26.09.2024

Same as it ever was: James Gillray ‘Monstrous craws, at a new coalition feast’ (1787)

Snouts in the trough

Endless freebies, generous donations, lavish hospitality, talk of a ‘nest of vipers’ in No10 - welcome to the new Labour government. Yet again we see how corruption is built into the political system, writes Eddie Ford

Keir Starmer, can you believe it? Or, as The Daily Mail headline puts it, “Sir Shameless is at it again!”¹ Yes, we are talking about the avalanche of stories about the near endless freebies and lavish hospitality showered upon professional politicians by those trying to gain favours and influence - even if we are now told that government ministers will stop accepting clothing donations, because they do not want ordinary people to think that they are “living very different lives” to them. An outrageous suggestion!

Still, the idea of Sir Keir as the antidote to Tory corruption already seems laughable. In the case of the Mail, it was making a big fuss about Starmer - a devoted Arsenal fan - enjoying a corporate box at Tottenham Hotspur with a powerful lobbyist, Katie Perrior of iNHouse Communications, which delivers “high-impact strategic advice” to the likes of Google and worked with Spurs on its attempt to form the “hated” breakaway Super League, along with five other England clubs. In the relatively short time that Starmer has been Labour leader, and then prime minister, big business has assiduously courted the party, with money flowing into the shadow cabinet - and now the cabinet - essentially to buy valuable access to ministers and the prime minister himself. OK, the nearly £19,000 worth of clothing and glasses that Starmer got this year is hardly brazen big-time corruption like a Silvio Berlusconi or some US senators (or perhaps even high-ranking Communist Party of China officials). But it shows yet again that corruption is built into the political system - it is not just a case of weak or greedy individuals. Though there are plenty of those, of course, as the last Tory government handsomely demonstrated - meaning that the Boris Johnson-loving Mail is guilty of gross hypocrisy (nothing new there).

So we have had the Taylor Swift tickets, power suits, corporate boxes, London accommodation, New York holiday pads, and so on. A lot of the stuff came from Labour peer Waheed Alli, one of the party’s main fundraisers and donors, including Sir Keir’s fancy new clothes and glasses. He even accepted a rent-free flat - worth £20,000 - so that his son could study for his GCSEs free from press hassle.

Not wanting anyone to feel left out, Lord Alli gave Angela Rayner, the party’s deputy leader, clothes with a price tag of £3,550 in June. In fact, he generously paid for Sir Keir’s wife, Victoria Starmer, to have her own personal shopper to make the best use of the £5,000 of clothing gifts he had given her. Something that Keir Starmer initially failed to declare, as it so happened, as MPs are supposed to declare gifts and donations to the parliamentary authorities within 28 days of receiving them. Regarding Lord Alli, last month it emerged that he had been given a temporary Downing Street security pass without actually having any formal government role - another breach of the rules that the Mail dubbed the “glasses for passes” affair. But for every Lord Alli, of course, there are dozens of others like him with deep pockets, including Gary Lubner (£4.6m), David Sainsbury (£3.1m), Fran Perrin (£1m) and Ecotricity (£1m), the green energy firm owned by prominent eco-capitalist Dale Vince.

But, while Starmer’s designer glasses might be fairly small beer compared to his peers worldwide, it is still a fact that he has accepted over £100,000 worth of bribes, err, no, gifts since the 2019 election - far more than any other MP during that period.² Amidst a continuing cost-of-living crisis, facing a new round of austerity, this is not nothing - more an insult. By contrast, for what it is worth, during David Cameron’s time as opposition party leader he declared one set of Rugby World Cup tickets, along with various gifts of hampers and other treats - also registering £4,475 of discounted personal training sessions. Of course, as an aristocrat with several distant familial connections to the royal family, Cameron is hardly short of a penny or two - having an estimated net worth of about £50 million and hence not someone really in need of freebies. But what the hey! Take what you can, while you can!

