Labour will move beyond ‘teething problems’ over gifts, says minister

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The Labour Government will move on from the “teething problems” of the row around gifts to senior MPs, a minister has said.

Trade minister Douglas Alexander said the stories around free gifts for Labour figures were “not the headlines we would have chosen” as the party holds its first conference in government for 14 years.

Opponents have attacked Sir Keir Starmer and his top team for accepting gifts including clothing from Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli.

SNP MP Dave Doogan said the Prime Minister’s actions were “totally indefensible”.

Neither Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner nor Chancellor Rachel Reeves will accept such donations in the future.

Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme, Mr Alexander was asked why it was ever acceptable for Labour figures to accept the donations.

The Lothian East MP said: “In the short-term these headlines matter, and they’re not the headlines we would have chosen, I’m not going to pretend that.

“In the longer term, the trend lines matter much more.

“Do we re-establish stability in the economy and in the public finances?

“Can we raise living standards?”

Speaking from the party’s conference in Liverpool, he added: “The fact is we are going to, this week, hopefully move beyond some of the teething problems we’ve seen in recent days.”

Mr Alexander said the public expected prospective prime ministers to be “well turned out” but he accepted that some people would be “worried” by what they had read in newspapers.

He said Lord Alli was first appointed by former prime minister Tony Blair and there was “no suggestion” he received anything in return for the gifts to senior Labour figures.

Earlier, Mr Doogan said people would be “aghast at the naivety of UK Government ministers leaving themselves open to whatever the donors of these gifts expect in return”.

He added: “Let’s be really clear, Angela Rayner in particular, and Keir Starmer especially – these are not poor people.

“If Keir Starmer wanted £2,500 worth of glasses, he could have easily bought them.

“But he didn’t. He took it off somebody who was offering it to him, and that’s not the world that the rest of us walk in.

“People up and down these islands who voted Labour will be thinking to themselves, ‘I think I’ve backed the wrong horse here’, especially in Scotland when 37 Labour MPs are dutifully lining up to defend the actions of the Prime Minister which are actually totally indefensible.”