Lord Waheed Alli – Labour peer and media mogul at centre of Government gift row
Over the past 20 years, he has donated more than £500,000 to the Labour Party.
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Your support makes all the difference.The new Government and the Prime Minister have been plagued with criticism over gifts and donations from a Labour peer and millionaire media entrepreneur.
Lord Waheed Alli is now facing a probe over potential breaches of parliamentary rules surrounding openness and accountability in the members’ code of conduct.
In 1998, Lord Alli was given a life peerage at the age of 34 – becoming the youngest and first openly gay peer in Parliament.
Over the past 20 years, he has donated more than £500,000 to the Labour Party.
Sir Keir Starmer has declared a number of gifts from Lord Alli – including £20,0000 of accommodation for his son to study for his exams, more than £10,000 worth of clothing, and multiple pairs of designer glasses.
Sir Keir also accepted donations for clothing and fittings for his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer.
The Prime Minister has said ministers will no longer take donations for clothing now they are in Government, but left the door open to receiving more access to events, such as the £4,000 worth of tickets to a Taylor Swift concert he accepted from the Premier League.
The Labour leader has argued that Lord Alli was motivated to help financially because he wanted Labour to win the election.
Despite starting his career in finance, Lord Alli grew to prominence working in TV production, where his company Planet 24 created programmes such as The Big Breakfast and The Word.
He has also served as the chairman of online fashion retailer Asos and was a backer of a media production company owned by Elisabeth Murdoch – which she later sold to her father Rupert Murdoch for £211 million.
Politically, he worked closely with the 1998 Labour government and was said to be seen by former prime minister Tony Blair as someone that could reach a younger generation.
Lord Alli took a prominent role in the battle over the age of consent and the repeal of Section 28, the legislation that banned local authorities from teaching about homosexuality.
He also moved an amendment to the 2010 Equality Act that would allow – but not compel – religious organisations to host civil partnerships.
The media tycoon is currently registered as the director of a number of companies including BM Creative Management Ltd, Silver Star Productions Ltd, SGIK 3 Investments Limited and Silvercloud Holdings Limited.
According to an update published on Parliament’s website on Wednesday, Lord Alli is being investigated by the Lords’ commissioner for “alleged non-registration of interests leading to potential breaches of paragraphs 14(a) and 17 of the 13th edition of the code of conduct”.