Minister investigating pay back option on BBC gift after Starmer donation action

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A business minister said she is investigating whether she can pay for a BBC gift after Sir Keir Starmer paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality.

Sarah Jones said she received a ticket to the BBC Proms over the summer and was a guest of the broadcaster, adding it “may not be possible” to pay it back as it was a gift in kind.

Her disclosure came amid questions over whether ministers would follow Prime Minister Sir Keir’s lead in covering the cost for some gifts and hospitality received since entering Number 10 after he faced weeks of criticism over decisions to accept freebies.

Ms Jones said “nobody else is being asked” to do that because “nobody has broken the rules”.

Gifts paid for by Sir Keir include four Taylor Swift tickets from Universal Music Group totalling £2,800, two from the Football Association at a cost of £598, and four to Doncaster Races from Arena Racing Corporation at £1,939.

An £839 clothing rental agreement with Edeline Lee, the designer recently worn by his wife to London Fashion Week, along with one hour of hair and makeup, was also covered by the Prime Minister.

Sir Keir has committed to overhauling hospitality rules for ministers to ensure better transparency about what is provided following the backlash.

Labour frontbencher Ms Jones, MP for Croydon West, told Times Radio: “If I looked at me being an MP for seven years, been to three events – one Selhurst Park, one the Capital Radio Summertime Ball which the owners LBC invited me to, and one was to the Proms.

“From a perspective of did I declare everything, was I doing this loads of times, was I kind of out and all the time taking freebies, was I giving anybody anything for these things? It was all completely above board.

“But if I look at it through the lens that the public is now looking at it and the question we’re talking about, for what purpose I’m going to those events, I’m not going to go to another event like that that I’m invited to.”

Asked if she will pay it back, Ms Jones replied: “I’m not sure I could but I will certainly look at that, yeah. The issue of the Proms that I’ve been to, I am just investigating whether I could pay that back.”

Ms Jones said there is “no question of anybody having broken any rules here” before being pressed on whether other ministers will do the same as Sir Keir and pay back gifts.

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “He said he’s going to look at the principles about hospitality. In advance of that he’s paying back some money. We’re clear that nobody else is being asked to do that because nobody has broken the rules.”

Ms Jones added: “I think it’s for people to look at this individually. The principle is how do we make sure we, as a new Government, build trust in politics. That’s why we’re looking at the principles around hospitality, that’s why the Prime Minister has decided to do that.

“We will make sure that those principles are really clear and in advance of that he’s made a decision as an individual, as the Prime Minister, and that’s where we are.”

On Wednesday it emerged that long-standing Labour backer Lord Waheed Alli was under investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog over an alleged failure to register interests.

Labour has said the peer will “co-operate fully” with the probe and is “confident all interests have been registered”.

Asked about the peer, Ms Jones told GB News: “He has been involved in the Labour Party for decades, I can remember in 1997 he was involved in getting a Labour government back then when he was much younger.

“He has made significant donations to the Labour Party, which we’re very grateful for, to help us get a Labour government but that is the end of it, he is not influencing any policy at all.”