that happened recently in Canada.
Some of our federal civil service employees went on strike, and among other things like a raise, demanded that their union be given a very large sum of money from the government every year to be spent on whatever activism or charity the union saw fit.
It was crazy, in my mind, at a time when workers everywhere were feeling deeply pinched, to ask the public to fund someone elses charitable donations.
But two specific things strike me about this with Starmer:
One being that this seems like a great vehicle for making inconspicuous payments to people whose palms need greasing.
But also - it's so typical. Don't trust people to make charitable donations with their own money as they see fit. Instead, collect the money, and allow the state or other group to do it. Disempower individuals, their ability to act on their own ideas and interests.