Tories challenge other Labour ministers to follow Keir Starmer in paying back donations – UK politics live

Good morning. Yesterday Keir Starmer made the surprise announcement that he has paid back £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality, including Taylor Swift tickets and rented clothing for his wife, received since he became prime minister. The news overshadowed reports about what happened on his visit to Brussels to meet the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (also important – here’s our story), but No 10 felt they had to put the news out yesterday because the donations were all being revealed in the latest update to the Commons register of members’ interests published yesterday.

However, as is often the case when a politician under pressure over ethics/transparency makes a concession to critics/the media/public opinion, Starmer has now opened himself up to a whole new bout of questions. The Conservative party (which has a lot of experience of donation scandals) is on the case, and last night it issued this statement.

Day after day more and more comes out about the scandal at the top of Keir Starmer’s government. This scandal has become a complete distraction from the job of governing.

It appears Starmer will only be transparent when his backs against the wall. This announcement today poses more questions than it answers. Why did Starmer take these freebies in the first place? Why haven’t Angela Rayner and other senior party members not paid back donations?

Starmer said yesterday that his government would be drawing up new “principles” to cover political donations and No 10 indicated that Starmer was not saying it was always unacceptable for ministers to accept donations.

This article by Peter Walker looks at some of the other revelations in yesterday’s updated register of members’ interests.

We’re likely to get more on this as the day goes on.

Parliament is still in recess, and there is not a lot in the diary. Boris Johnson’s memoir is out today; it has already been serialised extensively in the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, but today journalists will get their chance to find the bits that Mail might not have been keen to highlight. There are homelessness statistics out. And David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is due to visit Dublin with Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister dealing with Brexit-related issues.

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