Humbug

Another related story that dominated the news was about Sue Gray, the former civil servant and political advisor made chief of staff at Downing Street. The government had to deny that there was a “nest of vipers” within No10 after a stream of reports about bitter clashes between her and other personnel. Some complained that Gray had “micromanaged every appointment” of special advisors, but what they were most unhappy about was that their salaries had been reduced, compared with those for their previous roles in the Labour Party - with Gray on £170,000 compared to the prime minister’s salary of £166,786. Indeed, a source told the BBC that it was suggested to her that she might want to go for a few thousand less to avoid this very story - obviously she declined!

But this entire non-scandal is total humbug. Loads of civil servants get paid more than the prime minister. Some of the journalists covering the Sue Gray story get paid more than the PM. On half a million, Sky’s Kay Burley would not get out of bed for £170,000, even if she was outraged by the size of Sue Gray’s salary - the same probably goes for the BBC’s Fiona Bruce and very many other TV presenters.³

Then there are the wildly inventive excuses as to why they deserve the freebies - indeed, must accept them as a matter of public duty. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, explained to the BBC that, while she understood why people are upset that Labour ministers have been accepting these free gifts while cutting the winter fuel payment for pensioners, she thought that people want a government that is “well turned out”, not a bunch of scruffs, representing the country “properly” at lots of different events - just so long as ministers declare donations in an open and transparent manner, so that people can see that there has not been any “undue influence”.

As for Sir Keir, he defended his decision to accept corporate largesse from Arsenal FC to the tune of £6,000 (part of the £35,000 in free tickets he gets from various clubs) on the basis that he can no longer use his normal seat as prime minister. Naturally, especially as an ex-Pabloite, he would love to be there with the masses, but the security cost of continuing to watch matches from the stands would have been “disproportionate” - therefore it was a “perfectly sensible arrangement” to accept a corporate box. Be grateful as you are saving money!

Acting, not for the first time, as the new Grant Shapps in justifying the unjustifiable, it was left to business secretary Jonathan Reynolds to spell out in no uncertain terms why there was nothing wrong with accepting hospitality. Attending Arsenal matches, European Cup games, Taylor Swift concerts, Coldplay gigs and other “major cultural, sporting events” was all “part of the job” if you are a prime minister acting as the country’s public face. The minister had “no problem” with politicians accepting gifts that can be of “a more personal nature”. After all, hard-working politicians were entitled to “a bit of relaxation”, as they are only human - only a dour puritan would disagree with that. By the way, can you get me an Oasis ticket?

What you get the most from these stories is the overwhelming sense of entitlement felt by this caste of professional politicians - the same going for those clamouring to become MPs. Have they not devoted years slumming it as graduates and minor functionaries, to earn the right to get their snouts in the trough? Hence the stupid excitement over Sue Gray. They are not angry that she is getting paid too much: rather that they are not getting what they feel they deserve.

Professional

But this is how the system works in Britain. It is not about receiving extraordinary levels of pay while a professional politician - some in the US and beyond cannot understand why British MPs work for so little (why bother when you can make real money elsewhere?). But, freebies and football tickets aside, what these onlookers fail to understand is that you get your reward after leaving office - using your carefully cultivated connections to get that job at a top bank or company like Google, maybe become president of global affairs at Meta/Facebook like the former deputy prime minister of the coalition government, Nick Clegg. Or look at Tony Blair: he may not be a billionaire, but he has a net wealth of around £60 million - not because of his prowess as a singer for Ugly Rumours, but due to his national and international connections and contacts.⁴ That is the sort of lifestyle that those people grumbling about Sue Gray, or defending Keir Starmer, basically view as their birthright.

So, yes, the new Labour government is basically no different to the last Conservative government - which was in office long enough for scandals to accumulate about it. Clearly the scandals will start to accumulate under Starmer (perhaps this has got off to an early start), precisely because you are dealing with a self-interested caste that is not in politics to advance the interests of ordinary people, whatever they might say with such righteous fervour.

In some respects, professional politicians and those aspiring to that position are the same as professional footballers. However they might have started off, they are not the same as your average fan. You might play football for Everton one month, but then, after you get transferred, play against Everton the next month.

For all the sound and fury of PMQs every Wednesday, both the Labour and Tory front benchers are part of the same bribable caste of professional politicians.