Sir Keir Starmer’s “nonsensical” and “absurd” U-turn on the Lord Waheed Alli donations has been blasted by GB News host Michelle Dewberry, as Downing Street confirmed the Prime Minister has handed back £6,000 worth of gifts.
Following widespread outrage at the Labour leader for accepting an amass of gifts from the party donor and peer, the PM has now vowed to cover the cost of six Taylor Swift tickets, four Doncaster Races tickets and a clothing rental agreement with a designer favoured by his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer.
Addressing the latest development in the scandal, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister has commissioned a new set of principles on gifts and hospitality to be published as part of the updated ministerial code.
“Ahead of the publication of the new code, the Prime Minister has paid for several entries on his own register. This will appear in the next register of members’ interests.”
Michelle Dewberry hit out at Keir Starmer over the Lord Alli donations scandal
GB News / PA
Discussing the decision on GB News, host Michelle Dewberry questioned if the move was “sheer incompetence” by Starmer, and that his choice to cover the costs of some gifts after growing backlash is “absurd”.
Michelle told her panel: “Is it incompetence or is it deliberate deception? To me, this is so nonsensical, so absurd.
“I’m starting to think, it can’t be sheer incompetence, surely?”
Offering his criticism of the Prime Minister, commentator Alex Deane highlighted that those who leapt to the defence of Starmer as the scandal was unfolding may be apprehensive to “loan their full throated support” the next time they are asked.
The Prime Minister has handed back £6,000 worth of donations and gifts given by Lord Waheed Alli
PA
Deane explained: “In the worst days of the Johnson and Sunak administrations, you’d have the government under attack for something, and it would send out its ministers, they would defend the line, then government would concede what was being said, and you’d hang out your people for no benefit.
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“That was in the worst days of 14 years of Tory government. Starmer is having this already. He’s sending his ministers out to defend him and his venality and his wife taking stuff, and then they concede by saying here’s some money back.
“As a Labour minister, imagine the next time you’re asked to defend the line. Are you going to loan your full throated support to Keir Starmer, knowing that Downing Street may reverse the position by the afternoon? You’re undermining all of the people that you made stand up for you.”
In agreement with Deane, commentator Aaron Bastani claimed that the Labour Party have a “bunker mentality” and are “completely detached from public sentiment”.
Bastani told GB News: “What it seems to indicate for me is that they’re completely detached from wider public sentiment. The lack of professionalism and the response really is jaw dropping.
Michelle Dewberry said it was ‘nonsensical’ and ‘absurd’ of Starmer to return donations
GB News
“You could disagree with Starmer, you could disagree with the policies, but his office looked incredibly competent and professional. And it’s been the opposite of that since they’ve taken office for the last three months.”
Hitting out at the Prime Minister for accepting the amount of donations he did from Lord Alli, Bastani fumed: “They think they’re entitled to these things, that they deserve these things.”
Echoing Bastani, Deane then added: “Normally in politics, at the point at which you think surely nobody can be that stupid, they can be.
“The Labour Party has no monopoly on this by the way – I’m just saying that normally when you think to yourself, surely there’s got to be a more complex explanation, there isn’t.”