ANGELA Rayner has denied breaching parliamentary rules by failing to declare that a friend joined her on a "personal holiday" funded by the multimillionaire peer at the heart of the Labour donor scandal.
The Deputy Prime Minister reportedly did not declare that former boyfriend Sam Tarry, the then Ilford South MP, stayed with her at a $2.5 million apartment in Manhattan funded by Waheed Alli.
Tarry paid for his own flights but benefited from free accommodation, according to The Sunday Times.
Parliamentary rules state that MPs must declare foreign trips which they, or anyone connected to them, undertake if a donor pays for “part or all” of it as a result of their “parliamentary or political activities”.
The Labour MP’s team felt she wouldn’t need to declare even her own use of the flat because Alli is primarily a “personal friend”.
However, she did report it as Alli is a donor to her political activities having gifted more than £50,000 to the Deputy Prime Minister over four years.
According to reports Rayner contacted the parliamentary authorities for technical advice on how to proceed before declaring her stay and when asked if she mentioned that Tarry had joined her, Rayner’s team did not respond.
Rayner updated her register of interests to declare her own use of the flat for five days between December 29, 2023 and January 2, 2024 at an estimated cost of £1250 and acknowledges that she did receive the stay at the property because of her status as an MP.
Rayner told Laura Kuenssberg's Sunday morning show on the BBC that she does not think she broke parliamentary rules as it was a personal holiday and she was not there on parliamentary business.
She then went on to say, if anything, she was “overly transparent”.
Rayner said: “MPs have been accepting donations for years. But it is important to be transparent about it.
“I get that people are frustrated in particular the circumstances that we are in but donations for gifts and hospitality and monetary donations have been a feature of our politics for a very long time.
“People can look it up and can see what people have had donations for and the transparency is really important.”
She then went on to add: “We have a system at the moment that says, if you get donations that have to be declared, and the rules have to apply to everybody.”
Rayner's stay at the luxury apartment, which boasts a three-storey gym, a hot tub and panoramic views of Manhattan, was funded by Labour peer Alli – whose wealth is estimated at £200m.
Alli has given Labour more than £500,000 since 2020 and has recently been involved in a donation scandal when it came to light he purchased tens of thousands of pounds of clothes for Keir Starmer, the prime minister’s wife, Victoria, and Rayner.
He was given a Downing Street pass and used it to host a post-election party attended by donors in the garden of No 10 shortly after Labour’s General Election win.
