Just months after Keir Starmer tried to draw a line under a string of freebies by paying back thousands in hospitality gifts, his wife has now popped up at Royal Ascot thanks to a £650 ticket and hospitality package.
Victoria Starmer attended the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at the prestigious Berkshire racecourse, though the Prime Minister wasn’t with her. According to the updated parliamentary Register of Members’ Financial Interests, the tickets were donated by Ascot Authority (Holdings) Limited, covering three family members.
The official entry reads: “Name of donor: Ascot Authority (Holdings) Limited. Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Tickets and hospitality for three family members (value approximate), value £650.”
Sir Keir himself gave the event a miss, reportedly staying back to prepare for his talks with US President Donald Trump in Scotland. But the timing has raised eyebrows, considering the PM has only just been trying to distance himself from a series of headline-grabbing handouts.
Earlier this year, it came out that Starmer had accepted over £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality since becoming Prime Minister. That included nearly £2,000 worth of tickets to Doncaster Racecourse and a particularly shiny perk — six tickets to see Taylor Swift live, reported GB News.
After public pressure mounted, Starmer said he felt it was “right” to repay the costs for some of those gifts and moved to clean up the whole process, vowing to introduce stricter rules. “I took the decision that until those principles were in place it was right to repay these particular payments,” he said.
But it’s not just him. Several Labour ministers and MPs have found themselves in the spotlight over a wave of Taylor Swift concert tickets handed out to key figures. Nine Labour MPs reportedly enjoyed Eras Tour performances with tickets worth a combined total of more than £17,000.
Among the lucky attendees were Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. When asked about her attendance, Phillipson gave a candid reply: “I’ll be honest, it was a hard one to turn down. I appreciate there was big demand for tickets, it was a privilege to be there. One of my children was keen to go along; it’s hard to say no if you are offered tickets in those circumstances.”
Starmer has acknowledged the scrutiny and said his Government is taking steps to establish clearer donation and gift-handling guidelines. “Until now, politicians have used their best individual judgement to decide,” he said. He also promised to tighten rules around ministerial hospitality and gifts.
The flurry of concert tickets, racecourse perks and hospitality extras has turned into a bit of a running theme for Labour’s front bench. Though Starmer has tried to take the moral high ground by repaying gifts and calling for change, new revelations like this one involving his wife keep nudging the story back into the headlines.
Whether the public sees these as innocent perks or signs of tone-deaf indulgence remains to be seen, but one thing is clear — Labour’s love affair with freebies isn’t over just yet.
