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Louise Thomas
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Lord Waheed Alli, the Labour peer at the centre of the donations row engulfing Sir Keir Starmer’s party, is under investigation over an alleged failure to register interests.
He is facing a probe from the House of Lords commissioner for standards over potential breaches of parliamentary rules surrounding openness and accountability in the members’ code of conduct.
Lord Alli, who funded clothes and other gifts for the prime minister and his wife, is listed as the subject of an inquiry published today.
It comes after Sir Keir, along with a succession of cabinet ministers, faced criticism for accepting thousands of pounds’ worth of freebies from corporate sponsors and millionaire donors.
In his role as a peer in the House of Lords, Lord Alli is required to register his interests in accordance with the parliamentary code of conduct.
There is no suggestion that the prime minister or members of his Cabinet broke any rules in accepting the freebies from Lord Alli.
His donations include £20,000 declared by Sir Keir for accommodation during the election campaign, which the prime minister said was to allow his son to study for his GCSEs in peace at the former TV executive’s central London flat while the family home was surrounded by media.
The peer, who also gave money to education secretary Bridget Phillipson to fund a reception to mark her 40th birthday, gave Sir Keir use of the £18 million penthouse, which the prime minister also used to record a Covid-era broadcast urging the public to work from home.
The Christmas broadcast aired in December 2021 on the same day new Covid guidance urging people to work from home came into force.
But Labour sources have insisted that all guidance was followed completely and no rules were broken.
In total, Lord Alli has donated more than £700,000 to the party, including £100,000 for Sir Keir’s 2020 leadership campaign.
On Monday, the prime minister launched a fightback against sleaze accusations, with an announcement that the rules on declaring donations and gifts will be tightened up.
Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, claimed the existing rules were a “Tory loophole” designed to protect previous Conservative ministers.
This came after Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield quit the party, accusing Sir Keir of presiding over “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice”.
